Amazingly 2009 has turned out to be a great year at Rockfish Interactive I had the pleasure to be the Creative Director and grow an awesome creative team. We we're recognized by AdAge as Small Agency of the Year and this past week I was asked to be a judge for the Addy Awards in Atlanta. I had the opportunity to represent RFI amongst other great agencies such as WongDoody, Struck Interactive, The Martin Agency and Cramer-Krasselt. The Atlanta Ad Club and Brunner Works hosted the event. I stopped by the office of Brunner and spoke with their Creative Director Brett Compton and their Chief Strategy Officer Louis Sawyer. It was a great conversation about the two agencies and where we plan to go in the future in the industry. Our hosts the 2 Gingers and Rich made the trip a great experience.
We managed to judge over 600+ pieces from traditional to interactive from professional to student submissions and even the dreaded radio categories. All 5 of us judges seemed to have a lot in common which lead to some great conversations about our industry, work, designers and agencies. We stayed at the W hotel that included a sighting of Wyclef John in one of the hotel clubs. The judging was hosted at the Creative Circus Portfolio School that is an awesome venue for any creative person interested in pursuing a design career. Plenty of great work lined the walls of that place. DC our host on the last day was the Director of Career Services for the school and we had some great conversations around the 2010 addition of interactive programs at the school. DC I would love to come speak to your aspiring interactive designers/developers once you guys are up and running next year.
Many of our conversations were around our agencies and how we were handling these tough economic times and it seemed the Interactive agencies were better positioned than the traditional shops at this point. Some other interesting things were the requests for video when addressing RFP's and the importance of case studies as projects evolve. All in all it was a great experience and I hope I get the opportunity to do it again. Now I'm heading back to XNA writing this and I think I just heard the flight attendant say here in Dallas that this flight is headed to "WalMart". LOL enjoy some pics below of the trip:
Our Hotel My mobile office Some cool typography in the hotel The view At Brunner Works Atlanta office Loved the green hallway, it actually changes colors and designs Where the judging went down, The Creative Circus The first morning A really cool place for creatives Great art filled the hallways The judging station The judging PDA, I would have prefered an iPhone app instead of windows Some serious judging going on More great artwork on the walls Some of the interactive labs The only message that matters Another lab Judging the print pieces Judging the interactive pieces Someone that resembled Tiger Woods so we had him reinact the incedent with our host Ginger Raymond I can see Rockfish Interactive being added to this list