The Best Awards, 2011

Pity poor Dai Henwood!

In an echoing, vast room with hundreds of noisy design darlings from all over the country, Dai had to power through a list of nominations, place-getters and award-winners, longer than the King James Bible.

Meanwhile, the crowd (and yours truly) consumed vast quantities of wine and beer and a three-course dinner at a football-field-sized array of tables. So it was always going to be a long, noisy, boozy night!

Story Inc was a finalist in the BEST awards for our spatial design of ZEALANDIA: The Exhibition. There were hundreds of categories – each with several nominees but we were rewarded with a Silver pin for our efforts (yay for us!).

To speed things up, Silver winners weren’t invited up to collect their pins, Gold winners paraded onto the stage for a quick photo shoot (no speeches) – and only the VERY special categories (Black and Purple) were allowed a brief thank-you at the microphone.

In the end though, it was great that old friends like Sarah Maxey, Alexandra Collinson, Rob Appierdo and Nigel Beckford were there also winning awards. Some of the work (shown on the big screens) was truly stunning.

It was good to be there, not just for the Silver Pin, but to see and meet some of NZ’s best creatives… rowdy bunch though they were.

By Steve La Hood, Director