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Design Annotator: Joburg’s creative undercurrent

Design Annotator with Uno de Waal is a new column featuring the top design work from South Africa’s biggest online creative showcase, Between 10 and 5, curated by Publisher Uno de Waal

Cannes Lions have come and gone with South Africa bringing a healthy few awards home. We’ve found and collected all the best South African creative pieces for you to view in one easy place. Have a look through our list and decide for yourself if you thought it deserved a win. The Here 2013 conference hosted by website It’s Nice That also happened recently and we have a great little write-up on it. Back in illustration land, Ben Johnson wows us with his incredible graphic and photography work. If you’ve ever been to a gig at EVOL you’ve probably seen his great work. Local photographer Chris Saunders teams up with Dazed and Confused former editor Rod Stanley to produce a short video on the exciting under current of the Johannesburg youth culture movement. Have a good read.

Inside view: Judging Cannes Lions Film

by Alistair King, Chief Creative Officer, King James Group (@alsparkles) The last time I judged Cannes Lions Film I swore never to do it again. I found the process political and argumentative, and many of the jury members devious and full of agendas. I found letters in my room from production houses telling me what work to look out for and hardcover books, elegantly printed by holding companies, showcasing their finest work. Party invites inevitably came with a 5 minute sales pitch on which ads they had entered. All in all I found the whole thing sickening and desperate and so I decided to approach this Cannes with a sense of calm and humour. As it turned out my pre-judging-self-pep-talk proved to be unnecessary. Apart from an early effort to establish alpha dog supremacy in the room, (which Sir John Hegarty won convincingly) the entire process was smooth, friendly and massively constructive.

After 4 days of hearing people motivating for work they admire, you do start to see patterns that mostly fall on nationalistic lines, but generally speaking this year’s panel was wonderfully neutral, with few signs of the block voting and favour trading that typified my previous experience. This time I left having made a few good friends and feeling that the best work won.

By its very nature, the award process is flawed. There are 3500 commercials and films to view over the first 3 days and one can fully expect the opinion of 22 jury members to differ vastly from that of a different set of 22. With so many films to view, many of which are between 30 and 90 minutes in length, judges are initially split into 3 groups to filter out what will eventually become the long shortlist. I have a feeling judges are put into filter panels that minimize the chances of them judging their own country or agency group’s work as I saw very little South African work in my slots, and very little again when I eventually got to view the long shortlist. Much of what I considered to be the best South African work was eliminated at those early stages. It is brutal to say the least. Just like that, your 640Euro entry is gone at the press of an iPad screen. After 3 full days of judging, the jury was put together for the first time to view, in one 14 hour sitting, all 385 films that had made it through. Of these a further 100 would be culled leaving you with what is commonly known as ‘The Shortlist’.

Authenticity is the non-digital revolution sweeping our industry #canneslions

by Charl Thom, Group MD, FoxP2 The seminars and speakers over the Cannes Lions week are some of the most inspiring and informative an advertising or marketing person could hope for. Here are a few of the many notes I made during the week, and a few interesting quotes (some more colourful than others) that stayed with me.

Final gold for SA at #canneslions

The Film, Film Craft and Branded Content & Entertainment Lions category winners have been announced at the annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

“Drunk Tank Pink” author Adam Alter on the hidden factors influencing how we think, feel and behave

An excerpt from a presentation made in Cannes today (Friday June 21) by ‘Drunk Tank Pink’ author, Adam Alter, and Director of Draftfcb’s Institute of Decision Making, Matthew Willcox.

The mind is basically like an iceberg, and while we have access to the stuff above the surface, much of what’s interesting and influencing our decisions is below the surface of conscious awareness.

For example, numerous studies and psychological research papers illustrate how hidden, powerful, and unexpected forces — a colour, a name, a noise — operate behind the scenes so to say in the decisions, choices, and behaviours of consumers and others.

For many years, marketers have known that understanding more about how the unconscious works is potentially a huge competitive advantage.

Unfortunately, the unconscious wasn’t keen to give up its secrets. Until now, that is. In fact, the speed with which we are today learning more about just what affects our behaviour is breathtaking.

It truly is an emerging science. And just as being an early mover in emerging markets gave brands an edge over the last couple of decades, tapping into the unexplored geography of the mind is going to be critical to their future.

SA wins Design, Press & Radio Lions, takes first gold #canneslions

The Design, Press, Radio and Cyber Lions category winners have been announced at the annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

SA wins Media and Outdoor Lions #canneslions

The Innovation, Media, Mobile and Outdoor Lions category winners have been announced at the annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. See also SA Cannes Lions winners Day 1.

Creative Effectiveness, Direct Lions, Promo & Activation and PR Winners Announced #canneslions

The Creative Effectiveness, Direct, PR and Promo & Activation Lions category winners have been announced at the annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

McCann Melbourne, Australia, took both the PR and Direct Grands Prix for their entry ‘Dumb Ways to Die’ for Metro Trains. The Promo & Activation Grand Prix was taken by Ogilvy Brasil, for their entry ‘Immortal Fans’, created for football club Sport Club Recife. Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam took the Grand Prix for ‘Heineken’s Legendary Journey: Justifying a Premium the World Over’ in the Creative Effectiveness category.

Creativity isn’t an advertising ghetto

by Herman Manson (@marklives) It all started well before the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival became the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. It was probably inevitable – advertising has spent the past two decades evolving at such a rapid pace that what we thought of as ‘ads’ then certainly won’t hold ground today. The ad industry solved it by replacing the word ‘advertising’ with the word ‘creativity.’

With ads no longer du jour industry award shows are positioning themselves as being about ‘creativity’ that’s lead by ‘creatives’ producing great ‘creative thinking’ and big ideas. Marketing, advertising and creativity have been nicely bundled together and not only changed our lingo but also excluded a lot of stakeholders in the process.

Yet communication today is about a lot more than a Creative Director’s definition of creativity. It’s very much about speed, authenticity, information, accessibility and a host of other factors.

Neil Parker,writing in Fast Company, notes that it’s “a truism that making a brand succeed today requires a bazaar-like variety of skills, that go way beyond strategizing, copywriting and art directing. You need product development, coding, social, customer service design, internal culture transformation and a raft of other crafts… Which means the industry has a problem in its structure, not just its name.”

Letter from NY: Loeries or Lousy’s?

by Matthew Bull (@StixBull) Original thought. That’s really what the Loeries should be all about. And yet, ironically, once again the same old arguments are being pulled out the archives about the integrity and purpose of the Loerie Awards. I mean, some of them almost make me feel young again.