ADC Awards, Advertising, Design, Digital/Technology, Motion/Film/Animation February 13, 2017
Time Is On My Side
The ADC 96th Annual Awards Jury discuss their own well crafted work
This is it! We are in the final stretch for the ADC 96th Annual Awards Call for Entries! This final deadline for all physical submissions to reach our New York offices is this Friday, February 17. At that point, our Awards team will switch gears, preparing all of your advertising, design, digital and motion work in order to be judged by the awesome men and women of the ADC Annual Awards Jury.
The theme of the ADC 96th Annual Awards is “Craft Takes Time”; a brilliant idea might come quickly, but it takes a tremendous amount of talent, skill and dedication to turn that idea into something beautiful. In this final week of entries, we asked our Jury Members to share with us a project of their own that thy felt benefitted from having the time to craft things just right.
“I love this theme, Craft Takes Time.”
“Something many of us seem to have very little of, but it is an essential element if the work is to have an impact.”
“I’ve been on a personal crusade to remind art directors and designers of the need to always start with a pencil. This is where the original thought begins.”
“Start sketching out an idea, then look at ways to execute. It’s a two-step process.”
“Working with the right crafts people, the right illustrator, designer, technicians … the synergy, passion commitment and time brings benefits.”
“The best example I can give for where the time put in equals benefit is Penguin Mic. The project took some months to produce, working with eight artists from eight time zones. Round upon round of sketches.”
“Eventually resulting in eight finished pieces.”
“Craft Takes Time.”
Nils Andersson
Asia Creative President, Greater China President & CCO
TBWA\Shanghai (China)
Digital Jury
“The set of our St-Germain Peep Show was painstakingly crafted. It was imperative that the viewer feel as if they were peering into another world – real time. Like they shouldn’t look – but yet couldn’t look away. The Peep Show Door had to create that effect. Ensuring we could show the audience “just enough” meant the difference between a good execution and a great one. In this business, sometimes it can all come down to adding the right amount of black to the perfect shade of mint green. “
Danielle Trivisonno Hawley
Chief Creative Officer, Americas
POSSIBLE (USA)
Digital Jury
“One of the best pieces of work I have been involved wouldn’t have happened in this day and age. We would have run out of time and gone for something way inferior just to meet a crazy deadline. The piece was for Volkswagen, titled ‘Night Drive’. A script that had first seemed a little “addy” and unbelievable turned into an amazing bit of work simply down to time (and of course a brilliant creative team and client). Where this work went from Bronze to Gold was when the team bought in the soundtrack to the film, Sir Richard Burton reading Under Milkwood. This happened at least four weeks after first seeing that idea. We have to get more thinking time back in to our industry, let alone craft time.”
Jeremy Craigen
Global Chief Creative Officer
Innocean Worldwide (UK)
Advertising Jury
“I must mention a series of ecological, low price children’s products we’ve created for the Norwegian grocery chain Rema 1000.”
“Rema 1000 dared to completely break away from the existing product category design language. This allowed us to collaborate with illustrator Bjørn Rune Lie and type designer Stefan Elmer and create a new and rich illustration and font universe which continues to grow as new products are added to the line.”
Tonje Jæger
Creative Director & Senior Designer
Scandinavian Design Group (Norway)
Design Jury
“This year we spent a long time crafting Under Armour’s ‘Rule Yourself – Michael Phelps’ spot. To authentically capture Phelps’ grueling comeback training, we had to sweat every detail. From shoot to ship, we took our time to get everything perfect. It was a huge effort on the part of the entire agency—especially the creative team—but I think spending 12-plus hours on the edit for almost a month paid off.”
Tim Gordon
Executive Creative Director
Droga5 (USA)
Advertising Jury
“Our ‘Swordplay’ Film for Wilkinson Sword/Schick.”
- Teaching genuine sword fighting to both our actors with a professional stunt guy for 3 days before we shot.
- Choreographing and mapping the whole action was time consuming but essential.
