Gippsland has once again dominated its regional counterparts on the big stage, this time at the inaugural Regional Design Awards held in Warrnambool last month.
Traralgon-based graphic design studio The View From Here took out four of a possible five categories.
In what director John Calabro sees as huge recognition, the regional studio took out the identity, print, digital media and image creation categories.
“Prior to me starting at the studio I would work for studios who always entered these awards and would just win everything, so it’s nice to have a regional-based award,” Mr Calabro said.
“There are challenges working in and running a design studio in a regional area which are different to the city.
“Up in the city there’s more competition, more of an understanding of the value that design brings so there’s more people willing to invest, but having said that our clients are excellent, they give us a lot of freedom and we get some good results and I guess that shows in the fact that we were able to take out these four awards.”
The View From Here was victorious in every section it entered, against a field of nine finalists.
Mr Calabro said the unique designs of the studio were largely behind the group’s success, describing the victory in the print media category as something out of the box.
“The print one was one of the most outstanding jobs, or eye catching jobs, in that it wasn’t actually printed it was engraved in wood,” Mr Calabro said.
A Latrobe Valley local, Mr Calabro said he had great enthusiasm for the region and its people.
“I’ve started a side project called Made in Gippsland which features creative people from this area who are now working and living all around the world doing really high end stuff,” he said.
Mr Calabro hoped that bringing the stories of these Gippsland expats to life through his studio would encourage current students to dream big.
“I’ve spoken at a few schools to tell the students that just because you’re not doing great at school doesn’t mean you can’t find your passion and take off with it,” Mr Calabro said.
* Josh Hanrahan is a Monash University student.
