Category: Awards

Design awards.

Design Awards 2020

Posted on May 4, 2020May 4, 2020 by splinternew

Awards season is here and we’re pleased to announce a few new accolades. We strive for excellence in all that we do, and recognition of our hard work is always appreciated. This year our efforts were recognized for both print and digital creations.

“THE NATURE OF ADVENTURE” CAMPAIGN

Poster designs for Cruise America

The brand campaign we created for Cruise America took home distinctions from multiple competitions. It was selected in the print advertising category at this year’s International Design Awards. In addition, the campaign also took home an award from the Indigo Awards, another distinguished international design competition. The panels of judges look to recognize the iconoclasm of design worldwide, and celebrate work that showcases a fresh new take on design-inspired composition.

The work hinges on custom photography and meaningful copywriting, and helped take the Cruise America brand to a new level. The campaign communicates not only an eagerness for new experiences, but also the peace and clarity those moments bring to our lives. See more of our work for Cruise America here.

DROP DEAD GORGEOUS

Drop Dead Gorgeous interior spread

The Indigo Awards continued to be gracious with their distinctions this year by giving our project with Phoenix Fashion Week an honorable mention in the Magazine & Newspaper design category.

Inspired by the local Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebrations, we created a high fashion portrayal of a storied tradition. Día de los Muertos looks at death as a part of life, creating a beautiful celebration of the spirit. Similarly, as captured through photography, the models’ glamorous depiction of death turns the typically grim idea on its head and makes it something beautiful you can’t look away from. View the full project here.

THE KACHINA CONFERENCE ROOM

Custom-built Kachina for the Arizona Coyotes

The accolades keep coming from Indigo as our design for the Arizona Coyote’s conference room was honored with an award in the Mixed Media category.

For the Coyotes, the design of the conference room celebrated the original look they wore when they were introduced to the desert back in 1996. We re-energized the room with a 6’5″ custom-built, three-dimensional Kachina; a new team member we are sure they won’t be trading any time soon, The walls were coated with skated ice, adding accents of actual hockey gear to the room that allowed this environment to come to life. View the full project here.

BONUS FEATHER FOR OUR CAPS

Splinter website design

Last, but certainly not least, top honors and recognition for the Splinter brand itself – for this very website. Our site won multiple awards this year including a Gold Addy (the highest form of Addy) from the American Advertising Federation.

We measure our success by the success of our clients and our ability to help them achieve their goals. While our website does say a little bit about us, our primary focus was to showcase the stunning design work that we’ve made on our clients’ behalf. In a sense, this award would not be possible without your success. So to all of our clients who have given us their trust and allowed us to make these beautiful projects – thank you.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

It’s not in our nature to look back and pat ourselves on the back. We stay busy and are focused on the future, looking ahead. However, from time to time, it’s essential to take note and recognize the designers and team here at Splinter. Their hard work and savvy does not go unnoticed. Not here in-studio, not from our clients and not from the international design community.

They are gifted problem solvers, talented artists, great communicators and amazing people. They deserve this moment.

Putting the Pieces Together, a Design Challenge

Posted on February 2, 2019October 9, 2019 by splinternew

For our promotional project this year we invited people into the process of visual problem-solving. Great design is purposeful, it solves a problem through a combination of logic, creativity and ingenuity. Another important aspect of the design process is playfulness. It is necessary to explore different concepts, adjust them, and push the limits to see how elastic an idea is – at what point does it lose its context and become too unrecognizable? We wanted to find one item to embody all these ideas. Tangram puzzles were the perfect design challenge.

One puzzle consists of seven geometric pieces that combine to make a square. A deck of cards provides a series of figures, animals and landmarks formed by rearranging the seven pieces. It seems simple until you realize there are infinite ways to put the seven pieces together. We made it even trickier by including two puzzles with some cards combining all 14 pieces to make one design. One might call this an advancedgram.

Tangrams have seemingly endless possibilities and the final arrangements are very subjective. Two people may look at a completed puzzle and see two completely different things. This is similar to design at its heart and the challenges designers engage with during every project. Ultimately, we want our designs to be unique, but they also need to be recognizable to a wider audience.

In true Splinter fashion, we used wooden puzzles in wooden boxes with red and white cards. We kept the design simple so that the puzzles could be the hero of the project. We were overwhelmingly pleased to win a silver ADDY from The American Advertising Federation (AAF). But we were even more pleased to give a peek into the creative mind. Having a little fun while getting to the crux of the design challenge, that is our pointy genius.

