BR&Me wins at DBA Awards as ‘quality goes up’

BR&Me’s packaging design for lager brand Foster’s has scooped the Grand Prix at this year’s Design Business Association Design Effectiveness Awards.

Citing a 36 per cent jump in sales of Foster’s multipacks following the packaging overhaul, chairman of the judges Raymond Turner said the work was a clear winner.

‘Small design changes which make a business difference are much more difficult for a designer than large ones. BR&Me’s work for Foster’s used the brand’s existing elements, with relatively subtle changes that were incredibly well managed,’ he says.

BR&Me, which also won the Packaging – Branded Food & Drink category, was briefed by Foster’s to convey ‘coldness’ through the packaging, while retaining the brand’s signature deep blue colour and its two vertical column logotype system. The proposed design departed from these guidelines by introducing frozen waterfall imagery and placing the name in a horizontal position.

The Design Effectiveness Awards aim to recognise design that has a measurable effect on a client’s bottom line. Clients enter jointly with design consultancies, and may enter the work of in-house teams. Although the DBA declines to reveal how many entries the competition received, a shortlist of 28 finalists was selected, from which 12 category winners emerged.

According to Turner, the quality of submissions has improved on previous years. ‘The quality is without doubt going up. The DBA is making more effort in trying to get across how you measure design effectiveness. The push is to try to get more explicit, in terms of business ratios, in how you measure design’s success,’ he says.

Therefore’s product design for the TomTom Go in-car satellite navigation device won the International Export Award and Product – Consumer Award. Since its launch two years ago, TomTom Go has become the European market leader, with a 57 per cent market share by the end of 2005, according to the DBA.

Landor Associates’ work for Gulf Air won the category for Corporate/Brand Identity with design and implementation costs of more than £100 000. The group rebranded Gulf Air in 2003 and the airline reported its first profit in six years in 2004.

DBA DESIGN EFFECTIVENESS AWARDS WINNERS

Grand Prix and Packaging – Branded Food & Drink: Foster’s ‘Waterfall’ Multipacks by BR&Me for Scottish & Newcastle UK

International Export Award and Product – Consumer: TomTom Go by Therefore Product Design Consultants for TomTom

Product – Industrial: Commander SK by Kinneir Dufort Design for Control Techniques

Corporate/Brand Identity (over £100 000): Project Falcon by Landor Associates for Gulf Air

Corporate/Brand Identity (below £100 000): Green & Black’s Chocolate by Pearlfisher for Green & Black’s

Interiors – Retail & Leisure: Adidas Sports Performance by JudgeGill for Adidas-Salomon

Print – Corporate: Examining Their Future by The Team for National Assessment Agency

Print – Business to Business: Man IP220 International by OTM UK for Man Investments

Packaging – Branded Non-Food: Buster Range by Elmwood for Challs International

Packaging – Own Brand Food & Drink: Sainsbury’s So Organic by Williams Murray Hamm for Sainsbury’s

Internal Communications: Scottish Water by Elmwood for Scottish Water

Design for Society: Spreading The Word by Aricot Vert for Scripture Union

Commended: Corporate/Brand Identity (below £100 000): Bleiker’s Family Smokehouse by Thru the Line