Otago Polytechnic students and graduates win several design awards
FROM theatre backdrops to an edible garden, Otago Polytechnic students and graduates have claimed several prizes at a national design awards.
There were 1200 entries from around the country in this year’s Designers’ Institute of New Zealand Best Design Awards.
Bachelor of product design graduate Tania Turei won a gold award in the Nga Aho section of the awards for her Pae entry, a laminated wooden bench.
Bachelor of communication design graduate Erin Broughton claimed gold in the student graphics category for her piece Bones, a series of magazines for student radio station Radio One 91FM which the judges described as ‘‘thoughtprovoking and challenging’’.
Ms Broughton said the magazine was a mixture of personal stories, short stories and poetry.
It was ‘‘really special’’ to get the award, she said.
Bachelor of communication design graduates Michael Smith, Becki Jones, Jaimee Caffell and Sherman Sreedhar won bronze in the student moving image category for the 3D, animated backdrops they developed for Fortune Theatre production of Into the Woods.
Art, design and architecture acting head of college Caroline Terpstra said the polytechnic tried to get its students collaborating with community and industry groups as much as possible, and it was ‘‘quite sad’’ the Fortune had now closed.
The ‘‘So Good Garden of Goodness’’, a collaboration of the polytechnic’s food design institute and creative agency Geometry Global for client Sanitarium, also won a gold in the exhibition and temporary structures category.
It was produced by a polytechnic team led by lecturers Tony Heptinstall and Timothy Lynch and featured at Auckland’s Britomart in February, with more than 3000 individual creations included.
Bachelor of architectural studies student Fraser Dixon also won bronze for her architectural concept series ‘‘Chaos and Order’’.