Pastoll is a busy ad lady. In addition to her 'day job' as Executive Creative Director for Design Cross Colours, part of Lowe Johannesburg, she was one of nine South African judges at the recent Cannes Lions awards, judging the design category, is one of one of the 2015 Loeries Communication Design judges, and will hardly had time to catch her breath before she will be on jury duty again, as one of just two South Africans judging this year's London International Awards.

She chats to our media correspondent at Cannes, Ann Nurock, about her high-calibre fellow judges, work that stood out for her at this year's Cannes Lion Festival, and why she loves the current Japanese creative mindset...

Nurock: What category did you judge?

Pastoll: Design.

Nurock: What stood out for you?

Pastoll: The meaningful work - like the gun store in New York; the 'Not a bug splat' campaign; soccer player Zlatan, who tattooed names of people suffering from hunger on his body, and Hologram for Freedom. I also loved the Japanese work - their mindset is so interesting and their craft is phenomenal.

Nurock: How did you find the judging process?

Pastoll: The fellow judges were awesome. They were of a high calibre, not necessarily working for only big agencies but in a sense that they were clued in and open to hearing others' points of view and very patient. They were fair and had their hearts and minds in the right place to find the best pieces. We had no politics or allegiance problems. The conversations and input from judges from around the world certainly added a dimension to the judging process to understand context and relevance.

The first round, the 'in and out' round of judging could have been smoother as one had to look for entries, physical entries and entry boards were not stored together, and one could not always get onto a computer to see the case studies. We are submitting a recommendation to the organisers to improve and smooth out some of these things.

That said, the judging assistants were very helpful at all times in assisting with any queries.

Nurock: Did you agree with the winners?

Pastoll: Yes as a whole. One or two pieces maybe not - but I was totally fine to be outvoted and let majority rule.

I kept looking at the work through a design lens, but other judges were not as strict or concerned about this - for me, Balloons in Berlin was not the best showcase for celebrating design, perhaps it would have been more relevant in another category.

Nurock: How does SA compare to the rest of the world?

Pastoll: We certainly are up there and we certainly can compete. We have the talent, the capacity, the suss, the attitude, the passion, the ideas to compete with the rest of the world.

Nurock: What are we doing right?

Pastoll: Celebrating great ideas. Having global awareness.

Nurock: Where can we improve?

Pastoll: Educating clients on what great work is, work that will shine through and go on to be revolutionary and memorable. Celebrating our 'South African-ness' and letting our context solve problems in a unique, award-winning way.

Click here for a reminder of Pastoll's pre-Cannes expectations.

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