Yes, Brianna Graves, director of content + communications for the Art Directors Club is back to provide some on-the-ground, firsthand perspective from the 92nd ADC Awards, which you probably know by now is taking place in Miami Beach in NYC. While we still suffer the cold up here in the Big Apple, let Brianna share memories from warmer climates. Yeah, we’re just jealous. If you missed her quick Day 1 recap, go here and watch the day 2 clip above.
It’s hard to define a pinnacle moment of Day Two of the ADC 92nd Annual Awards + Festival of Art and Craft in Advertising and Design simply because the energy remained so high throughout the day.
Rafaël Rozendaal surprised attendees early in the first of the two morning workshops with a presentation of work that contrasts his quiet demeanor with its absolutely outstanding ingenuity and reasoning. Rozendaal is the type of man so ahead of his time that we will all look back on this Festival from our rocking chairs in our nursing homes some day, and marvel that we hung out with and learned from Rozendaal in Miami Beach in 2013.
Bruce Mau ended the workshops on an equally strong note, sharing a career’s worth of brilliant design thinking that has resulted in his founding of the Massive Change Network, which brings this design leadership thinking to the masses. Well known for his Incomplete Manifesto for Growth, Mau had workshop attendees write and share a manifesto of their own.
But it was Sean Kenney’s workshop, presented in the middle of the day just before the Networking Lunch Break, where the energy in the room was so dynamic and excited, it was palpable. The room was almost literally buzzing with human electricity. Why? Because Kenney brought out the inner child in every person who sat before him.
With a pile of bright green (the Pantone color of the day, of course) LEGO® bricks in front of each person and two-minute missions to make a duck or a dragon, followed by a 20-minute challenge to create a public space with other attendees sitting nearby (Kenney pulled a little musical chairs move just to keep the room guessing mid-way through the challenge), imaginations were running wild. People were out of their seats collaborating, yet fully enthralled in each of the tasks at hand, proudly showing off and sharing their masterpieces with the entire room. A “Facebook Wall” made out of LEGO, complete with a “like” button was one of the ‘public spaces’ brought to life.
With all 92nd Annual Awards Winners in Design, Illustration, Photography and Print Advertising announced at The Wolfsonian, following a historic speech by the famed photographer and host of the ADC Design Night Celebration Oliviero Toscani, Day Two of the ADC Festival was certainly one to remember.
And one to set a challenging standard and pace for the third and final day of the Festival. But more on that tomorrow.