How to approach Listening Test Part One • In this part of the Listening Test you listen to a monologue, e.g. a presentation. • B

F  Good evening, and welcome to our sixth annual design awards ceremony As chair of the panel of judges, I saw the work of a great many design consultancies, and was very impressed by its range and quality. We had great difficulty selecting the winners, but with that now done, let me introduce William Taylor, who’s going to announce the prizewinners.
      William Taylor started his career as Chief Executive of the design consultancy he founded ten years ago, but since selling that he’s been working freelance. He modestly describes himself as a publicist, though in fact his scope is far greater than that suggests. His work is eye-catching, witty and extremely effective. He was last year’s prizewinner in our exhibitions category, for the digital media gallery that he had designed. His major project at the moment is to design an exhibition of photography, and we look forward to seeing the results. Ladies and gentlemen - William Taylor
M  Thank you. Our first award this evening is in the Internal Communications category, and this goes to the Steppart Consultancy for their work for travel chain Farlands. The consultancy’s original brief was to develop an effective internal communications system of memos and newsletters, but they concluded that an intranet would be far more effective. So with the client’s agreement Steppart rewrote their brief Not only did the new system have to be user-friendly, its design also had to reflect Farlands’ brand values - bright, colourful and synonymous, with fun. It succeeded in full, overcame all the. company’s communications problems, and allowed it to make the predicted savings on postage and paper What was not foreseen, however, was the strong sense of involvement and even excitement that the innovation also created, which greatly enhanced Farlands’ intemal culture. So today’s first prizewinner is the Steppart Consultancy,
      The winning consultancy in our Corporate Identity category is J3, for their work for Coffee Cabina, whose outlets provide such good cups of coffee and cakes. When Coffee Cabina decided to re-brand, two years ago, it had nine stores with three separate identities. Since it launched its new identity, the company has refitted all its existing stores and a further dozen are about to be opened. While operating costs have risen by 15 per cent, profitability has increased by over 40 per cent. Since hitting ’the streets, the new design has led to a steady rise in the number of new customers, and most of the stores reached the sales potential which was forecast for them within two to three weeks, instead of the standard four to six months, Ladies and gentlemen, the J3 Consultoncy.
      Now we turn to packaging, and this award goes to consultancy Tamka for its work for Starbury Ice Creams. Starbury decided to launch a range of premium ice creams, to complement its existing range, and identified this as an opportunity to aim at a more mature market segment than the children who comprised the majority of its existing customers. This was made part of Tamka’s brief Another challenge for the designers was to attract year-round sales, unlike the seasonal consumption which the existing range depended on. The new premium ice creams have quickly become established, and the company strongly believes that this was helped by the excellent packaging which Tamka designed for them. The designs challenge every tradition, from the shape and material of the ice cream containers to the minimalist feel of the label. The panel was very taken by th/s, and by the coherent approach which the designers took to every aspect of the design package. So the award in the packaging category goes to Tamka.