Media Design School students take home 7 awards at the 2022 DINZ Best Awards

Taking in entries from both industry and academia, just being a finalist, and subsequently winning an award, speaks volumes of the level of standard delivered by students and faculty alike. Media Design School is proud to have our students from the Bachelor of Media Design, and the Graduate Diploma of Creative Technologies (Design) represent our very best in the design field.  

This years Best Awards was held on Friday 7th October at Aotea Centre – Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre where we were proud to have a number of our students earn recognition for their projects. 

GOLD:

Stellify – Ryan Baek 

Class of 2021 

1. GOLD Digital – Student 

2. GOLD Public Good - Student 

Lecturers: Tammie Leong, Don Chooi, Jim Murray

Best Awards judge’s comments (via Best Awards): 

“This product would be so special for a family. Hopeful, beautiful and everlasting. Almost felt a tear well in the eye watching this, yet it was a positive way to deal with an emotive subject. Superbly executed and considerate.” 

“A well considered and unique approach to a difficult subject. Empathetic in its approach giving a whole new way to share emotions and thoughts in a special way. Versatile for all ages and a new take on grief." 

Description: 

Stellify is an interactive memorial website helping people who go through a sudden loss of a loved one to send the unsaid with the ones that grieve together. 

The sudden unexpected death of a loved one is a traumatic experience as there is no time to prepare. Whatever is unsaid, undone, and unexpressed makes the grief vastly difficult and prolonged, causing feelings of guilt, regret and depression. Dealing with the sudden loss in the time of COVID-19 is way more challenging since physical funerals are restricted due to the lockdown and border closure. 

In response to the problem, Stellify provides a meaningful chance to express withheld emotions through a digitally interactive experience of launching a star that embodies the unsaid and enabling people to share it online. 

SILVER:

A Bite That Takes Me Home – Yixuan Zhu 

Class of 2021 

SILVER Moving Image - Student 

Lecturers: Tammie Leong, Don Chooi, Jim Murray

Description: 

‘A Bite That Takes Me Home’ is a motion piece that aims to support Chinese immigrants in Auckland to preserve the traditions through food celebrations and passing knowledge down. 

Aesthetically, this motion piece is significantly influenced by ancient Chinese graphics and artwork. A consistent colour palette of saturated red, bright blue, dark green, golden yellow, and cyan helps build up the tone of voice as unique and vivacious. While also being a “kaleidoscope” composed of various semiotics in Chinese culture by applying pattern treatments, inspired by Chinese folk art, such as paper cutting, embroidery, woodcarving, ink painting, etc. 

These illustrations are rooted in my memories back from my hometown. Each window, roof tile and even door handle are drawn by hand and heart. The hand-drawn texture can add warmth to the objects, which aligns with the values of Chinese craftsmanship and imperfection in nature. The fluidic transitions in animation then turn the still genre painting into a lively story. 

Memories of Water – Jason Barnes

Class of 2021 

SILVER Moving Image - Student 

Lecturers: Tammie Leong, Don Chooi, Jim Murray

Description: 

The lives of our loved ones are deeply interwoven with our own. This connection is everlasting; their memories continue to send ripples into the world beyond their departure. When my dad passed away at the end of 2020, I came to realise how much his story had transformed my views on life. This project is a reflection on his life and how our stories are forever interwoven. 

The final motion outcome is a journey across time, reliving my late father’s story through the visual metaphor of water and its changing states. Water, ice and steam together illustrate a very personal yet relatable story - one of interconnected contrast - health and illness, past and present, impermanence and everlastingness. The element of water will always be deeply connected to memories of my dad, a professional sailor. 

While this project utilised a hybrid of digital and analogue mediums, the final aesthetic is that of a ‘living journal’. Watercolour illustrations and reflective writing emerge from the paper and flow through a sequence of crystallised memories. 

Fellow Fields – Lily Wigglesworth 

Class of 2021 

SILVER Digital – Student 

Lecturers: Tammie Leong, Don Chooi, Jim Murray

Description: 

Fellow Fields is an app supporting Kiwi farmers' transition to more regenerative farming practices by facilitating the sharing of knowledge, tools, and observations around regenerative agriculture systems across New Zealand. 

Regenerative Agriculture is a symbiotic approach to farming that, among other benefits, can sequester carbon from the atmosphere and help mitigate the effects of climate change. Fellow fields use interactive design to facilitate regenerative knowledge exchange across New Zealand with the aim of empowering farmers on the frontline of the climate crisis. 

BRONZE: 

Origins of Fire - Jayden Dunick, Kurt Cranna-Smith, Keegan Fitzgerald, Lexi Xin 

Class of 2021 

BRONZE Toitanga – Student 

Lecturers: Tammie Leong, Don Chooi, Jim Murray

Description: 

Origins of Fire is an interactive storytelling experience using a pseudo-touchscreen to engage the public in the narrative of how Māui brought fire to the world. 

Eke Panuku Development Auckland approached the school to engage students with producing an interactive experience for Matariki 2022. During the initial research and development stage, Panuku supplied us with an immersive audio track they had developed, narrating how Māui brought fire to the world. The audio track depicted how Maui grew curious about where Te ahi a Mahuika, Mahuika's fire comes from. The ceremony and ritual associated with fire is significant for all nations across Te Moana nui a Kiwa, as such we understood this narrative could form a catalyst to engage Auckland’s ethnically diverse population via interactive storytelling experience. 

Tūrama – Calais Soper, Jonathon Morris, Kevin Pao, Sejin Lee 

Class of 2022 

BRONZE Toitanga – Student 

Lecturers: Tammie Leong, Don Chooi, Jim Murray, Jocelyn Janon, Pritika Lal 

Description: 

Tūrama means beacon of light, standing strong in its own right. It is a journey to illuminating what shapes our rangatahi’s personal sense of self, through the reflection of Mātauranga Māori values and unique features that surround us during 2022’s special Matariki celebrations. 

The Tūrama experience of 2022 activates the space of Tīramarama Way through its three-part journey of Exploration, Connection and Reflection. Starting with an accessible Instagram AR filter, Rangatahi can scan featured photographs or visuals to reveal a 3D ‘window’ to interact with Māori values relative to the location. The wayfinding from these posters will then lead the user to the discovery hub where they can connect more visually with these values, they can then reflect inward via our constellation creation interface by applying their nickname, date of birth, core values and aspirations to create their own projected personalised constellation in front of them. Their constellation will allow a moment of viewing before the next steps of becoming a part of a night sky with others' own constellations. 

FINALIST:

Race to Ora - Lilly Trietsch  

Class of 2021 

FINALIST Digital – Student 

Lecturers: Tammie Leong, Don Chooi

Description: 

Race to Ora is a third party app used at the Auckland Zoo as an interactive learning tool for intermediate school teachers and their students to learn more about Aotearoa’s wild birds and the importance of their role in our ecosystem. With BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) on the rise in our classrooms, there is a great opportunity to be able to utilize this technology to increase motivation for young learners to study our native ecosystem.