Was the guest of one of our recruitment agencies on Tuesday night at the Design Week Awards. Very nice of them to invite me and all that but one thing hacked me off slightly.
The host, Michael McIntyre, was very funny BTW. Pitched it perfectly to his audience which is more than can be said for the apparent ‘dieing on his arse’ of Jimmy Carr at the Creative Circle, as can be read in some of the comments on this post from Scamp.
What I really want to comment on is the lack of digital awards. I know Design Week need to cover a wide spectrum of work from the creative industries but to have just two awards, ‘Information’ and ‘Commercial’ in this space is selling it really bloody short. Especially, considering that Packaging gets two awards ‘Own Brand’ and ‘Branded’. Environmental gets six! Wayfinding, Retail, Workplace, Exhibition, Hospitality, Museum, Galleries and Visitor Attractions. What about, digital direct marketing, community, editorial, innovation and a whole load of others.
On top of this, Apple won three awards. Now, Apple are doing some amazing things with user interface, interaction design, product design and generally being all-round shit hot. But to put them in the mix alongside agencies which may consist of half a dozen people doing some stunning work with a £50k budget seems a little mis-matched. And wasn’t that work done in Apple’s Cupertino headquarters? But then the entry requirements don’t state that the work has to be done by UK-based agencies. I don’t like ranting about stuff like this because it just sounds like I’m jealous / bitter / feel hard done by* (delete as applicable). Honestly, I’ve never been an awards chaser, I just like them to happen on their own.
OK, rant over. I guess I’ll just have to get the Pantones out, enter next year and maybe go up against the mighty Apple!
