The National Portrait Gallery has had its most successful Multimedia and Publication Design Awards (MAPDAs) ever, winning four awards across multiple categories. The awards were presented at a ceremony at the Australian Maritime Museum last Friday night.
The MAPDAs, held every year as part of the year Museums Australia Conference, celebrate excellence in design and communication in the museum and gallery sector across Australia and New Zealand.
The Portrait Gallery Senior Graphic Designer Brett Wiencke took out the Best Book category for the collection handbook The Companion. The judges commented that the book displayed a ‘beautiful balance of typography and imagery’. Mr Wiencke also won Best Small Catalogue for the publication that accompanied the exhibition Arcadia: sound of the sea, described as ‘Awesome. Timeless imagery. Great use of contrast and colour combinations’. He was also awarded Best Poster designed for the same exhibition. The Gallery’s website, designed by Patrick Cox, was highly commended by the judges.
Director of External Relations, Ms Diana O’Neil, said she is proud that the Gallery is recognised for its excellence.
“The Portrait Gallery delivers quality in everything it does – a direct reflection of the dedicated and talented staff,” Ms O’Neil said.
“We are a small team with all design done in-house so to win awards for our publications, print material, and website is a huge achievement for our staff and testament to their creative innovation.”
The MAPDAs have always been fruitful ground for the Portrait Gallery with this year’s haul bringing the total since 2011 to five wins and seven highly commendeds. In 2014, the Portrait Gallery was awarded the Judges’ Special Award for Paris to Monaro: Pleasures from the studio of Hilda Rix Nicholas, to be reprinted later this year.