- Finding an amazing location not listed anywhere (it was an old world hotel waiting to be renovated in Brussels).
- Calling on my personal skills as a lingerie shopper didn’t hurt.
Sarah Barclay
Global Executive Creative Director
J. Walter Thompson (USA)
Advertising Jury
“This year we had a lot of fun working on a small Tequila brand called Tres Agaves. The campaign was built on an insight that Tres Agaves is the only organic Tequila made in Tequila. That brought us to the small town of Tequila, Mexico where we painstakingly embedded ourselves into the culture of the place. We took the time to learn about the people, where they live, and a world of quirky interesting stories came from us taking the time to understand their culture. From that we crafted a series of films and digital extensions that bring light to the fact that the small of town of Tequila, Mexico is a very interesting place. ”
Keith Cartwright
Executive Creative Director
BSSP (USA)
Advertising Jury
“I just finished my first stop motion animation project for Xfinity. What I learned is that when you’re doing this type of production, you’re forced to work out nearly every detail before you hear a shutter click. You often don’t film alternative scenes for shot options and you don’t really edit in the same way you would traditionally edit film, so it really requires that you think through the entire vision at the beginning. It’s an incredible way to learn the value of mapping things out and taking the responsibility of problem solving, rather than just assuming that you can ‘fix it in post’.”
Nick Barrios
VP, Group Creative Director
DigitasLBi (USA)
Digital Jury
“We just wrapped up a year-long project for Rethink Breast Cancer called Give-A-Care: the first product line for young women with breast cancer, that actually understands young women with breast cancer. We crafted each product by hand—getting back to basics using paper cutouts and crayon textures to create a design system that stands out in a sea of pink. But more than just physical craft, we spent a lot of time crafting the message as well. We held focus groups and conversations with over 500 women undergoing treatment, vetting each product to ensure efficacy and authenticity, but also making sure that the tone of voice resonated with them.”
Nellie Kim
Partner, VP, Creative Director
Lg2 (Canada)
Digital Jury
“One time, we had to construct an entire bus to promote a film. The campaign, Cinema Delivery was probably one of the most time consuming projects we’ve done and it was well worth it.”
Karolina Galácz
Deputy Creative Director
Y&R Budapest (Hungary)
Advertising Jury
“”Craft is a big part of my work, in order to bring my ideas to life. Of course that takes time, and I enjoy every step of the process in creating an image. Each step requires complete focus on the details in order to do it right make it memorable. You need time to shape your initial idea, time to build a set or a diorama, time to find the perfect place, time to do the production, the post-prodution, to share it with the world. ‘The Wardrobe’ is one of those projects that I really enjoyed, where taking time mattered.”
Felix Hernandez Rodriguez
Creative and Art Director
Hernandez Dreamphography (Mexico)
Design Jury
“The theme of this year’s award resonates with my newest quest to bring the human touch to everything I do. My current project for The Rockefeller University presented the perfect opportunity to bring scientific research to life through art. Inspired by powerful biomedical imagery generated by Rockefeller scientists, we created a series of line drawings that worked independently as abstract art. Once the new patterns were abstracted beyond recognition they were applied to communication materials for every field of scientific research from immunology to genetics and molecular biology.”
“Today one would automatically turn to Adobe’s excellent filters to manipulate the microscopic depictions of viruses, spores, and cells. But the scientific images were so dense and rich that it was imperative to draw and eliminate on the spot—something even IBM’s Watson might not be able to achieve, not yet at least. So, we turned to trusted old tracing paper to create the initial framework for the patterns, transitioning to Adobe Illustrator for refinements and added control that only vector files can provide, especially for future iterations.”
“With this tedious, but rewarding, process we created dozens of unique patterns currently used in print and digital publications, interactive displays, and architectural elements.”
