CREATIVE WHAT?
As part of a unique, two-part (creation and presentation) design experience ten teams of two compete against each other to execute a visual or motion design concept based on a theme revealed at the event.
After three hours and no rules, the teams present their work to an audience/jury who chooses a winning team (both of whom will receive a trophy and one free year of Creative Cloud).
From adobecreativejams.com.
THE SETUP
We sent John Boutwell, our Art Director and strongest designer, and Josh Belhumeur, a Partner and our most well rounded creative who would bring the X factor in his concepting and copywriting skills. With two categories to choose from we went into it with open minds. We were even willing to do an HTML5-driven interactive with social media integration if it made sense for the theme and we were able to muster the confidence of Leo DiCaprio at a Victoria's Secret show.
The theme was presented:
“it’s dangerous to go alone.”
THE PROCESS
We immediately discussed narratives around the fear of loneliness and how sometimes there is perceived danger because we are alone and don’t have a friend to rely on. Within 10 minutes of the 3 hour allotted window we had 4 clever concepts down, but one stood out. It was funny and also feasible.
Our big idea was a motion graphic featuring a scared and alone character walking through the dark with unsettling eyeballs looking on. At the climax, the light would flip on and reveal that all the eyeballs were instead friends, there to surprise our protagonist with a party. Simple, clever and humorous, the three things we knew we wanted to do.
We felt a group of animals would give us the most freedom for creativity in the design and would up the cute factor. But with only 3 hours, John decided we had to settle on just one type of animal. He brilliantly suggested the penguin, an animal that waddles in a manner that can be quickly animated in a realistic way, and with about 2 hours 40 mins to go we were off.
Yes, the time went quick. But we confidently kept our cool and even took the time to eat some dinner somewhere in the middle. Our biggest hurdle ended up being the speed of the venue’s WIFI when trying to purchase and download the sound effects. We got everything in at the last couples of minutes but had to sacrifice the footsteps.
THE RESULT
Better than finishing, and even better than winning, was the feeling we got when we played our animation for the first time to the crowd of 250 spectators. With the uproarious laughter and enthusiastic applause that followed, we knew we had done something unexpected and well executed. Most importantly we elicited strong emotion, which is always our goal with good design and storytelling.
Voting for People’s Choice opened up (conducted through a mobile poll). We started out in a firm, but relatively distant second place as another impressive animation from a larger, more established agency had more votes out of the gate. But as each second ticked, their lead closed more and more. In what felt like rounding the final turn of the Kentucky Derby, the room got loud as voters for each side were cheering on their choice. In the final 10 seconds we tied and seemed to hang there for a while until 4 more votes trickled in and pushed us over the top just before the poll closed.
Winning People’s Choice was enough for us but to our honest surprise, the Judge’s also picked us to win.
We were the only team to sweep.
THE TAKEAWAYS
We are proud and hope that this helps elevate our reputation, especially in DC. We know we can do excellent work with the best of them and given the respect we have for our competitors in this, we know this helps prove that.
We learned it’s better to execute well on a simple but creative concept than to try and over-stylize or push the envelope. We will be taking that to heart, especially when it comes to finite budgets and timelines with our own clients. Good design is all about supporting the story.
The story is king! We believe there were other more stylish or better looking pieces that we were able to beat out because ours felt complete and struck an emotional chord with everyone immediately.
