Hasta La Ideas

If we had to choose one awards trophy to rule them all, we’d be hard pressed (no pun intended) to go with anything besides our own: after all, the beautifully-machined mold has a teach-a-man-to-fish concept that appeals to both our designerly and egalitarian sensibilities (and while we’re on the topic, we’d like to congratulate those recently-announced winners who will soon be enjoying trophies of their very own). But all else equal, we’re pretty impressed with the medals that UK’s Neil Conley has designed for the recent New Designers Award.

The 2012 awards package is a balance of two underlying themes; the notion of consistency and quality of message, and the celebration of design during London’s Olympic year… Throughout the decades, Olympic design has often been a measure of the successes and universal pertinence of contemporary design. From Munich to Vancouver, a resolute stance on execution and clarity has set the precedent for considered, consistent, and beautiful design responses.

Designed as an alternative resolution to the London 2012 design concept, the New Designers Awards hopes to reinstate these themes during one of the world’s premier graduate design events: A culmination of the best amateur talent across multiple disciplines, contributing to an event of great quality.

Manufactured from oak, cherry and walnut, the body of the trophy reflects the skills and materials associated with the disciplines of traditional furniture making and architecture.

An understated palette of woods has been selected to differentiate between the awards given for ‘New Designer of the Year, Runner-Up and the remaining awards, produced in walnut, cherry and oak respectively.

The main focus of the trophy, the brass medallion is the most literal reference to the Olympic theme.

The minimalist design is in keeping with the understated aesthetic of Conley’s previous work, which emphasizes quality through material. A perennial favorite in the international design show circuit, Conley has won a New Designers award himself. While the object speaks for itself, the designer has provided plenty of documentation and a boatload of beautiful photos capturing the the entire awards package, intended as an “homage to Otl Aicher’s visual communication of the Olympic Games in Munich 1972.”

The Munich design package aimed to create a multi-cultural and multi-lingual communication for the event, through a distinct framework of rules and principles: The printing of all communications was limited to a palette of colours selected from Munich’s Bavarian landscape (with each coming to represent different services and sectors for the games) and the generation of pictograms was so successful that it soon became an industry standard. Aicher was also responsible for imposing a standardised grid structure for all printed media, which was strictly adhered to, with only subtle variations in format to differentiate between the sporting and cultural Olympiads. These principles were applied to everything produced for the games; from posters, certificates and tickets, to promotional pin badges, matchboxes and beer mats.

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