The One Club & Working Not Working Want You to Enter the ADC 99th Annual Awards
Interview by Mike O'Donnell / Editor
This year, Working Not Working is partnering with The One Club for Creativity for the ADC 99th Annual Awards. As part of the partnership, the One Club will introduce the ADC Freelancer of the Year Award. With a community that’s 60% freelance, we have a unique opportunity to help the One Club encourage freelance and small-run studio members to have a bigger voice, presence, and platform in the creative industry and potentially win prestigious ADC Cubes in the process.
Below, we talk to the One Club’s CEO Kevin Swanepoel, Creative & Content Manager Brett McKenzie, and Vice President, Content & Marketing Yash Egami about the ADC’s 99-year history, how the organization has helped to elevate the creative conversation, and why lowering the barrier to entry for small studios and freelancers has created excitement in the jury rooms and a bright future.
An Updated Note to Working Not Working Members: On Tuesday November 12th, we sent out a WNW-exclusive discount code, via the WNW weekly newsletter, to enter as a Freelancer or Small Studio. On Tuesday, January 14th, we are resending this discount code so you can avoid the hassle of searching your inbox.
Not a WNW Member? Sign up here to join the community.
Mike: To kick things off, what are the ADC Awards and how did they come to be? How would you briefly describe a 99-year history?
Brett McKenzie: If we go all the way back to the very beginning, the ADC was formed on August 13th, 1920 by Louis Pedlar and Earnest Elmo Calkins. Its original meeting place was the Roof Tree Inn at 5 W. 28th St in Manhattan. They brought together the New York advertising community and wanted to take commercial art and judge it, review it, and celebrate it with the same eye that one would give fine art. That was the initial mission of the Art Directors Club—to take what was then magazines, a lot of which used illustrations, photography, and posters to advertise and celebrate the artistry behind it. Back then, all the ads were hand-painted or drawn. So much of it was true art and that was the whole point of the Art Directors Club: to elevate commercial arts the same that you would art in the museum. That led to the first of the ADC Annual Awards a year later in 1921. It began as both an exhibition and a physical annual of work
The original ADC Award—The Manship Medallion
The original award was the Manship Medallion, created by famed sculptor Paul Manship, who did the Prometheus sculpture in the Rockefeller Center. There were only three categories back then. But with each year, it grew to include different types of disciplines. In 1950, the ADC 29th Annual Awards awarded TV commercials for the first time, our first major expansion into emerging mediums.
Those are its humble beginnings. It was very New York-centric (it was initially called the Art Directors Club of New York), but it was the first, so it was the one that everybody looked to. In 1966, ADC started accepting international entries. Then in 1973, the Art Directors Club joined forces with the Copy Club to combine their award shows into one show — hence the name The One Show. The combined award show lasted for four years before separating again. But in 2017, the two non-profit organizations reunited to create The One Club for Creativity — and the ADC Cube and the One Show Pencil march on.
Kevin Swanepoel: One of the things that we're trying to do now is really broaden the ADC Awards the same way that design and art direction has broadened today. The role of a designer could involve something like illustration or it could be UX/UI. It could be something as simple as designing a logo or designing wayfinding or user interactions. The expansion of modern-day design and art direction is what we're celebrating.
Mike: An individual’s creative process often evolves with the times. For an award show, I'm curious what that process is like, of evolving while simultaneously staying true to the initial mission and standard of excellence?
Kevin: First, the rigor of choosing the jury is key to ensure it’s the absolute best people who are doing the work at the time. Secondly, ADC Awards are pretty hard to win. We really do keep the standards exceptionally high. It's not a participation type of award. There was an Andy Warhol exhibition at the Whitney Museum last November, and the ADC Merit Certificate that he received in 1956 was on display. It was a coveted award. He's in our Hall of Fame. When you look at the people who are associated with this organization, it speaks for the level of this industry.
Brett: The one thing that's been a constant has been focusing on design—beautiful design, beautiful craftsmanship, and a real love for the attention to detail. And that doesn't matter if it's a Norman Rockwell magazine ad from the 30s or something that's new, with augmented reality.
Andy Warhol’s Award for Distinctive Merit from the ADC
Mike: You mentioned the jury as an important component of maintaining this level of excellence. Are there specific things you look for when selecting the jury? And how does that translate to what the jury looks for in applicants?
Kevin: Our goal each year is to have the best jury working with the jury chair to first determine what the criteria is for that particular medium. You have the brightest minds in the room doing this work. That way there's rigor when it comes to deciding what that specific discipline should be.
Brett: Our jury chairs are the people that a lot of the industry look up to. We’re very careful about who is named a jury chair because we want the experts in that field. For instance, in brand communication design, Tosh Hall from Jones Knowles Ritchie is going to be the chair. On our photography jury, we have Mark Seliger, who's a legendary photographer. Kadir Nelson is also on the jury. These are people who the industry really looks up to as pioneers in their respective fields right now. That helps shape the rest of the jury.
Mike: Is it about selecting people who are not just incredibly talented but also engaged within their industry?
Kevin: One of the important things that we are doing this year is mixing up the jury. We have some of these really talented Hall of Famers on the jury, but we’re also looking to the Young Guns, which features people 30 years and younger. We cherry-picked some of the most emerging young designers and young creatives that'll fit into these disciplines. It’s a mix of having both big-name rockstars along with the up-and-coming fresh talent that is making serious ground in this world right now. If you have looked at the greats that have come through the Young Guns program, you can see that we've been really good at predicting rising stars just when they're getting started in their careers.
Brett: It makes for very interesting conversations in the jury room. I think that's what really drives any awards show. We set the parameters of being focused on design, craftsmanship, attention to detail, the long standing goals of the organization. But the dialogue with the chairs leading and everybody else responding, and getting all these people together, really sets the tone for what moves forward.
