Protecting South African creativity, in the Loeries and out of it
Sophia Strydom and Kenneth van Reenen won the 2011 Loerie Awards Young Creative Category, sponsored by law firm Adams & Adams. At the age of 24, both have 54 local and global awards between them.
"The firm supports the Loerie Awards and is responsible for all its legal matters and is committed to and supports the local advertising industry - particularly our country's extraordinary young creatives," says Mariette du Plessis, partner at Adams & Adams.
"The synergy between a law firm specialising in the protection of creativity and the Loeries is a natural one. I was bowled over by the work of this year's 'Young Creative' category winners: Strydom, a graphic designer at Joe Public and van Reenen, formerly a copywriter at DDB (now at Metropolitan), particularly their sources of inspiration."
Strydom's win is as a result of her design and execution into printing and promotional works for Clover, the HIV Brothers for Life Campaign, the Rock4Aids 2010 campaign and OFM radio station, whilst van Reenan received his award for his execution of film for the likes of Canon, McDonald's and Energizer.
"Best work shaped outside of the office"
According to van Reenen, his inspiration and creative is usually informed by the world, rather than ad land - "I believe my best work is shaped outside of the office. I may be wrong but I do not believe that the majority of great ads are conceived behind a computer, at least the conceptualising part anyway.
"I'm really grateful that the law firm has taken South Africa's young creatives under its wing and has our backs. It's really cool that the long arm of the law even reaches the copy-rats."
For Strydom it is important to know what is happening with global and local design trends, before embarking on creative, along with immersing herself in a book, browsing the internet or simply observing the world around her. "I make sure I'm open to new experiences and imaginings.
"I really love that there is an awards category that supports young creative minds. It gives us something to aspire to. What's more it's great to know that the firm wants to protect the creative industry's creative talent - not enough of us understand just how important copyrighting is," she concludes.
