Luke Hawkins Spikes Asia Diary: Day Three
Clemenger BBDO Sydney creative director Luke Hawkins is in Singapore sitting on the Film, Print & Publishing, Print & Outdoor Craft jury at Spikes Asia. Here’s his report on Day Three of the judging.
For those who read my diary yesterday, you’ll know I awarded Miwako Hosokawa this year’s Grand Prix for nicest human. What I forgot to mention was it was in fact very close race with Damon Stapleton coming in a close second. There’s no doubt he’s a very, very nice human but there’s one thing that trumps his niceness. Something worthy of its own Grand Prix. So I’d like to formally award this year’s Grand Prix for most lustrous hair to Mr Damon Stapleton.
That award was just one of many determined in our final day of judging. The day when we all gather round the table and get stuck into some great discussions about the work, what moves out of the shortlists and into the metal, what truly defines a category and what sets new standards in excellence. It’s intense but a lot of fun and the part I enjoy the most.
We started day three with 174 shortlisted entries across Film, Print & Publishing and Print & Outdoor Craft and finished with a list of winners from right across the region with Australia and NZ delivering a good ratio of the standout work.
Proceedings kicked off with film. We saw everything from human fireflies to talking testicles and a half-naked man playing tennis on top of a whale, as well a bunch of twists we didn’t see coming. The quality of work between categories was quite varied with some really punching above their weight and others under delivering in categories you’d expect to be stronger. With so many entries designed to pull on the heart strings, the funny stuff stands out like dog’s balls and I can’t help but ask myself why we feel the need to be so earnest, so often. There’s plenty of debate, but each one is both thorough and fair and undertaken with the sole purpose of rewarding creative excellence. After 4 intense hours we have selected our winners and break for a well-earned lunch.
1kg of sashimi, 6 lamb cutlets, 15 roast potatoes and several bowls of laksa later we reconvene to get stuck into Print & Publishing which has a shortlist of 42 entries. After a strong showing in film, Australia and NZ aren’t as well represented in this category which is a little disappointing but we see some great work nonetheless. We have an interesting discussion around the role of print in an increasingly digital media landscape and the need for it to connect and ignite something bigger if it is to remain a truly relevant medium. The work that does this rises to the top.
Once we’ve locked in our winners we move onto our Print & Outdoor Craft shortlist of 58 entries. There is some really strong work with illustration being a particular standout. It takes an hour or so to lock in our list of winners before we appropriately celebrate with some high fives and a team photo to immortalise what has been a great experience shared with a great bunch of people.