Black and White and Gold All Over: Design 2023 Platinum Winners

Two Platinum-winning design entries utilize the same key colors of black, gold, and white to different effects.

The first winning entry comes from Graphis Masters McCandliss & Campbell via Wainscot Media, with this editorial spread for Footwear Plus Magazine. “Hire Power” (above), serves as an opening spread for a fashion story featuring back-to-the-office footwear. The duo created a custom gold-and-black type solution to compliment the photo, one that uses both abstract and angular design principles to create a bold typographic statement supporting the voice they wanted to convey. The use of gold jewelry on the model calls to mind luxury and affluence, while the stark white of the shoes draws the eye towards them as the primary focus of the article.

Our second winning entry is the stamp “Raven Story” (above) by Studio A for the US Postal Service, with the goal of honoring the living culture and heritage of Indigenous peoples in an area of the U.S. The art director for this project, Antonio Alcalá, took it as an opportunity to represent his own hometown, tribe, and family through art and design. Merging traditional artwork with modern design touches, this stamp represents a story of great significance to the Indigenous people of the northern Northwest Coast, part of the area that ranges from Southeast Alaska through coastal British Columbia and south into Washington state. Inspired by the traditional story of Raven setting free the sun, the moon, and the stars, the artist of Tlingit/Athabascan descent depicts Raven just as he escapes from his human family and begins to transform back into his bird form. A five-fingered hand connected to Raven suggests the human form he is leaving behind. Formline, the traditional design style of the Indigenous people of the northern Northwest Coast, was used to create the art. Formline relies on a stylized vocabulary of ovoids and related shapes, continuous lines of varying thicknesses, and ambiguous, even abstract patterns that often suggest both human and animal features to convey a sense of transformation and the oneness of all life. Bright stars were also added with gold foil during printing for dramatic effect.

View all award winners from the Graphis Design 2023 Award here. And if you would like to pre-order the Design 2023 Annual (print + digital) now, click here.