The Groop Wins "Best of Show" and "Merit" from How and a Cyberlion

August 29, 2004

The Los Angeles-based design collective, THE_GROOP today announced it has been awarded "Best of Show" in HOW Magazine's 5th Annual Interactive Design Competition for the Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo Lab promotional DVD. Another GROOP collaboration with W+K's London & Tokyo offices, AIWA.com/AIWAWORLD was awarded a Cyberlion at the Cannes Cyberlion Award Ceremony in June 2004. THE_GROOP also achieved a "Merit" award in HOW Magazine's 12th Annual International Design Competition for the DVD packaging for the 2003 Nike Presto Asia DVD.

THE_GROOP has partnered with Wieden+Kennedy on many, highly creative interactive projects because of in-depth interactive design expertise, innovative collaborative approach and strong ability to seamlessly integrate their creative team into agency teams. "THE_GROOP is designed to facilitate a new, graduated level of creative collaboration - across our network of contributors as well as industry partners - it was an honor to work with great companies like Wieden+Kennedy, AIWA and Nike," said Jose Caballer, THE_GROOP's award-winning creative director and co-founder, "we are looking forward to many future strategic opportunities" he added. The Art Directors Club of America recently selected Caballer as a 2004 "ADC Young Gun 4," the organization's most prestigious, international competition for creative professionals in advertising, design and new media.

The W+K DVD is a promo for WKTL, an independent record label featuring 3 Toyko-based artists: Takagi Masakatsu, DJ Uppercut, and Hifana. The DVD contains video samplers, biographies and interviews packaged in a bi-fold design: one side contains the DVD, the other contains 3 posters; 1 per artist. "In short: everything is great about this DVD. Its look and sound. It's fresh Japanese aesthetic. It's amazing fusion of music and art". Plus the fact that it was created in just four weeks," says, Bryn Mooth, HOW's magazine's editor.