A Design Award Gets a Handmade Look on Screen

N2 Albiino made the design for Finland's Vuoden Huiput 2025 awards. The event belongs to Grafia, a group for designers. Each year, a different studio can change the look of the event. But it must keep the pyramid, a shape people already know. A pyramid has sides that meet at the top. N2 Albiino kept that idea while breaking the shape into smaller pieces.

The theme focused on making things with care and skill. The team made computer images that looked like clay pressed by hand. Clay is soft earth that people can shape. Some pieces also looked like scratched silver and gold blocks. People asked whether the clay was real because the surfaces seemed so natural. The designers changed each piece's surface so patterns would not all repeat.

At first, clear words were difficult to place over these busy pictures. The team tried words at the bottom, but that did not work. Instead, it repeated the words across the top, middle, and bottom. Three fixed columns helped keep the bright blue letters in order. Columns put words in separate spaces from left to right. The same rule worked even when the pictures underneath were full of detail.

The team then used separate pairs of pieces for other materials. Silver and gold stayed important because Grafia gives only those two awards. The design connected street posters, the yearbook, and the event's screens. On the screens, award names moved upward in three rows before stopping. The project kept a known symbol but changed how people experienced it. Different images and materials still followed the same clear set of rules.