22-year-old creative agency Motor Brand Design has scooped the Boutique Agency of the Year trophy at the 2022 Vertex Awards, while Aldi Australia has won Retailer of the Year.
The Vertex Awards are the only global competition devoted exclusively to the art of Private Brand package design. The awards are judged by a highly esteemed panel of industry experts from around the world and awarded based on Creativity, Marketability, and Innovation.
Motor Brand Design was awarded Boutique Agency of the Year, winning four golds and two silvers for the packaging design and branding for Aldi Australia, which resulted in the supermarket empire being named Retailer of the Year in Europe, Asia, The Middle East, Oceania, and Africa.
"Motor Brand Design, which has offices in Melbourne and Shanghai and is led by CEO and founder, Warren Spence, is the first Australian agency to accept this incredible award, recognising the talent down under. Our packaging design and branding for Aldi Australia and Aldi USA was a collaboration and a true reflection of being in partnership with this global brand," said Sian Durbridge, Motor Brand Design's client services and digital marketing executive.
The winning entries were:
Gold – Big Spoon
"I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream…our creatives had fun with this one. We created a name, branding, and packaging design that jumps out as fun, iconic, and all-around cool. Introducing ‘Big Spoon’, a universal symbol for food that subtly reflects an ice cream so delicious that you need a big spoon. Our design features bright colours, catchy names, playful typography, and quirky illustrations. The light-hearted, fun pack designs capture the essence of summer snacking, created to bring joy. The client chose this direction as it had a strong shelf impact and buckets of fun. Using characters as flavour cues and incorporating ingredients into the typography – added to the lickety-lick appetite appeal. Imagination packed from our creative team. Yum!," said Durbridge.
Gold – Ocean Royale Xmas
"Aldi Australia approached us to create a premium packaging design for their new festive seafood range, sold seasonally. Our creatives drew inspiration from a true blue ‘fancy’ Aussie Christmas with scrumptious seafood at the centre of your table. It all started with the big idea of what makes an Aussie Christmas, Aussie. We spray-painted dry gumtree leaves, gum nuts, and starfish to create a rustic and luxurious festive wreath. This elegant centrepiece adorns the table that is inspired by the ocean, highlighting the delicious food photography. The Gold accents paired with a moody dark blue background enhance the premium nature of the product whilst also contributing to the under the sea theme. Now that's how we do Christmas down under," explained Durbridge.
Gold – Snackers Market
"Aldi Australia approached us to design a new range of cheese snacks made for on the go. It needed to appeal to a younger audience being lighthearted and whimsical. Each character differs in personality, style and demeanour, allowing the target market to resonate with at least one of the characters," said Durbridge, explaining that the design was to appeal to young professionals and communicate the origins of the cheese while alluding to child-like fun.
"We wanted to create the feeling of being at a market by identifying two key elements – people and large handwritten blackboards. The quirky characters would also represent the origins of the cheeses, for example, a Swiss-inspired character representing the Swiss cheese. The loose handwritten typography adds to the casual snacking style of the range. The pack ultimately captures the joy of snacking."
Gold – Brooklea Joi
Durbridge explained that the brief for this project was to refresh the Brooklea Joi range, with the client wanting to modernise the look and feel of the brand as well as update the colour palette.
"The brand needed to add bright pops of colour and de-clutter the pack. Showcase the product and highlight the fruit. We began with the name of this product; Joi. Its clever play on the word 'joy' gave us the opportunity to really make a statement so we made this the hero element in the design. The letter “O” would feature the yoghurt as if it were bursting out accompanied by delicious fruit cameos. We decided to use more white on the pack and stripped back the elements so that Joi would be the primary element which helped create a modern look and feel. A brighter fresher colour palette was used to enhance the fruity nature of the product."
Silver – Expressi Single Origin
"With technological advancements and aiming to sustain their impressive market share, ALDI Australia approached us to create packaging designs for Expressi’s new single-origin coffee range; A premium, yet affordable range fit for coffee connoisseurs. The range captures the true essence of their origins with the coffee glass seeming to emerge from the jungle. An exotic creature cleverly interacts with the coffee cup to create an intriguing exotic feel that sits comfortably alongside the core Expressi range. We researched the native flora and fauna of each Country with our strategy to connect these packs to the core range, we maintained the same architecture for all elements of the pack including; brand, coffee cup, and secondary communication elements. We enveloped the glass with native flora and featured a recognisable creature synonymous with the region that interacted with the glass. Capturing the brand's premium quality, its technological advancement and the essence of coffee," said Durbridge.
Silver – Hopping Nomad Beers
Aldi's brief to the Motor Brand Design team, on the design for its new IPA beer, was to capture a sense of adventure and exploration while not taking itself too seriously.
"Our creatives had fun with this one. It’s very clear that the craft beer industry has become synonymous with outrageous names and fun fanciful designs. We wanted the name to really capture the essence of this refreshing IPA," said Durbridge.
We landed on ‘The Hopping Nomad’ which in turn set the stage for the creative design. The Hopping Nomad is a beer enthusiast who is constantly searching the globe for the next glorious beer. He travels the world in his ‘hop’ air balloon overcoming all obstacles in order to discover new beers.
