Winning use of colour

24 August 2012

Boffa Miskell designs won awards in the Display + Product Colour category, for enhancements to a public space beneath the Auckland Harbour Bridge, and in the Landscape Colour category, for the London Quay waterfront redevelopment.The awards, run annually, encourage and celebrate excellent and creative use of colour.

Trestle Leg Series, Auckland Harbour Bridge

In ‘The Trestle Leg Series’, excerpts of New Zealand poetry and prose were painted onto the bridge clip-on ‘trestle leg’ structures beneath the Auckland Harbour Bridge. The project is part of a series of landscape enhancement projects Boffa Miskell is designing for the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) arising from the bridge strengthening project just completed.

Once the excerpts were selected in collaboration with literary experts, the NZTA and local iwi, visual artist/typographer Catherine Griffiths was commissioned to interpret the words onto the bridge columns. Detailed technical specifications were then developed by Sign Right / Designcraft with Total Bridge Services to ensure the high performance paint and application methods would be compatible with the bridge’s specialist steel coating system and able to withstand ongoing bridge maintenance activities and harsh marine conditions.

Predominantly grey tones were used to complement the colour of the bridge itself, with red accents used to highlight certain words and phrases - drawing the eye through the under-bridge space to the landscape beyond.

The Resene judges commented on the good fit of the chosen colours, with the strength of the lettering relating to the colour choice and adding clarity to the whole work. “The small accent of the flame red just stops you in your tracks and demands attention.”

They described the Trestle Leg Series as “a delightful discovery.… In a space that you would normally not give a second glance, it encourages you to stop and engage.”