Judging the Young Ones

New to the overall One Show fold this year, The Young Ones Awards were presented last night, following two days of portfolio presentations. Taking place alongside the ADC’s 96th Annual Awards’ student winner presentation, this effectively forms the most prestigious awards ceremony for student creatives in the world.

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There’s another component too, as the traditional client pitch competition is still a factor. The client brief, sponsored by Serviceplan, focused on raising awareness for the BMW Connected app, while the social brief encouraged students to create or promote partnerships for peace, either through the Toms brand as a vehicle for promoting worldwide unity or by bringing diverse groups together for global peace in accordance with the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and PartnersGlobal’s mission. Top teams for both briefs in this year’s competition complete the mission via a live-pitch in front of a panel of judges from those top-level clients, as well as the advertising industry’s most cutting-edge creatives.

Either aspect – portfolio assessment or live-pitching – is nerve-jangling, no matter how many years of experience you have!

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I caught up with the SA portfolio judges – Alex Sudheim, senior lecturer copywriter and art direction at Vega School Cape Town, on the advertising portfolio jury; Carmen Schaefer, lecturer at Red & Yellow Cape Town and Nathan Reddy, chief creative officer and founder of Grid WW Johannesburg, both on the graphic design portfolio jury; Naretha Pretorius, principal of Vega School Durban on the educators’ brief jury; and Wessie van der Westhuizen, technology development manager/lecturer at Stellenbosch Academy on the industrial design and product design portfolio jury – to find out how they assessed the students’ portfolios and what they were looking for as stand-out factors...

Reddy: The show has a similar format to the professional show. The first round is ‘in or out’, followed by ‘in book’ and then medals. I have a very similar way of judging all work: Does it have an original idea? Is it executed and crafted to the point of ‘wow’? And my question to self: Do I wish I had done that? When it comes to students’ work, I do understand their limitations, so I judge accordingly.

Schaefer: Yes, the judging happened in two rounds. In the first round, all the portfolio entries from students studying at colleges around the world were divided between the judges. If the portfolio was awarded a high mark aggregate in this round, it made it to the second round for the careful consideration of all the judges. I judged 48 portfolios in the first round and about 50 finalists in the second round. I focused on the advertising, graphic design and illustration portfolios, as those are the areas where my personal expertise lies.

Powerful, clever ideas always come up tops

The portfolios were entered anonymously, and when the winners were announced, I was surprised to learn that several of the advertising portfolios I liked were actually entered by teams. I personally looked for variety in the work: I think it is important for a young creative to showcase range conceptually, in media choices and in style. I was impressed by the portfolios that displayed solid insights, original and different creative concepts, and careful crafting of the final work. And I always like work that manages humour with style!

Brian Jackson © – 123RF.com

Van der Westhuizen: In the past there was only the Young Ones Brief competition, but the One Show deemed it necessary to add a portfolio category, which mainly focusses on graduates preparing their professional portfolios for the competition and entering under their chosen field of expertise. There are 10 categories in total covering the fields of graphic design, advertising, photography, illustration, web, UI/UX and industrial design, to name a few.

Sudheim: As exciting as the breakneck evolution of the virtual space is, on occasion it sidelines the physical one. In other words, I unfortunately don’t get to swan about the streets of the city that never sleeps as all the judging action happened online. So, a few days before judging commenced, we were given a set of instructions from One Show and took it from there. I was looking for both exciting and original concepts, as well as the exciting and innovative ways in which they are applied.

A powerful idea will always be a powerful idea, but exactly how such an idea attains maximum potential in the hyper-speed context of the online realm will be of particular fascination. The message is one thing, but these days it’s the way a message exploits the medium that is of greater interest.

Pretorius: As already stated, we were only given guidelines on the judging a few days before it started. I am particularly interested in strong concepts, a considered brand narrative and crafting that supports the concept and narrative in an original and meaningful way. I want to look at a piece and think: “that’s really clever.” Crafting is important, but if it doesn’t say or mean much, then what’s the point of it?

All thought-provoking points to keep in mind for any creative work! The winners will be announced this evening at the Young Ones Awards Ceremony, part of the overall Young Ones Education Festival of One Show Creative Week New York 2017.

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