BTDT - Been there, done that.
A phrase commonly associated with a shrug of the shoulders and a general air of negativity – less used today and most likely replaced by the equally disdainful ‘Whatevs’.
This attitude can often be found when judging creative work, revealing more of the judges’ myopia than it does of the endeavours and ambition of an entry. Luckily, this year there was less shoulder shrugging and more leaning in and passionate discussion around an excellent body of work across most, if not all, the categories.
For this rejection of cynicism, I would like to thank Peter Knapp (Landor), Stuart Radford (The Partners), Paul Cardwell (Brand Union), Richard Clayton (Coley Porter Bell), Graham Sturt (VBAT), Kenny Holmes (Geometry), Peter Chodel (Addison Group), Adrian Burton (Lambie-Nairn) and John Regan (FITCH) – a group who have certainly ‘been there and done much’ and who used this experience, of branding and design, to skilfully oversee another record year in terms of entries. Special thanks should also go to POSSIBLE for creating the online entry system which allowed us to distil a shortlist before we met as a group. That, in turn, gave us a real chance to select, I believe, a powerful set of winners by passionately debating and discussing the pros and cons of each.
Finally, well done to Lambie-Nairn and The Partners, who came together to produce this year’s excellent Crème de la Crème winner in the Broadcast Design category.
Arte – a European arts and culture TV network - is a glorious example of the design and craft of idents – the breadth and depth of the work impressed the judges in all its forms, taking a strong singular idea and experimenting with it in ways that constantly surprised.
It should be noted that the full phrase is ‘been there, done that, got the T shirt’ – if there is one for sale, please put me down for one…and the video.