Awards are a good sign

Display Associates' Blair Symes, Emma Young and Sam Morris with the awards received from the recent New Zealand Sign and Display Association's Conference and Awards Night. Photo / Paul Brooks

At the recent New Zealand Sign and Display Association's Conference and Awards Night in Queenstown, Whanganui's Display Associates brought home some well-earned industry recognition to go on the wall.
"They have a range of different categories," says Emma Young, who was the designer behind the work that won the prestigious awards.
"We wanted to enter the health bus we did for the Bartley Foundation," says Blair Symes, Display Associates director, "Which made the finals ..."

"We did a rebrand for a business called Wilpro," says Emma. Wilpro is a custom auto and engineering business in Wilson St, recently under new management. "We entered into 'Brand Creation' because we did everything from logo development, building signage, uniforms, business cards, letterheads, that whole brand creation for them."
"Emma did the lot," says Blair.
Emma says the whole job took about a month from start to finish.
"Emma also entered it into 'Signs', which is general signage," says Blair.
The job picked up a silver award in each category.

The finished work is worth checking out, the next time you're in Wilson St.
"The biggest thing, because it's set back from the street, you had to have something with a bit of impact: something that would stand out, so scale was important.

Emma has been with Display Associates for 14 and a half years. "It was my first job, really, and we've got a really good team here." She graduated from the School of Design (Waikato University) with a degree in Graphic Design, travelled overseas briefly, didn't like it, preferred Whanganui, came back and got a job with Display Associates.
"Blair, Fiona and Dorothy are like family to me."

The awards are a form of kudos, recognition in the industry for excellent work.
"Every year the standard and level of work that's being produced in New Zealand gets bigger and better," says Emma. "I think people are recognising how important it is, that it's money well spent in terms of advertising. Getting your name out there and making a presence for yourself is important."

Blair has been in the business for 35 years and he says they used to travel all over the country doing jobs. "Now, there's so much work in Whanganui." They take care of Mitre 10 Mega, have rebranded Pak n Save, the kind of work that once would have gone to firms in the big centres.
"The other cool thing about being in Whanganui is business owners appreciate the importance of staying local," says Emma. "We are lucky with the loyalty we have with our customers."

"We've kept up with technology too, which is a good thing for us," says Blair. "And we've got the team behind it to use the machinery." Display Associates has a team of 14.
"We're lucky that Blair likes to keep up with technology and likes to make our lives easier, so that we can keep doing what we do," says Emma. That means she has the tools to execute her designs and ideas.
Blair says they can do everything in house.
"Technology is hard to keep up with, but these guys know what we need and when we need it."