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DBA Design Effectiveness Award winners announced
The DBA Design Effectiveness Awards ceremony has been held live on Zoom today, 3 June 2020.
26 shortlisted projects discovered if they’d won Gold, Silver or Bronze awards. The winning projects demonstrate the hugely significant impact design makes across a broad section of industry – from global brands and major retailers to innovative start-ups and social enterprises – and the judges found five particularly outstanding, awarding them coveted Gold awards.
Diageo, with agencies Bompas & Parr, Design Bridge and Dolmen took Gold and the Grand Prix for Guinness Hero Harps
Having been overshadowed by competitors, Guinness Draught restored its impact at bar with the disruptive new Hero Harp fount. The eye-catching design was so sought after by bar owners that within 20 months, 22,860 British outlets had installed the new founts, dramatically exceeding the 30-month target of 13,000.
Design Bridge has also won the Top of the League award, taking top spot on the 2020 DBA Design Effectiveness Awards League Table.
Glasgow City Council with 999 Design won Gold for Glasgow Club
Reaching highly varied age groups with a distinctive new brand identity and flexible messaging system, Glasgow Club changed perceptions of its offer and achieved its best sales figures in its twenty-year history. The engaging campaign approach resonated with the people of Glasgow. The clubs’ membership grew 16% in the year after redesign, versus an industry average of 2%.
Gold also went to Mother and B&B Studio
A design-driven approach by start-up Mother has revolutionised the reputation of the vending industry, attracting incremental customers to the category like Apple and Amazon. Within five years from launch, Mother placed 83 machines (22% up on target), smashed the UK’s average weekly vending machine sales by 239% and became a certified vending partner of the three biggest UK caterers, despite being unproven.
Ian Macleod Distillers with Contagious secured a Gold award for The Glengoyne Distillery Experience
Over the course of a decade, Ian Macleod Distillers’ design programme with Contagious enabled it to effectively leverage the commercial potential of its site and deliver a premium brand experience through visitor tours. Visitor numbers soared 117% from 38,000 to 82,000 in that period and spend per head jumped 79% from £21.36 to £38.57.
Flawsome! and Coley Porter Bell also won Gold
The transformational rebranding of juice business Flawsome! projected its compelling story more powerfully. The brand significantly increased its relevance and distinctiveness in the market and sales leapt 540% in the year following relaunch, against a targeted increase of 100%.
Established in 1989, the DBA Design Effectiveness Awards recognise and celebrate the compelling influence of design on the success of a project or business.
The Awards are entered jointly by client and designer and winning projects have been rigorously judged by business leaders from organisations such as LEGO, Harley Davidson, Fortnum & Mason, GlaxoSmithKline, PUMA, Twitter and Lloyds Banking Group in three rounds of judging. Crucially, the Awards are evidence-based, the impact of design measured and verified.
The variety and breadth of work the judges saw amongst the Gold award winners also played out across the Silver and Bronze winners too, with work spanning FMCG, retail, health, utilities and charity sectors, and many others. Details of all the DBA Design Effectiveness Award winners and their case studies can be viewed here.
Chairman of the Judges, Clive Grinyer: “Once again it’s been a huge pleasure to chair the discussions with experts across design and business to identify and celebrate such inspiring examples of the power of design. The range of projects and the ways that success is measured continue to grow and show us in countless ways how design can transform and deliver results far beyond the original goals. From Bronze to Gold, every winner is testament to the commitment to design and the collaboration between client and design team to provide us with shining examples that we can all be inspired by and learn from.”
Says DBA CEO, Deborah Dawton:“The world in which we operate has changed hugely in the last 12 weeks, and many businesses are facing more challenges than they have ever faced before. What hasn’t changed is design’s relevance. Because, when faced with challenge, design delivers solutions.
The DBA Design Effectiveness Award winners provide the proof. They demonstrate that if a market has changed, or the needs of customers have changed, design can catalyse a business to think differently and react appropriately, to bridge that gap. The winners evidence design’s ability to really get under the skin of a business, to understand the issues, to connect to consumers, to deliver the solutions that work for a market. They prove that an investment in design, is an investment in the future of a business.”
To read about all of the Gold, Silver and Bronze DBA Design Effectiveness Award winners 2020 announced at the ceremony on Wednesday 3 June, or for details of next year’s awards programme, go to www.effectivedesign.org.uk