Maya Kopytman
Partner
C&G Partners (USA)
Digital Jury
“I love the idea of taking time, to be in the moment with the work we love and create. Our Science & Memory team here at [University of Oregon] travel to Alaska each summer to understand the realities of climate and environment and to tell those stories. Our student and faculty team created this short film — shortlisted at OneScreen — to talk about time and glaciers and how craft is a part of that. It is a beautiful reminder of people working together to tell compelling stories that matter. The advertising students oaths project come away with insights that stay with them and their work forever.”
Deb Morrison
Carolyn Chambers Distinguished Professor of Advertising
University of Oregon (USA)
Advertising Jury
“Working at a weekly magazine, time is a luxury that my colleagues and I usually don’t have. Every so often we’re able to get an early start on a special issue or project, take more time to flesh out our ideas and do something really ambitious. This year we got a head start on our New York Issue, which was inspired by the spate of high-rise buildings going up around the city and had a theme of ‘Life Above 800 Feet.’ Early in the process we came up with the idea to rotate the entire magazine 90 degrees to make use of its longest dimension. We commissioned photography specifically for that vertical dimension, drew display type to fit the space available in the super-tall layouts, redesigned all of our regular columns (including the crossword puzzle!) and even got our advertisers on board to reformat their ads to the new orientation. None of this would have been possible on our regular weekly schedule. Having time to really consider all the details made the difference.”
Gail Bichler
Design Director
The New York Times (USA)
Design Jury
CREDITS:
Editor: Jake Silverstein
Design Director: Gail Bichler
Art Director/Designer: Matt Willey
Director of Photography: Kathy Ryan
“Earlier this year, I did a project for the smartphone manufacturer OnePlus. Their devotees are rabid and meticulous, so when it came time for us to do the launch spot for one of their new phones, I knew we had to get it right from the start, as the final product would be scrutinized online as soon as it hit. It was a labor-intensive CG job that unfolded over a few weeks and I couldn’t be happier with the result. I think the fans (and client) were as well. “
Jonathan Notaro
Director & Creative Director
Brand New School (USA)
Motion Jury
“”I think the project of mine which really speaks to the idea that ‘craft takes time’ was my 2016 installation at the LCAD Gallery in Laguna Beach. The show featured five large-scale pieces that were hand-painted directly onto the walls of the space. The initial illustrations and ink work on paper took a few weeks to finalise before transferring them to the gallery walls over the course of a week with the help of over ten assistants.””
Gemma O’Brien
Artist & Typographer (Australia)
Design Jury
“Hunminjeongeum is a project to convert the contents of a book published in 1446 describing an entirely new and native script for the Hangul, Korean language into a moving image. It was commissioned by the National Hangul museum for their first oversea exhibition. In order to easily convey the vast and complicated contents to the foreign audience, the images were composed in various ways such as live action, animation, and motion graphics. Each page from the book was deconstructed and reassembled with the extraction of the meaning behind. It was a tedious process and took a long time to build the structure of the story. “
Kyle Hyunsuk Kim
Professor
Hongik University (South Korea)
Digital Jury
“I am very passionate about editorial design. Thus, when I was approached by the German Association of Zoos to develop a magazine for them, I was electrified. Quagga became a year’s worth of work and time.”
“We envisioned a mix of visual opulence and fact based yet entertaining writing about biodiversity, a term not exactly prone to grab people’s attention. The mag’s concept was developed rather quickly, what took most of our time was to find the right people in sync with the story-telling tone of the mag and the flexible, on-demand production process around a small core team of four editors and designers. Convincing people to work for a pilot or an untested concept takes time. As much as constant feedback loops with the client, balancing editorial creativity with political agendas (a national conservation agency was involved also), and having to find substitutes when people suddenly back out for various reasons.”
“It pays to go the extra mile to arrive at the quallity you envisioned. The easy route is seldom the best. Good clients appreciate a challenge as much as they like to challenge you. And in the end the product excels.”
Anja Steinig
Creative Director
Studio F (Germany)
Design Jury
“It pays to go the extra mile to arrive at the quallity you envisioned. The easy route is seldom the best.”
