Kate Idle and Hannah Lawson were named Emerging Team of the Year at last year’s AWARD Awards. They recently shadowed a jury of top creatives to judge entries for 2024’s Press, Poster and Dark Arts category. Here, they give us the lowdown on insights gained, and what it’s like to judge some of the best campaigns in the region.
***
What’s it like being in the same room as some of the most respected creatives in the industry?
K: It was such a wonderful room of people coming from such different experiences. Everyone had a unique take on the work so it was very cool to watch the work getting discussed from so many angles.
H: It was great to be in a room filled with people so confident in who they are and what they love, but also at the same time so open to being proven wrong. It showed a total lack of ego and instead a great amount of true wisdom. Not to mention they were all hilarious, so there were a lot of lols.
What was your experience of AWARD Awards judging?
H: This is a job not taken lightly. Everyone in the room thought about every piece of work so deeply. Looking at the list of work you’d think we’ll just breeze through, throwing a gold out every now and then, but no. The judges, and AWARD, took each award and category so seriously, appreciating the importance of what shortlist, bronze, silver and gold meant and vigorously made sure that the work held up to those standards. They really understood the gravity of their decisions, and how it will shape the Australian industry for the future. But also, they spent time really relishing in the merit of every piece of work. It made me realise even more that getting an AWARD Awards shortlist, bronze and silver is such a high honour.
What did you find the most interesting?
K: Before this experience, I figured judging involved walking into the room with your mind made up and arguing with your fellow judges until you were blue in the face. It was so interesting to watch perspectives and opinions (even very strong ones) change with new discussions. The open-mindedness was shared by everyone, and a great point was raised to me – that people who aren’t open to having their mind changed won’t get very far in this industry.
What were the themes, trends and challenges that the jury discussed/encountered?
H: Does something need to be original? What’s truly original? What matters more, the idea or craft, or both? Is this truly pushing the industry forward? Should something be awarded even higher if we knew it was a challenge to make? Is this world class? Should we hold our work to a world class standard? When was the last time we saw sunlight?
What did you learn and gain from the experience?
K: I gained a real appreciation for how difficult it is for campaigns to be awarded. Despite being such a huge part of our industry and basically an essential currency for young creatives trying to get on the map, awards continuously seem to get spoken about so flippantly or end up as ironic doorstops. After sitting in the judging room, it baffles me that people in our industry still can endorse a mentality of “Oh it’s just a bronze, too bad it wasn’t gold or silver”. The amount of scrutiny these campaigns go under, it’s an achievement to be mentioned in the judging room at all, let alone get a win.
H: Yeah what Kate said, it made me truly appreciate that every accolade is an honour. A shortlist is massive, and people should be proud of it.
Judging aside, how did winning Emerging Creative or Team of the Year impact your career, and why would you encourage others to enter?
H: Because you’re judged on the value you bring as a whole creative, not just on an individual piece of work. It’s kind of rare for that to happen when most of us are judged by what our ‘next piece of work is’, rather than recognising all that you’ve done so far. So because of that it felt like industry leaders could see us as a team, and not just creds on campaign brief. Also, everyone should enter because every young person in this industry is stupidly talented and they should get lots of awards for it.
***
The Gold and Special Award winners of this year’s AWARD Awards will be announced at This Way Up, Australia’s advertising festival of creativity, on the evening of August 15. Buy tickets to the Gold Pencil Award Party here.