Hoptical Allusion Video Display

Posted on January 14, 2019June 12, 2019 by splinternew

We love new technology, so we were captivated when CCS Arizona dropped off a new transparent LCD video display for us to play with. This nifty BenQ Transparent Display box allows you to place physical objects between the LCD and the backlight, allowing for the content on the video display panel to interact with the physical items within the box. Our job was to come up with some head-turning, clever content to unveil this new box and showcase its capabilities at the 2015 IIDA conference (aptly named “Unveiled”) in January at the Heard Museum.

OHSO video display facade flush mounted — *A look at the display box flush mounted on the wall facade*

This product integrates display transparency with image transmission. Consumers can see the actual product inside the box, and simultaneously watch the advertisement on the outside of the screen.

To demonstrate this video display’s capabilities, we created an OHSO Brewery-themed video, complete with animation and music. They’re a local chain of restaurants, brewery and distillery. We used real brewing ingredients (hops, malt, etc.) placed inside the display. We also fabricated a custom-printed exterior to give the effect of it being flush-mounted into a wall.

Watch the final video transparency with product inside

Our video display won best booth design award — *The International Interior Design Association recognized our display as the Best Booth Design*

If you’re not sure what you’re looking at, below is a 3D model of the product. Wondering what a realistic use case would be for this technology? Consider retail applications where a product is on display in a window. Your product is secure, and you can run static or video content on the front glass window itself.

BenQ 3-dimensional video display rendering

This type of technology would help in scenarios where there may not have a representative present. Think outward facing walls of retail (malls or parking lots). Brands can message customers in dynamic ways, engaging with people that are not yet in the store. Other applications such as museums or trade shows where staff is limited, but foot traffic is high. An ideal video display solution might call out product benefits, features or attributes on the screen. Interacting with and educating users on what’s inside the box.

Take it to the next level and place a turnstyle inside and the possibilities are endless.

Note(worthy) Book Design

Posted on January 12, 2019May 17, 2019 by splinternew

As you can probably imagine we go through a lot of notebooks around here, and because of this we’ve taken to binding our own. One day we got to thinking – why not create our own book design? Like any project we touch, we had to go all out, and made an entire series of Splinter notebooks. Using common “note” phrases, we created this environmentally friendly set that has everyone in the studio happily taking notes.

The American Advertising Federation (AAF) also took note of our book design project. Read more.

Take Notes and Mental Notes

Share Notes and Swap Notes

Compare Notes and MF’er Take Note

The whole series of notebooks are printed on recycled FSC certified paper that is made from responsible sources and is elemental chlorine free.

We do a lot of sketching. And even more taking notes. Why not enjoy it? Next time you’re in the studio, ask about them and you’ll likely leave with one or two of them.

And the Award Goes To…

Posted on January 9, 2019May 17, 2019 by splinternew

Last year we had our work cut out for us with our rebrand project. For several months we poured ourselves into updating Splinter’s brand assets. It was a big undertaking but the rewards – or in this case, award – have made it all worth it!

We entered the ADDY Awards for the self-promotion category with our freshly designed collateral package. The AAF is a national organization with a mission to better the advertising industry, recognize the best in advertising, and inform and educate advertising professionals. The 2014 Phoenix ADDY Award Gala was held downtown at The Duce – a very appropriate venue. If you haven’t been, we highly recommend visiting this place.

Everyone here is constantly challenging ourselves to go further and do better than ever before. These types of accolades keep our creativity sharp and skills honed; ever ready to accept the next challenge.

Best Design Firm Winner – Phoenix 2016

Posted on January 15, 2016May 20, 2019 by splinternew

Being voted the best design firm in the valley is an honor, and we appreciate the high praise from our fellow Phoenicians. We can’t submit for all the awards, but it sure is nice to have one drop our way, simply by the community recognizing our hard work.

We are pleased to wear our new badge: “best design firm”… and hey, we hear there’s also a celebratory bash coming up? If there’s a time to get out and network with other strong local companies, this may be one of those times. We look forward to raising our glasses to all of the companies who received “best of” status this year. Cheers!

Design Award – ADDY’S Take Note

Posted on January 17, 2015May 20, 2019 by splinternew

Initially, the notebooks that won the design award in this series were designed to be functional studio accessories – we go through quite a few notebooks around here. They turned out to be a great self-promotion piece.

The American Advertising Federation (AAF) took note of our hard work and awarded us an ADDY. The AAF is a national organization aimed at evaluating the advertising industry, noting the best in advertising, and educating advertising professionals.

On March 21st, the ADDY award gala was held downtown Phoenix at The Duce, which is quite a decent and unique venue. There were a lot of worthy finalists and loads of great work in this year’s’ contest. We are honored to have won the design award for the non-traditional category.

Take note of our designs here.