An award designed for the Deakin Alumni Awards during my final core subject at university. As a group of five, we collaborated on researching and designing an award highlighting Deakin alumni’s achievements.

DEAKIN ALUMNI AWARDS

We were a group of five, all with strengths in different aspects of design. We took the time for introductions and communicated what we believed our best design skills were.
After reviewing the design brief, we assigned individual roles so that we could best utilize those skills and play to our strengths.
We first researched the past Deakin Alumni Award trophy designs, general award trophy designs and The Deakin Alumni Committee’s values.
This helped us spark initial ideas and gain inspiration for both the physical design and the story we wanted the award to tell.
We were able to secure interviews with both the active manager of the Deakin Alumni Committee and a designer of a previous year’s award trophy.
This gave us clarification on what exactly we needed to achieve with our award design and provided a great jumping off point. It inspired what would eventually become our story behind the design while simultaneously giving us the initial idea to construct the award trophy out of different materials.

PREPARATION

Deakin’s 2020 Alumni Award holds true to the universities diverse community and is fashioned from materials that epitomise the journey to accomplishment in one’s field.

Concrete, the embodiment of foundational support sits at the base of the award. A material derived from broken stone, gravel, sand and cement. An amalgamation of elements, blended to create a steadfast footing. Individuals from all over the globe affiliate with Deakin alumni, an array of varying components that bond together to create its tight knit community.

This solid, unshakable infrastructure flows through to the meeting of natural wood. A symbol of inevitable growth and the ability to flourish given the right nurturing environment, the wooden aspect to this design draws on the organic patterns and heart lines running through the grain. When cut horizontally, the rings within a trees trunk are an indicator of how old it is, as well as what the weather was like during each season of its life. The monumental reach that Deakin Alumni holds is a direct result of the wisdom and knowledge that has been sustained and cultivated by it’s community.

The embedded acrylic window bridges the physical structure to the narrative, an effortless transition providing a clear window into the journey to success, unclouded and authentic. Deakin strives to be inclusive, providing all graduated students with the opportunity to stay a part of the university and continue to reap the benefits of staying connected with others also excelling in their field of work.

THE STORY

INITIAL DESIGNS

We each individually drew up quick thumbnail sketches of initial design ideas. Another teammate’s design and one of my own was what we selected to develop further in greater detail.

Generation of Ideas sketches

Further development of my chosen idea

Further development of the other teammate’s idea

MOCK-UPS

I was assigned to handle all the mock-ups for this project. All the mock-ups were made in Photoshop, this helped us get a sense of how the designs would look and feel along with how all the different materials would interact with each other.

Mock Up of my design idea

Mock Up of my alternate design idea

Mock Up of my teammates design idea

FINAL DESIGN

After sourcing a manufacturer, we had an initial discussion which resulted in them significantly simplifying the design due to our budget. After a lot of back and forth and a couple of redesigns, we were able to get something close to our original design that fit within our budget. We managed to keep all the different materials as they were essential to the design itself, but we had to simplify the shape of the design.

The design the manufacturer presented to us shortly after the initial discussion

The Mock Up I designed after we collaborated with the manufacturer to try and find a middle ground within the budget and our original design

The final design for both the shape and textures of the award trophy

Technique outline to show clearly what the intended materials were for each sections.

MARKETING MATERIAL

Marketing material that was created for the Deakin Alumni Awards event, it was a virtual award show carried out via streaming and Zoom due to it taking place during lockdown. I created the digital invite for the event which was sent out via email. It utilizes elements that were designed by multiple different teammates, the vector graphic of the trophy and the blue background which was taken from a 3D motion graphic two teammates created. We also created promotional posters for the event but that was strictly for the class unit and did not have any real-world use.