PADC Diamond Skulls finalists announced
The Finalists for the 2016 Diamond Skulls have been decided by the PADC membership.
Club President Mark Braddock said once again this year the voting was extremely tight.
“In fact it was so tight that in some categories there wasn’t a clear top three and we have additional Finalists.”
The Diamond Skulls honour the individuals who create the most inspiring creative communications in Western Australia in a given year. Unlike traditional craft categories in award shows, The Diamond Skulls will be judged on a portfolio of work created in 2015, rather than a one-off piece.
Each Finalist receives a Day Conference Pass to Emergence Creative Festival in Margaret River March 16-19, where the winners will be announced.
Art Director of the Year
Craig Buchanan – The Brand Agency
Rikki Burns – Longtail
Neil Martin – Marketforce
Scott Pritchett – 303 MullenLowe
Megan Riley – Marketforce
Copywriter of the Year
Paul Coghlan – Meerkats
Guy Howlett – Marketforce
Melita Masters – The Brand Agency
Steve Straw – The Brand Agency
Designer of the Year
Dan Agostino – The Brand Agency
Henry Luong – Henry Luong
Melissa Radman – 303 MullenLowe
Director of the Year
Paul Komadina – Beautiful Pictures
Matt Pitcher – Open Spaces Productions
Grant Sputore – The Penguin Empire
Renee Webster – Beautiful Pictures
Editor of the Year
Tony Bannan – Sandbox
Merlin Cornish – Siamese
Caitlan O’Connor – Freelance
Photographer of the Year
Chantel Concei – Chantel Concei Photography
Caleb Davenport – Salty Davenport
Erick & Ian Regnard – Ian + Erick
Rob Simeon – Robert Simeon
Sound Designer of the Year
Xoe Baird – Freelance
Nick Gallagher – Brainestorm
Brad Habib – Soundbyte
See the Finalists portfolio submissions HERE.
9 Comments
How come more CDs didn’t decide to compete?
Go Xoe!
@Puzzled
Hard to know. Humility?
@Puzzled
Hard to know. Humility?
@Losing power. What is it with you? Can’t a CD even pick up the Staedtler and prove there is still a bit of lead in the old rotating pencil yet? Agreed, bit awkward if they doesn’t win, but them’s the breaks. What a way to go.
Maybe good CDs let their team shine, instead of racing to the stage.
Hello Disappointed/Needs a rethink,
I have passed your comment on to Mark Braddock who is giving serious consideration to the points you raised. So rest assured your concerns have been heard/read by the PADC President, who I’m sure will have shared it with the wider PADC Committee.
I’d be happy to publish your comment here if you supply your name. You have the advantage of knowing who you’re addressing; Mark does not in reply.
I think this is only fair given the PADC Committee’s work is voluntary. They do (as the PADC has always done) an enormous amount of work to encourage and promote commercial creativity in WA, and do it as fairly and openly as possible.
This should be a discussion that can be had openly and responsibly too.
Martin Trevaskis
EDITOR
Good on you Martin, for being so proactive with (what I can only imagine) was some pretty scathing feedback. Issues with the industry and the process are really important in a tight-knit little market like Perth, and I think it’s really important that we have those discussions in a friendly and open format. Just chuck your name up the top there, it’s not hard. Look! I just did it!
Josh Edge
GUY WHO WRITES JOSH IN THE NAME FIELD
p.s. Just realised I’ve probably left myself completely open to other dickheads who will go on to write ‘Josh’ in the name field and write hilarious comments about the size of my penis. Oh well, live and learn.
Okay,
PADC President Mark Braddock has got back to me and said he’s happy to address the issue here as long as I publish the first two comments, so here we go:
NEEDS A RETHINK – Wednesday, March 9
Mark, you seriously have to work out a better way of shortlisting the finalists in each category for the Diamond Skulls Awards. Contrary to your opinion it appears that human nature has once again prevailed. Let’s look at the likely possibilities.
If there are 25 PADC members in a large agency the priority vote will go to the employee with work submitted in whatever category that may be applicable. Yes, there may be other votes for other applicants, or maybe not, as using all 3 votes is not a mandatory requirement. Just to say in your preamble ‘come on lets all judge fairly’ is to be quite frank pretty naive.
This voting by mates system reduces the credibility of the finalists or the theory that this work is the most innovative and creative done over the past 12 months. Quite clearly in some cases its just not. Happy to discuss. M
DISAPPOINTED – Friday, March 11
Dear Campaign Brief. I posted a comment re the judging criteria of the awards a couple of days ago. It appears that you have decided not to publish this comment. As far as I was aware there was nothing derogatory to any particular person or organisation within the post.
It takes time and effort to enter these awards and I think my opinion is quite valid. Can you please explain to me why my post was not published or why you think my reasoning justified.
If you would prefer a dumbed down version then we can organise that but no response is very disappointing.
MARK BRADDOCK, PADC PRESIDENT – Friday, March 11
Firstly, let me say that I am reticent to have this conversation with an anonymous poster because the PADC is a volunteer, member-run organisation that has a completely transparent committee structure to discuss and debate the diverse views of our membership – I’m not completely comfortable with that process being ‘white-anted’ by a discussion in a public forum where there isn’t similar transparency.
So let me preface this by saying that these are my personal comments as President of the PADC, but may or may not be reflective of the committee as a whole. If the original poster is a member and they would like any concerns raised at the next committee meeting, then please contact any member of your committee with your correspondence.
Just to be clear, The Diamond Skulls are a service provided by the Club to its members with the aim of providing an additional platform for them to promote their work. The Diamond Skulls are free to enter and therefore are not an income generating function of the Club. They were conceived as a way for our membership to engage with a judging process in a way that shows such as The Skulls cannot allow for.
I completely understand the sentiment of the post, but unfortunately it is not born out in the voting data. The issue for me is more one of name recognition rather than block voting – block voting just isn’t happening and while it would seem that at first glance it is possible, it would be much trickier to influence the outcome than you’d think at first.
Unfortunately having an award with member engagement means that we do open ourselves to this criticism. (By the way, I would love to have 25 engaged members in just one agency!)
The reality is that the cream has risen to the top and I am comfortable standing by each and every one of our winners – of course the debate can always be had about whether I, personally, would rank an individual top or not, but that it personal preference. I don’t think anyone who is being honest about it could say that any of those who win this year aren’t amongst the top in of their craft in WA.
The discussion that I would love to have is what is a system that would achieve a better outcome and am completely open to modifying the system, unfortunately this kind of post does come off as sour grapes and it would be great if there was a constructive aspect to it.
AND BACK TO ME…
Just to reiterate, from this point on if you want to engage in the discussion about the Diamond Skulls process here, please do so under your own name.
Or if you’d prefer your views weren’t public, get in touch with Mark direct. He’s a good guy, keen to do the right thing by PADC members and I’m sure he will take your views on-board.
Martin Trevaskis
Editor
P.S. Thanks for your comment, Josh.