Tis’ the season for awards/contests (PDN, American Photography, etc.). The Art Director’s Club (ADC) held their annual international awards at the SVA Theatre last week in New York, and we decided to pop on up to see who was being recognized for their good work. “We” were actually Sean and Amanda, our Director of Photography and Producer, respectively.
The ADC Awards are arranged into five categories, including Advertising, Design, Interactive, ADC Hybrid (known as “the game-changing award” for its recognition of unusual media approaches), and ADC Design Sphere.
Overall, BBDO cleaned house with wins as Agency of the Year, along with “Cubes” (the name of the statues) for Broadcast, Print, and Design for an enviable client list including HBO, Mars, Chrysler, and The Economist. They also won accolades for their unconventional motion picture exhibit for HBO called “Cube Film Installation.” The exhibit was placed in three cities around the US, with each of the four sides of a box showing a different part of the same story. You can see a video recap of the exhibit here.
The New York Times Magazine (who we just visited yesterday – more on that in a future blog post) took home the night’s ADC Design Team of the Year award, in addition to a Gold Cube for Photography in their Great Performers issue. The Society for Publication Designers has a nice article about the redesign of the magazine itself, fyi.
There were six other Photography awards presented, as well, including Ikea’s Silver Cube for their clever “Furniture Messages” campaign, a humorous take on the difficulties of home improvement. Renato D’Agostin won the Bronze, and the Merit awards went to Achim Lippoth Photography, powerHouse Books, Catherine Ledner (for her 2009 print promo), and BBDO Germany.
And we were happy to see our friends at Design Army take home a Bronze Cube for their “End the Lies” campaign for Human Rights Campaign.
And then the after party began!
The after party took place at the ADC Gallery, which they also rent out for gallery shows and events (rental starts at $7,500, according to their media kit). It was a nice opportunity for the winners to unwind.
Amanda is forced to try one of master mixologist Alex Ott's creations, "The Kim"
Later on, Amanda caught up with ADC president Doug Jaeger, who said of the awards: “So far there has been a tremendous amount of positive feedback.” Sean and Amanda had to agree, considering the level of talent!
A little trivia about the awards: The Art Directors Club was founded in 1920, and the first incarnation of their award was designed that same year by Paul Manship (who also sculpted the famous Prometheus statue that lives in Rockefeller Plaza).
One thing about awards parties: they’re great opportunities to put a face to a name, or to catch-up with industry folks who you’re normally in contact with through the less-personal email and phone. This is true of the photographers, clients, reps, consultants, and affable PDN staffers attending this year’s PDN Photo Annual awards and party.
Jacqueline Bovaird from Glasshouse Assignments, Anthony Georgis (our photographer from Portland), Manuela Oprea from Adweek, and me. All photos by Bill Cramer. Fujifilm gave out a bunch of Instax Mini 7's, so everyone was photographing each other.
Before arriving at the event, we met up with our Los Angeles big rig truck photographer, Roger Snider. We dined at 508, which I’d definitely recommend for their atmosphere and ceviche.
You really need to meet Roger in person to appreciate his infectious zeal for the work that he’s doing. He’s very much found a niche with his truck work, as it combines his lifelong interests in photography and the big rigs. FYI: No Plastic Sleeves recently featured his unorthodox print portfolio.
Me and Roger Snider at 508 Restaurant, from Bill Cramer's perspective
After dinner, we headed to the awards. The first person I spotted was the iconic and clever blogger/photographer Andrew Hetherington, and we had a nice discussion on the merits of whether photographers were getting any work from appearing in photo annuals.
Another question: which ones are clients still using to find photographers? You should check out Andrew’s blog posts discussing these matters, as he is concerned that there are too many contests these days. No picture of Mr. Hetherington, but he’s pretty recognizable if you’ve seen his Facebook page icon or read his blog.
