Barak Yahav’s ‘Metallic Envelope’ takes out Best of Show at last night’s Art of the Envelope Awards
A DIY envelope made of steel and copper has taken home the Best In Show prize at this year’s Art of The Envelope Awards, announced at an awards ceremony in Auckland last night, MCed by SteveDunstan and Dan Buckley from Huffer. Independent entrant Barak Yahav’s’Metallic Envelope’ saw off fierce competition from a host of unusualand innovative entries, including a concrete envelope, a message in abottle and a Chinese lantern.
It won the Refine & Redefinecategory (work that redefines the concept of an envelope to produce anartistic or futuristic masterpiece) before also being announced as BestIn Show, winning Barak a $5,000 travel voucher.
Theannual competition, held by Candida Stationery, New Zealand PostTargeted Communications and Kinetic 121, seeks to encourage people toexplore the possibilities and push the boundaries of the ‘humbleenvelope’. Judges said this year’s entries did exactly that.
Nearly100 entries were received for this year’s awards from across NewZealand. Entries were judged by a panel headed up by guest judge AndyBlood, partner and group executive creative director at TBWA\Whybin.
SaysBlood: “We felt Barak’s entry truly redefined the concept of theenvelope – it’s a beautiful work of art crafted in a distinctly KiwiDIY style. We also liked the way its mirrored front means it’s alwaysaddressed to the person looking into it, giving it a unique and lastingappeal.”
Other category winners were: The 50 Cent Classic(creativity in a regular envelope up to Max-POP size that can be mailedeconomically) – ‘BNZ Labyrinth’ for BNZ, by Stacey Roper and DannyBrown, Y&R Mailed Masterpiece (includes 3D pieces that have beenmailed or delivered) – National Bank Cricket Set for the National Bank,by Jason Hall, Kathy Maaka, Asher Hutchings, Rachel Street, RAPP
Eachof the three winning category entries receives a choice of a DigitalSLR Camera, shopping voucher or iPod Touch and iPhone combo, each tothe value of $2,000.
Says New Zealand Post Targeted Communications’ Fiona Woolley: “Yetagain we’ve been blown away by the creativity on offer in New Zealand.We hope people will come away from this year’s Art Of The Envelopeawards inspired to create and use their own ground-breaking works of’envelope art’. That’s what it’s all about.”
14 Comments
Haha,
This metal envelope really did make a farce out of the whole thing.
It’s a envelope but it’s metal. Excuse me if I’m wrong but this is an industry competition designed to engage the Direct Marketing industry, not an applied arts competition. It doesn’t matter if it’s wood, steel, plastic or platinum – it is still just an envelope. It doesn’t have an idea, it doesn’t redefine the envelope or “push it”. It is actually a sculpture of an envelope created funnily enough by a sculptor.
The value should be in the creative thought behind the piece not the material it’s made out of. They really did give the guy an A (rather than an E) for effort.
It’s a nice little piece of metal work and I’m sure the guy is stoked at blagging $7000, but this does not do the competition any favours in terms of any genuine competition credentials. Tune in next week when we announce the winner of a metal sculpting competition has produced a direct mail paper envelope.
In regards to the other competition winners I would like to say congratulations fantastic work.
dull as.
I agree totally with Jo.
I was going to enter and am very happy I didnt. Would of been a waste of time when the winner is selected for the wrong reasons.
Jo, i don’t think you should direct your comments at or around the creative person, he just made an effort and entered.
I think you should focus on the judges and them directly. Feel free to get stuck in and tell them what you think, maybe you have a point.
Congrads on the guy who entered. Well done, you threw something different in the mix and were awarded for it.
Idea wise, and idea can come from a chosen material. Any great designer will tell you that.
Crikey, no need to worry about the designer’s feelings here… I can guarantee they’ll not be looking at any blog to do with advertising. Once again this is just a journeyman designer spotting a big cash prize and walking away with it while the ad industry blinks and ponders.
It’s a sad day when the independent prize winner who on his own merits, pushed boundries both conceptual and medium for the humble envelope is personaly abused by others who should know better!!! Jo and Steve, I suggest you both share a saucer of milk … you guys should run your own awards or be more creative. Perhaps if you cared to think outside the box, you yourselves would have won instead. As for Paul you obviously couldn’t even come up with an entry and that in itself says something.
No where in the competition brief was a medium restriction. This award piece is marketable, be it in a short hand made run and followed the brief that was supplied to all entrants. I wonder if your comments would have been so nasty if he came from one of the leading advertising agencies?
Well done Barak who ever you are, you have obviously shaken a few cages and have created what appears to be a case of sour grapes from those who entered but failed to take out the awards.
Look at the name of the award. Art of the Envelope.
Congrats to the winner well done
You broke the predicted outcome by thinking beyond the norm, and boy has it rattled a few empty vessels.
They need to get over themselves, and get a life
To the previous poster. I think your point of “if he came from one of the leading advertising agencies” – is very appropriate. Quite simple they would not enter something like this because they would see it as inappropriate.
This is not a personal attack at Barak. I’m sure he has his own merits in what he does. What I do find worrying is that the judges fail to see where they have missed the point. The future of post is not in the material that a piece is made out of but in the thought put in to utilise the medium to engage with the recipient. For example the power of a letter is not in the nice stock of the letterhead or envelope, but in the words written on it.
Now the terms of the judging do state that the pieces will be judged on the outer (after all candida is a sponsor). but it has to be a given that it is the conceptual value tied in to outer that is judged. The steel envelope should be a winner if being in made in steel had some conceptual relevance, but it didn’t.
The judges here seem to have either been duped by a shiny piece of metal craft or moved by some fluzzy do gooder instinct. Either way it did not make the judges look good.
These are commercial awards ie. They are sponsored by two of direct marketing’s major players, candida and nzpost to encourage the use of their medium for advertising purposes. If that wasn’t the case why wasn’t the competition promoted to the public in general? It wasn’t it was promoted to direct marketing companies. Unfortunately the promoters has made a mockery of their own PR driving event.
Jo, I can see where you’re coming from, but you’re misguided that NZ Post ever meant to award the most creative entry. They just wanted to award the entry that did something fancy with an envelope. Their tagline ‘Push the envelope’ is more literal than you might think.
Has the guest judge ever worked in DM? Just asking.
Congratulation to “ALL” who worked on The National Bank Cricket Set for the National Bank, especially to Cheryl Martin and Kerryanne MacAllister who didn’t get a mention. (They must have ran out of space.)
Ha ha 9.22, someone had to say it.
Mind the critics.
Barack,you won =The Art of The Envelope Award= becouse your piece of art represent the concept of an envelope in a refined way of a masterpiece with vision.
It is simple and very New Zealand original.
Barak deserve to get recocnition for his artistic talend.
We should be proud that we have such good artists here in New Zealand
I do hope we can see more of your work Barak.Well done.Congrats.