Bucklands Beach local wins design competition

Bucklands Beach local wins design competition

Graedon Parker’s bag design titled ‘Aotearoa – Keeping NZ Pure’ came out on top of The Warehouse’s inaugural competition to create an eco-inspired design for its reusable bag.

Mr Parker, 24, will have his winning sketch printed onto thousands of reusable bags that will be available for sale in all 92 The Warehouse stores by early next year and has won a $1,000 The Warehouse gift card.

It was Mr Parker’s grandmother who prompted him to enter the competition after she cut out the advertisement in a local paper.

“I studied graphic design at Wellington Massey and am all about sustainability so I thought I’d give it a go,” Mr Parker said.

Mr Parker runs The Organic Mechanic which is at the La Cigale French Markets in Parnell offering people organic, vegan and superfood smoothies. “I’m already passionate about the environment and fresh, clean living, so to have my design on reusable bags throughout the country is really exciting,” he said.

The designs were judged by a panel including The Warehouse CEO Simon Turner, The Warehouse General Manager for Marketing, Lorraine Breheny and The Warehouse Environment Support Manager, Greg Nelson.

The Warehouse CEO Simon Turner was thrilled by the calibre of the entries received. “This is the first time we’ve run a competition like this so it was fantastic to see such talent in the entries. It was hard narrowing it down to one winner but Graedon really captured the Kiwi eco-inspired look we were after. He did a wonderful job,” said Mr Turner.

There were also two runner-ups in the competition, who were Jennifer Mandli-Roger from Dunedin with her ‘Eco as’ design and Amy Moulton-Cox from Whangaparaoa with her ‘Tuatara’ design, winning a $300 and $200 The Warehouse gift card respectively.

The new-look reusable bag will be sold for $1.29 and 20 cents from every purchase will go to The Warehouse neighbourhood community partners, selected by each store. Currently proceeds from 10 cent plastic bag purchases are already donated to neighbourhood community partners through the token voting units, which will also be utilised for the 20 cent donations.

Mr Turner says: “Supporting the community is in The Warehouse’s DNA. It’s a huge motivator for our team and reflects our belief that good businesses need good societies and vice versa. The new-look reusable bags will be a huge benefit to our environment and our community.”

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