From 2010 to 2012 the Events team at Health Support Services were commissioned to organise the NSW Health Awards, and I provided all the graphic design collateral for the annual event. The NSW Health awards judges a whole range of health projects being conducted throughout New South Wales in seven different categories, and holds an awards night to celebrate the winners and finalists. For each event I updated the logo, which was in existence before I came on board. The basic shape remained the same to maintain branding, we changed the colours each year and obviously the date. I also designed the Sponsorship Prospectus, advertising material such as Save the Date flyers, posters, web and email banners, stationary and the Entry Requirements document that was sent to applicants who wished to submit their project for judging.
The second stage of the Awards involved the layout of the manuals for the judges – these included all the abstracts of the submitted projects plus marking sheets and information for the judging panel. Each book was around 60 pages, and there were seven categories in total. To keep costs down we printed them in-house and spiral bound them. The third stage was the collateral that was required on the Awards night – an A5 sized guidebook of the winners and finalists, certificates for the finalists, signage including the table seating plan, and the Powerpoint presentation. The final stage was after the Awards night – each attendee received a DVD of the event including presentations and photos from the night, and I also designed a document containing the results of an online survey we held to measure the success of the event and identify any areas that needed improving. In addition to the design work I also organised all the printing quotes, managed the administrative processes and payment.
The most exciting bit of the whole process each year was the cover of the A5 guidebook. With the sponsorship of the Awards we actually had a decent budget to hold the event, so for the guidebook cover we got to use speciality stocks and special printing techniques such as foil and embossing that are normally to expensive to justify. Eventually the NSW Ministry of Health took over the event management of the awards.
