The design team of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa have received major kudos for our rebrand at a glitzy awards evening.

The Best Design Awards are the pinnacle of the New Zealand design industry and the awards evening showcases the very best in graphic, spatial, product , interactive and motion design.

Designers from within Rākaikahuroa worked with design company Iceberg on the rebrand of our tohu and its application across our business collateral and won a silver in the Ngā Aho section of the awards, which recognises the best in Māori design. 

The team of TWoA kaimahi included Tumukahuroa Hone Paul, Vivienne Merito, Nikora Ngaropo, Hika Taewa, Tiaki Terekia, Hakopa Pore, Josh Brown, and Toby Hutchings.

The Gold award went to Air New Zealand for their reo Māori pin that their staff wear to indicate to travellers that they can converse in te reo Māori.

Creative lead Tania Short said given the awards’ very strict criteria and the fact they are highly-sought after in the industry, the TWoA team should be very proud of their achievement.

“You only receive an award if the judges think it’s deserved. So in any one year, they may not give out a silver for example. Just making the finals is a big deal. They are highly sought after and design firms are proud to achieve one so it’s a really great thing that the team has been recognised for their work.”

Tania said the joint application for the award with TWoA and Iceberg was unusual because a client (such as TWoA) usually provides a brief/problem to businesses like Iceberg and they then come up with the design solution.

“Normally they would win the award for understanding what we wanted and coming up with a solution reflecting that understanding.”

“But we weren’t a passive client. We came up with the tohu for the brand and we ensured the story behind it was pono. What Iceberg did was they provided a solid graphic framework for our brand, so they were a kind of kaitiaki to us in this sense, helping us to navigate the brand landscape. Our team has taken that framework and developed it further.” 

“Iceberg worked with our designers to find a solution that was culturally right and right in the design sense.”

Tania said the change in TWoA’s brand was helping our organisation to become better recognised throughout New Zealand.

“The stronger our brand is in the marketplace the better it is for our tauira when they graduate.”