Extended Whānau has won Gold at the Best Design Awards for its identity for Toi Tauranga Art Gallery, recognising a visual system developed following the gallery’s reopening after its architectural redevelopment.

Created in collaboration with the gallery’s Māori advisory group, Te Kāhu ō Hinewa, the identity is rooted in the history of Te Papa ō Waka, the land on which the gallery stands. Once a thriving māra (cultivated garden) overlooking a harbour rich with kaimoana, the site became the conceptual foundation for a brand that positions the gallery as a place that continues to nourish its community through art and conversation.

“We drew connections between the whenua itself and the purpose of the gallery,” Extended Whānau said, describing the project as an extension of the enduring relationship between “people, place and knowledge.”

At the centre of the identity is a patterned wordmark that functions simultaneously as typography, graphic device and brand signature. The studio said its forms are grounded in “the curvature of the whenua” and the gallery’s architecture, while the pattern evokes abundance, cultivation and the transfer of knowledge.

The wider identity moves away from the conventional black-and-white gallery palette, instead drawing on the colours of pipi, pōhutukawa, soil and sand to reflect Tauranga’s coastal landscape. The system extends across signage, wayfinding, exhibition graphics, digital platforms, merchandise and uniforms, creating what the studio describes as a contemporary cultural institution “that could only belong in Aotearoa.”