The ADC 97th Annual Awards open for entries

Kevin Swanepoel, CEO of The One Club for Creativity © LinkedIn.

New tiered pricing structure

The biggest news for this year’s competition is a tiered pricing structure designed to make it easier for smaller agencies, studios and freelancers to participate. Companies with 21 or more employees pay the standard entry fee; smaller shops with from 2 to 20 employees get a discount on entries (amount varies by discipline) and freelance creatives and one-person shops are eligible for an even greater reduction in their entry fee.

“The goal of the ADC Annual Awards is to identify and celebrate the absolute best in craft, design and innovation from around the world, regardless of how large or small the agency or studio might be,” said Michael O’Rourke, executive director, ADC, part of The One Club for Creativity. “This new tiered pricing helps to level the playing field, making it easier for smaller shops and freelancers to get their works judged by an all-star jury and potentially elevated on a global stage.”

“At a time when other awards shows continually look for ways to increase their entry fees, it’s literally unheard of for a show to reduce their fees,” said Kevin Swanepoel, CEO, The One Club for Creativity. “This tiered pricing structure reflects our new mission to support and celebrate the success of the global creative community, no matter the agency location or size.”

Other noteworthy changes to the ADC 97th Annual Awards include:

• Creation of the ADC Design for Good award for excellence in work that fosters societal or political change. This new reduced-fee subcategory exists within each of the categories, with the winner selected from among the top vote getting Design for Good entries in each category.
• Once each jury has selected its ADC Gold, Silver and Bronze Cube winners, they will choose which Gold Cube winner stands out to receive an ADC Best in Discipline award.
• The ADC Black Cube, formerly a Best in Discipline award, is now elevated to represent the ‘Best in Show’ overall.
• Freelancers can now enter for their contribution to a campaign or project created by an agency. For example, a self-employed illustrator can now enter their work in the ‘Design-Illustration’ category for illustrations they here hired to do by an agency for a brand’s print ad campaign.
• The Design discipline now consists of categories for ‘Illustration’, ‘Photography’, ‘Typography’, ‘Brand Communications Design’, ‘Publication Design’, ‘Experiential Design’, ‘Product Design’, ‘Packaging Design’, ‘Motion and Film Craft’, ‘Innovation’ and ‘Design for Good’. Entries in each category are judged by a jury that includes members who are professionals in that particular category. 
• Entries can be submitted by clicking here, final deadline for all categories is 31 January, 2018. Judging takes place in March 2018 and winners will be announced and celebrated at the ADC 97th Annual Awards Gala on 7 May, 2018 as part of Creative Week in New York.

ADC Annual Awards juries focus on craft, design and innovation, while The One Show Awards juries focus on creativity of ideas and quality of execution. As part of this year’s awards program, ADC is highlighting several talented creatives in a series of brief video interviews focused on the theme “Where craft will take us.” In this first video, ADC worked with Sid Lee, Montreal to profile rising young designer Pablo Delcan. A graphic designer, animator, illustrator and video artist from Spain, he founded Delcan & Co. in NYC’s Garment District in 2014 and last year was selected as a Young Guns 14 winner.

The two-minute video, filmed in his narrow but welcoming white workspace, highlights Delcan’s creative inspirations and processes. Addressing this year’s awards theme, he describes his concept of design as “the simple act of transformation” and adds “When the idea and craft are great, the work will be great as well.”