Awards fever

Tensions ran high during last month’s CID Awards. Unsurprisingly for an industry driven by passion and flair, the evening delivered the expected mix of elation, appreciation and abject disappointment. The old adage, ‘you can’t keep all of the people happy all of the time’, rings true during any awards ceremony... but perhaps nowhere more so than in a room full of designers who invest genuine emotion into every piece of work that they produce. Design is a highly creative, highly intimate process, so it is little wonder that designers take it quite so personally.

This, ultimately, is part of the industry’s charm – the catalyst that pushes it forward and the reason it is filled with people who love their jobs. Very few industries are made up of professionals who pour so much of themselves into the minutae of their everyday work processes. And dealing with slightly dissatisfied awards entrants is probably a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things.

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But it is also worth noting that determining the best of design – in any context or category – is no enviable task. A design is made up of countless facets and layers of complexity. Knowing whether you like it or not is often a split-second emotional response that comes straight from the gut. Determining whether one excellent design is more worthy of an award than another excellent design is slightly more complicated and involves a lengthy process that takes countless factors into account. Our thanks again to the judges, who invested a substantial amount of their time doing an essentially thankless job.

Looking forward, we’re interested in hearing your ideas about how the awards might be improved upon this year. If there are any industry figures that you would like to see on the judging panel, let us know and we’ll give it our best shot. Likewise, if there are any categories that you think we missed, make sure to give us a heads up. The whole process can only improve with greater industry involvement, so we’re all ears.