A bird's eye view of 2003 Loerie Award judging

For the first time, as a paid-up member of THINK (Design South Africa), I was nominated to be a Loerie judge this year, representing the Design/Promotional Marketing sector. What was immediately apparent was the fact that this year's judging was impressively impartial and remarkably rigorous. At the same time I must admit that the quality of work entered was exceptional - it was a tough job for the designated team of judges!

Judging the judges

As a member of the Loerie Awards jury, one is expected to declare their direct or indirect interest in any particular advertisement and is advised to refrain from scoring or voting for such an entry. I was not immediately aware of which of the pieces entered were entered by my fellow judges but in two cases that I "figured out" later, neither piece did as well as the designer had hoped. There was no overt whining to be heard, but even the judges themselves are not immune to the 'bad losers' feeling.

Making the finals

With 5000 entries on the tables, under the watchful eyes of South Africa's best creative minds - any entrant that wins a "Finalist" should be thrilled with that achievement. The superiority of the work stood out by far. So if you win a Finalist you can be very, very proud of your work - it shone.

Snatching a Silver

For those of you who'd like to blame the judging process the Silver Loerie can be awarded in any category to highly merited entries which are considered as not being good enough to win a "Loerie Gold" award, but are too good not to be recognised.

So with "Finalists" on the table, we started voting for "Silvers". Those judges who entered their own work took pains to quietly leave the room when their work was being judged. In all cases where votes were split, those for and against could express their opinions and the work was often exhaustively discussed and then re-voted on. In tricky situations Lynn Trickett, the international judge with much D&AD experience, guided us.

So for those nominated to win "Silvers" - be extremely proud - these were not easily won. "Silver" Loerie winning standard means only a new concept, beautifully realized in all aspects, where Idea, Execution, Relevance, Clarity of Communication, Typography, Photography, Illustration and Production values all measure up to 'appearing in the Book", will walk away with a "Silver".

Going for Gold

The best entries in each category will receive the rare and treasured "Loerie Gold". It's only the Loerie Gold Award winners that can qualify the work for Grand Prix. Sadly we'll all have to wait for Loerie night in June 2003 to find out if Lynn Trickett was impressed enough to award any Grand Prix!

The judges' decision is final

Rewarding the best work - that's what the judges had in mind. Again and again, judges fought for ideas they loved. Fought to recognise the true art of crafting bright new ideas.