Resene Total Colour Awards 2023 winners announced!

14 Sep 2023

This year’s Resene Total Colour Awards received the highest number of entries into the annual awards, eclipsing the previous year and making for much heated debate and discussion among the judges in the quest to crown the best of the best.

The Resene Total Colour Master Nightingale Award, named after the Nightingale family who founded and still run Resene today, recognises excellence in colour and paint use. The Award went to:

Te Tūhunga Rau - Strathmore Park Community Centre by Etch Architecture

Also winner of the Resene Total Colour Commercial Exterior Award.

The judges said: “From ugly duckling to beautiful swan, this building was once a simple white structure that would barely raise a glance.  Now it has become a talking point, a local beacon and a celebration of the local community. 

Innovative and creative, this project is a moving feast of pattern and colour, with a corner of colour that can be moved and viewed in so many different ways.  The judicious use of colour celebrates the hero colours to perfection with the rest of the building deliberately dark as a backdrop. Flashes of red on edges are the perfect finishing touch to connect all the elements together. The sliding doors so cleverly integrate bold colour and movement, allowing the hues to be viewed from the inside and out – an enduring gift of colour and design that can be enjoyed by all.”

This project is finished in Resene Alabaster, Resene Double Foundry, Resene Element, Resene Flashpoint, Resene San Juan and Resene Supernova. Image by Neil Price.

Now known as Te Tūhunga Rau - Strathmore Park Community Centre, the upgraded centre features sliding doors of art designed by Pokau Te Ahuru, providing a strong and enriching focal point to the public face of the building, welcoming visitors while rooting the centre into the strong heritage of the area. The bold palette of Resene colours is based on hues that hold prestige in te ao Māori and can be enjoyed as a shared experience from inside or out, welcoming all to gather, be nurtured and share values. 

With colour used creatively on large and small projects, combined with new paint techniques, courageous colour combinations and ever so careful attention to detail to ensure the Resene paints, wood stains, colours and wallpapers were used in all the right places, there was much to love about this year’s entries. 

Resene has a long history of colour and today's colour range of thousands of hues is a far cry from the handful that was available when Resene started 77 years ago. The Resene Total Colour Awards were launched to encourage and celebrate excellent and creative use of colour, to showcase striking colour palettes and combinations and provide fresh inspiration. 

Congratulations to all the winners and runners up and a huge thank you to each and every person who took the time to enter this year's awards and share their work. It is humbling for all of us at Resene to see how you take our products and colours and use them to showcase the design and detail on your projects. While not all entries could win awards, there are so many insightful, courageous, creative and colour filled projects to celebrate, big and small. We look forward to sharing a wide range of projects with you over the coming months.

Check out all of the winners HERE.

Published: 14 Sep 2023