AYUMI NAKANISHI / ANAKANISHI@STARBULLETIN.COM Architects Hawaii's Emile C. Alano, left, and Mark H. Higa pulled out an old design to win their company's annual holiday card contest this year. The design by the two was picked from among 16 entries.

Architects had
designs on winning

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By Erika Engle
eengle@starbulletin.com

The winners of this year's Architects Hawaii holiday card design contest could be seen as earth-friendly.

Senior Associate Emile Alano and Designer Mark Higa could also be seen as procrastinators, since at the last minute they recycled an entry from two years ago.

The card features a progression of images beginning with a child on Santa's lap and proceeding through the design and building phases of a holiday gift.

The text below each image reads, "We listen," "We learn," and "We create." It ends with a happy holiday scene and the words, "May all your wishes come true."

Alano rendered the drawings and Higa did the coloring and put the card together.

It had fallen behind Higa's desk sometime in the past two years but the duo found it and dusted it off for this year's competition, which began in mid-July.

AYUMI NAKANISHI / ANAKANISHI@STARBULLETIN.COM An illustration from Alano's and Higa's winning holiday card design at Architects Hawaii. The firm plans to mail about 2,000 of the cards this year.

There is usually a clear front-runner among the typical 15 to 20 entries, but this year no theme had been dictated and determining the winner was much more challenging, according to Patricia Ramirez, Architects Hawaii marketing manager.

So what do they win? The look.

When a recipient of the card flips it over to see if someone "cared enough to send the very best," the winners' names will be displayed above the copyright, the year and the company name.

Their work will represent the company this holiday season to each of some 2,000 Architects Hawaii clients and associates who are to receive the cards. Ramirez sends the company's winning card to the American Institute of Architects in Washington, D.C., for its Christmas tree and archive.

Oh, yeah, there are also small cash prizes for first, second and third place.

Another of the cards the duo and a former colleague designed two years ago won the 2000 competition. It was a house-shaped, folded-up representation of Santa's house which also featured aspects of a blueprint and internal memo. On the back, the "credits" read Rob "Maverick" Iopa, Mark "Kikaida" Higa and Emile "Tonto" Alano, each appearing by an icon reflective of the nickname.

Architects Hawaii has a hall of fame in which each year's winning entry is displayed, mounted and framed.

As rationale for entering the "leftover," which was among the top finishers in 2000, the guys have been a little busy lately.

Alano and Higa work in the hospitality "studio" at the company and are a bit involved with their work on a $350 million, seven-phase, 750-unit project for the Marriott Ownership Resorts Inc. time-share development at Ko Olina.