Journal
Awards
GOOOOD day at the office
Folk wins four awards at this year's Australian Good Design Awards
The Australian Good Design Awards returned in 2024, and it was a particularly good day at the Folk studio as three of our projects won a grand total of four Good Design Awards.
This year’s theme, Design Effect, aims to showcase the ripple effects that exceptional design can have on people and their surroundings, challenging ideals, pushing boundaries, and exploring ways we can positively transform how we live, work, operate.
Creating positive and long-lasting impact for people is at the heart of what we do at Folk, so we’re stoked that our work with Botanic Gardens of Sydney, Health Justice Australia (HJA) and Beachwatch was recognised this year.
All projects won in the category ‘Digital Design Web Design and Development’, with HJA also winning a second award in the ‘Design Strategy’ category. Congratulations to all involved.
About Botanic Gardens of Sydney
Botanic Gardens of Sydney comprises of three gardens and one open public space including the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney. The gardens have millions of visitors each year and contribute hundreds of millions of dollars the Australian economy.
Previously managed across three seperate websites with duplicate content, double-handling for staff, and a poor experience for users, Folk was engaged to transform the digital experience into a single engaging site that would promote the best of the gardens.
The transformed website encourages users to explore and learn, allows for cross-promotion and natural navigation across the different garden locations, it allows content editors flexibility, follows the highest standards of inclusive design and best practices, and brings the beauty of the physical space into their online presence.
This redesigned digital presence for the Botanic Gardens of Sydney successfully consolidates multiple websites into a single, immersive experience. The Jury was impressed by its vibrant colour palette, rich imagery, and engaging discovery features. The site offers a compelling representation of the Gardens’ botanical splendour, enhancing visitor engagement and exploration.
Good Design Awards
Read the full Botanic Gardens of Sydney case study here.
About Health Justice Australia
Health Justice Australia (HJA) is the national centre of excellence for health justice partnership, supporting service collaboration for vulnerable communities. They break down system silos through rigorous research, partnership and capacity building across sectors, and after seven years of delivering meaningful impact, they were ready for their next stage of growth.
Folk worked alongside HJA and their audiences to re-think and re-position the organisation as they evolved into an established ‘Knowledge Hub’. We helped to identify the gaps between where HJA were and can go, and capture the capabilities and skills required to deliver on this. The work we did acted as a guidepost for decision-making ensuring that all initiatives and activities aligned with the organisation's strategy and objectives, and contributed to its success and impact as a Knowledge Hub. We also supported by reflecting this and building their newly developed website.
Health Justice Australia (HJA) has made significant strides in breaking down system silos to address complex health, legal, and social issues. After seven years of impactful work, HJA collaborated with Folk to reposition itself as a Knowledge Hub. The Jury highlights this project as an excellent example of using design strategy to effectively communicate complex messages to diverse stakeholders. The rebranding strategy successfully positions HJA as a leading knowledge hub, showcasing its evolution and continued relevance.
Good Design Awards
Read the full HJA case study here.
About Beachwatch
Beachwatch is an initiative dedicated to monitoring and reporting on water quality and pollution, and this information is shared with the public to support decision-making on where and when it’s safest to swim.
Manual data entry, the need to better capture externally provided data, and internal processes that were proving unsustainable meant that improvements to the site were required. This resulted in the NSW Government initiating a redevelopment for the Beachwatch website, where the primary focus was on backend improvement and to modernise the user interface.
Our collaboration with Beachwatch has resulted in a streamlined and user-friendly interface, which uses spacial display to support beachgoers and swimmers locate their swim site and pollution forecasts with ease. The previously outdated and manually intensive back-end system is now a modern, user-centric platform supporting the Beachwatch team to focus on their mission, and delivering the next generation of Beachwatch.
The new Beachwatch website and app addresses the need for scalable and efficient reporting on Sydney's beach water quality. The Jury praised its thorough reorganisation of content, integration of diverse features, and mobile optimisation. The consistent design system and user-focused approach make this site a model for effective environmental communication.
Good Design Awards
Read the full Beachwatch Journal post here.
We’re always proud of our work being recognised in the Good Design Awards, and to be able to work on such inspiring projects with our clients.
Thanks to the 2024 Good Design Awards jury, and congratulations to all 2024 winners.
If you'd like to read more about Folk's award wins over the years, you can read about our projects that won Gold at the 2022 Good Design Awards here on our website.