Fracture take out top spot at the SXSW Web Awards

Media release March 17th, 2009

Local web-designers Fracture take out top spot at the SXSW Web Awards

Auckland based web designers Fracture have taken out one of the top spots at 12th Annual South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Web Awards for their work on www.jasmax.co.nz

Sponsored by Adobe, the SXSW Web Awards honored 20 of the top Web developers and designers chosen from hundreds of entries submitted across the world.

Up against the likes of CNN and home improvement mega-brand Lowe’s, the young guns from Fracture showed they are world class talent who can compete for web design on an international stage. Fracture won the Business category which covered sites devoted to the promotional needs, functions and services of for-profit businesses.

"To win at South by Southwest is just an amazing honour. We were the only Kiwis in the finals, up against the biggest names in web design from around the world and we took it out. It's quite a coup,” says Creative Director of Fracture Nick Shaw.

Fracture hopes that with accolades like this, savvy overseas client who need amazing work will become aware of New Zealand’s massive creative talent base, a very favourable exchange rate, and start sourcing production down here.

“It’s already happening with our film industry right now, and there’s no reason that design and technology should be different," says Shaw.

The Jasmax website was one of the first in New Zealand to use a complete 3D environment; new technology that gives the user a sense of being part of the visual space with elements of the website rotating around them, and brings the buildings to life in their own virtual world.

The SXSW interactive festival is held in Texas and attracts digital creatives as well as visionary technology entrepreneurs from around the world. The event celebrates the best minds and the brightest personalities of emerging technology.

"As the Interactive festival sees exciting growth year after year, we are continually amazed by the highly innovative companies that submit entries for the Web Awards," explained SXSW Web Awards Producer, Shawn O'Keefe. "We would like to applaud all the 2009 Web Awards winners and are thrilled to see what the future holds for each of these companies.”

For a complete list of Web Awards winner, visit the following site: http://sxsw.com/interactive/web_awards/winners.

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