Mike: With that idea of inviting conversation, what are some of the things that The One Club does to not just reward creativity but to also encourage and nurture its growth beyond the reward?
Kevin: We based the organization on four pillars: education, professional development, inclusion and diversity, and gender equality. So within those four pillars, we call on somebody who might've been a judge, Young Gun, or part of the programming and invite them to the gallery. We do a lot of workshops and speakers sessions with people like Mark Seliger and Stefan Sagmeister helping with development and education. The award show is paramount to our existence. That is what we do. There are other award shows who are there to make a buck or in the name of some of the other publications out there, just to help them survive. But the award show is also critical to giving back to the industry. When somebody enters into the ADC Awards, what they’re actually doing is helping with education. We do creative workshops with high school students; it's all these different types of things that are able to happen because of the awards.
Brett: To enter the awards, you’re helping fund this. To win the awards, you're actually a part of this. No matter how great a piece is, there's a person behind it. And we'd love to work with that person, whether that's telling a story or doing a workshop, just to help engage our audience and the industry at large.
Kevin: Something else that’s really crucial that we should not overlook is what the ADC Awards stand for. When somebody enters work into the ADC and ends up winning a cube, it really pushes their work into the spotlight. We have about 120 of some of the best creative minds judging your work. These judges looking at all this work get to know the individuals, the next bright stars producing groundbreaking work.
Think of the old days as this little black book that one might've had as an art buyer or an art director, knowing who you go to for photography or illustration. This is what the ADC Awards does so well today. It gives the freelancers, the designers and creatives, the showcase and exposure.
“The award show is paramount to our existence. That is what we do...But the award show is also critical to giving back to the industry. When somebody enters into the ADC Awards, what they’re actually doing is helping with education, specifically things like creative workshops with high school students. It’s all possible because of the awards.”
Mike: On the subject of freelancers, how long have freelancers been able to apply for ADC Awards? What's that process like and how is it different than if a brand is applying?
Brett: Freelancers and small shops could always enter. They weren't prevented from entering. It's just that they didn't enter as often as the big shops and big agencies and big companies. About three years ago, we brought together a bunch of freelancers, Young Guns, and smaller shops, and we sat down and had drinks. We asked them, “What do you think of the ADC Awards? What do the ADC Awards mean to you?” And the general consensus was, “Oh, this is a very important award. Very historic. I'd love to be part of the history, but we can't compete against the big guys that have departments devoted to entering awards.” And I think the best line came from Juan Carlos Pagan. He said the entry fees to most award shows are more than what we get paid for the particular project we want to present.
So that really got us thinking about what could we do to help people, to lower that cost. And so, three years ago we came up with this new tiered pricing to encourage those people who aren't entering tons and tons of work or who think, “Oh, I don't have a chance if Pentagram, BBDO, or Dentsu are entering tons of work. My work's great, but I don't have a chance.” This gives them that chance.
Yash Egami: The amazing thing is you can enter as a freelancer for as little as a hundred dollars. You have the possibility of winning an award and being on a worldwide stage and being named one of the top designers or photographers or illustrators or what have you in this global competition for 100 bucks. That is a golden opportunity for a lot of freelancers out there who want to get their name recognized.
Kevin: I was the CEO and we recognized that good creative work can come from anywhere. It can come from a big shop or a small shop, and if the barrier to enter is the fee, then we’re not for profit. Let's just make this call. Let's reduce the fee for freelancers so that they do have the opportunity to participate and enter and compete in the global stage.
Brett: I think we can all agree it's been pretty successful so far, to see the brave souls that said, “Yeah, I think I am going to take this chance.” The cool thing about it is that it's not like if you're the freelancer or you're the small studio, you're going to go into the freelance or small studio category. Your work is going up against everybody else, even the biggest shop in the world. And the end result is we see these freelancers winning the golds. They're even winning the Best of Discipline.
The first year Kevin Cantrell entered, he won the Best of Discipline for Typography and he's a one-person shop in Utah, beating out so many different companies. Nora Krug won the Best of Discipline for Illustration. And because the cost to enter is lowered, they are not just standing alongside the giants—they’re defeating them.
“Because the cost to enter is lowered, [freelancers] are not just standing alongside the giants—they’re defeating them.”
Yash: It's also important to note that in our judging process, we keep all the information about who enters anonymous. So the jury has no idea if it's a big agency or if it’s a freelancer that entered the work. That levels the playing field. It's not like they feel sorry for a small studio and they say, “Oh well, let's give these guys a shot.” No. They actually compete against the big shops on their own merits and that's how they get through to the final round and to the final list, because the work stands up on its own against everyone else.
Brett: With a lot of the big shops, we’ve seen most of the work on Instagram or it's written about in the press. But to see a jury go, “Ooh, I haven't seen this before. Go back, go back, go back to this piece!” And it's a freelancer or a small shop that they’re not yet aware of, and they fall in love with their work then and there.
That's always exciting to see in the jury room. They really get excited about what’s new to them. And the new tends to come from the freelancers, the small shops, the places in Slovakia or Macau or places that aren't necessarily the worldwide hubs of design or of advertising. I think this shift has allowed for that sense of excitement in the jury room. That really helps elevate the conversation too.
Mike: What do you want to say to people who are on the fence about whether they should apply or not?
Brett: Do it. Enter it!
Kevin: Be there for greatness!
Brett: There is now an opportunity for you to shine in a way that you probably didn't consider. You didn't think that a big international awards show that covers so many different disciplines is for you. The cool thing about this is that you're winning on a global stage. You're winning amongst all different disciplines. You're winning amongst people who will want to collaborate with you across different disciplines. I think it's an amazing opportunity for somebody to step up on a world stage and join hands with other people and take over things.