“For me, taking time is usually the result of an external force, because my nature is to move quickly. When I was working on the Guinness “Basketball” ad, with my partners Dan Lucey and Tom Kraemer, it took months to produce the spot, because the process of getting the various production elements signed off took a while at every stage. Using that time we were able to collaborate with Noam Murro, scour the country for able-bodied people who could competitively play wheelchair basketball, and sit with the edit for almost a week, just trying out different musical tracks. I’d say it was a luxury, but it felt like we were working our asses off every day.”
Chris Beresford-Hill
Executive Creative Director, EVP
BBDO New York (USA)
Advertising Jury
“We’ve all, definitely, got to put in the time. For this one, am actually going to share something from my team at Amazon Music, as I’m so proud of them. We came up with a new look and feel for our portfolio of 9 apps (+ an SDK that works across speakers, cars, etc.) over this last year and relaunched them all on a single day. Sounds incredibly fast and it was, yet it definitely wasn’t overnight. We came up with the new look and navigation approach in a month or so, but to really get it tight across all of those platforms required another 5-6 months and the type of detailed QA that it’s easy to overlook. With digital, it’s not just measure twice, cut once – it’s measure twice, cut once, and refine, refine, refine. “
Marisa Gallagher
Head of Design and UX, Digital
Amazon Music (USA)
Digital Jury
“Since one of our first personal projects, a series of wooden sculptures called “Duramen” in 2011, we have always tried to take the necessary time needed in order to create a final outcome that corresponds to our level of prerequisite in terms of quality and innovation.”
“This particular project really put us to the test. It forced us out of our comfort zone, because in the beginning we were mostly working with graphic design.”
“At the time, our experience with volume was limited to set design and photography where the level of precision required is not the same since everything can be retouched and modified in post production. Duramen was our first exhibited project where every detail had to be absolutely perfect.”
“So we set up a team of ten designers and artisans (sculptors, designers and cabinet makers) and we worked for two and half month’s straight to get every detail straight. This was a very intense but nonetheless every enriching process that changed our perception of our own craft.”
Rémy Clemente
Founder & Creative Director
Bonsoir Paris (France)
Design Jury
“Craft starts with your hand, maybe even more than your mind. Craft means repetition until your hand hurts or you dream of your project. Repetition until it’s perfect. Craft is the (slightly douche-y) word we use when we’re too reserved to say that we really love what we do to the point of obsession.”
Here’s my 2016 obsession: 24 pdfs sent to the client, a challenging shoot, countless cuts, and the desire by all involved to give our best. And let’s not even talk about the number of skulls involved and what we did to them.
Nathalie de La Gorce
Art Director
Oxygen Media (USA)
Motion Jury
“”This past year I was involved with an ad campaign for Nespresso. I was asked to paint my memories of Cuba on a series of espresso cups. I was also to be featured on camera, painting and talking in the studio for a commercial. I’m used to painting on large canvases, so working this small was all very new to me. I had to put in some time researching paints, brushes, and finishes for the cups, as well as thinking about my memories and the stories I wanted to tell on camera. I think the final ad benefitted from all of the time and preparation.”
Edel Rodriguez
Illustrator (USA)
Design Jury
“It took more than a year and half to develop and craft each one of our Intermarche campaigns: Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables; the Freshest Fresh Orange Juice; and Sugar Detox.”
“This was the most intense and rich crafting experience I can think of. It was very slow and painful, but it became the cornerstone of building both the Marcel and Intermarché brands.”
Fabien Teichner
Chief Creative Officer
Marcel (France)
Advertising Jury
“My two adult girls. That project demanded endless creativity, time, budget, staff, fixing and fixing again, humor and sweat for 20 years.”
Anu Nieminen
Senior Creative
hasan & partners (Finland)
Advertising Jury
The final deadline for ADC 96th Annual Awards entries is this Friday, February 17, 2017. All physical entries must be in our possession by that date.