PDN award winner and Wonderful Machine photographer Susana Raab talking with a slightly blurry New York Times photographer Stephen Crowley
Cade Martin was on a shoot and unable to attend for his winning photo. However, we did have the great pleasure of hanging out with several other of our award-winning photographers, including DC photographer Susana Raab, New York’s Landon Nordeman, and Anthony Georgis, who came all the way from Portland.
Not to mention PDN‘s friendly crew, including Editor Holly Hughes, Executive Editor David Walker, Director of Photo Amber Terranova, Events and Awards man John Gimenez, and Photo Expo’s Jill Waterman.
It was also great to catch up with Manuela Oprea from Adweek, Daniella Jo Nilva-Cunningham from VH-1, the hard-working Jacqueline Bovaird, rep at Glasshouse Assignments, and our buddy from many events, consultant Louisa Curtis. We met more folks than I can name, which says how jam-packed the affair was with industry folk.
I’ve been to the last three awards, and they’ve always felt friendly and collegial. Thanks for another great evening, PDN!
Well, that we visited them last Thursday to show our photographers’ portfolios (and even a “beardfolio” — see towards the end of the post). Sean (our photo editor) and Amanda (producer) popped up to New York to share books, and this is what they had to say about the trip:
Our visit was a perfect microcosm of spring because it started out foggy, then brought warm sunshine at lunch, followed by an afternoon shower, and a big rainbow after the storm cleared.
The Deutsch agency (IKEA, VW, Unilever, etc.,etc.) might have one of the best skyline views in all of Manhattan (so stunning that we forgot to take a picture). From a comfortable conference room high up in Chelsea, we greeted creatives with morning staples: portfolios, coffee, and pastries. One of the art buyers was headed off to Prague the next day, so Sean shared some insider tips from when he lived there a few years ago.
Speaking of the travel bug, a number of people responded to New York photographer Evan Sklar’s eye for beautiful interiors and travel shots. Here’s a Youtube facsimile of his book:
One Deutsch creative director stood in the doorway and said, “I only have time to see four books; which ones should I look at?” After we shared some of our top choices, he ended up sticking around and looking through everything we’d brought. He shared his thoughts on a number of books, and mentioned how, on a recent campaign, a client was looking for a very realistic (ie. less fashion-lifestyle) take on Kids photography. They had a hard time finding the right photographer because many Kids photographers had too slick a look. He felt the Kids photo market could use a little more diversity in style.
We also showed Greg Vore‘s portfolio. He’s a fantastic Still Life shooter, handling product shots for Kate Spade and others, but he decided to showcase his Travel work this time instead. It was a treat to look through his portfolio from India, which showcases rickshaw drivers and their vehicles. It was especially interesting to see how his photographic style can translate among such different subject matter. Here’s Greg’s book:
[Note: though these first two portfolios happen to be from our New York photographers, we always show books from a range of locations/specialties from our photographers.]
After a quick lunch in midtown, we headed into the Condé Nast building to meet with a couple of The New Yorker’s picture editors. We shared a couple of photojournalistic, portraiture, and conceptual books, since the magazine covers such a variety of stories and is always looking for engaging work from passionate photographers. They explained how they’re very involved in the editing process, and prefer to meet with photographers personally to get to know their style and approach before committing to projects. Their hard work was just rewarded with a National Magazine Award for Best Photo Portfolio.
We showed Matt Rainwaters‘ book, too. He’s out of Austin and has some incredible images from his recent travels to Haiti, and an incredibly revealing series about inmates of the Texas Department of Justice, published in Esquire UK and Texas Monthly. And that’s on his “normal” portfolio. But the one we’d like to share here is his humorous “Beardfolio,” shot in Alaska last may during the world beard and mustache championships:
Another favorite was Andy Reynolds (based in Seattle), who has an eye for the odd, albeit with a technical and conceptual flair. His portfolio really drives home his offbeat aesthetic (we enjoy his shot of a woman whose hair is being sucked into a vacuum):
And that’s all we wrote, after a long day in the big city. We’ll have more trips to talk about soon, so stay posted.
