February 2007

Australian Creative 2007 Hotshop Awards
Best Emerging Designer of the Year
Kate Rogers, GollingsPidgeon

CREATIVE received many impressive entries to its Hotshop Award for ‘Best Emerging Designer’, so choosing only one winner was almost impossible. After much deliberation, the judges finally settled on Kate Rogers, a talented young designer at GollingsPidgeon in Melbourne.

In 2006, Rogers was the recipient of several AGDA awards, including a Judges Choice award, an Effectiveness award, two distinctions and two finalists. As the lead designer for the re-opening of Heide Museum of Modern Art, Rogers was responsible for compiling catalogues, signage, invitations, posters and brochures promoting the museum’s exhibitions in 2006. Throughout this work, Rogers displays an ability to produce stylish layouts that are consistently unique and inventive. She balances a knack for experimentation with an understanding of editorial design, so her layouts are fresh without being intimidating or illegible.

She combines striking imagery with cut-out typography and shapes, which adds a tactility to the brochure covers. “For me, design is a continual process of learning, understanding and interpreting. With each project I look to explore possibilities and further my knowledge and craft,” says Rogers. “I understand the commercial nature of the work that I do, and work with my fellow staff, clients and suppliers to achieve the best possible outcomes. Most of all I design because of the enjoyment that it brings me.”

Excerpt from CREATIVE magazine February March issue 2007

By producing design that is confident, intelligent, subtle and beautiful, GollingsPidgeon is once again a winner in the CREATIVE Hotshop Awards.

Melbourne studio GollingsPidgeon is well known for producing beautifully executed, well thought-out design. Its submission to this year’s Hotshop Awards attracted similar comment from our judging panel, putting them in third place.

Work included a strong selection of projects done for the Heide Museum of Modern Art ranging from identity to print, promotional retail pieces (tea towels and aprons), catalogues and naming rights signage. There were also projects for Spicers Paper, a self-initiated project by David Pidgeon exploring three dimensional type, and Federation Square’s Summer campaign.

“I can’t quite put my finger on it but the vision of David Pidgeon and John Gollings combine to produce work that satisfies the eye and the mind,” was one of the judge’s verdicts. “The subtlety in the work allows human warmth to resonate and with this a confidence and understanding of what they’re doing.” It is no surprise that the work is “visually compelling and arresting” as one judge said, and “always intelligent and beautiful”, said another.

David Pidgeon’s role as president and national representative of AGDA Victoria (elected 2005) proactively demonstrates the studio’s commitment to the creative industry. In 2006 the AGDA Victorian Student Council was re-established, made up of 20 students across 11 institutions, with one student member responsible for reporting back to the state council. The initiative drove student membership up by 28%. Pidgeon’s role with AGDA has also culminated in its partnership with AGIdeas. Of note too is Pidgeon’s recent induction into AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale), an elite club uniting the world’s leading graphic designers and artists.

Each year as part of the AGIdeas International Design Conference, studios around Melbourne open up their doors and give around 20 students the opportunity to experience a working studio. The invitations for these events have been used by the studio as typographic experiments.

The 2004 invitation used a typeface called Hex which was developed by Pidgeon and explores the application of multiple colours to a single letter form. In 2006 we explored the geometry of an extruded pentagon and 2007 a new typeface developed from the roof geometry of the Robin Boyd Baker House (see below).

Tender documentation for Epicure Catering’s successful bid for catering rights at the VRC Melbourne Cup Carnivals in 2007/08.