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Award-winning design all Round - #AnnualSpotlight

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Freelance designer and illustrator James Round had never entered The Annual prior to 2020. The moment he did, he grabbed two Bronze prizes and was shortlisted for several others. He is now the #5 ranked Creative in the community, and for some really good reason.

James specialises in works that looks incredibly colourful and clean, with a clarity of display and design that has few equals in the community. Suffice to look at his two winning works below to get a taste of his style – but in truth, you only need to hop over to his profile to see what we mean.

For this Annual Spotlight, we are discussing with James his experience with The Annual, as well as his hopes for the future of creativity this year.

Annual 2021 is accepting standard submissions until this Thursday, 27th May. Enter now to grab your slice of creative immortality!

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What feels unique about The Annual?

I love the broad range of categories included in The Annual – it’s a wonderful opportunity to see a really varied selection of great creative work, and it’s fun to check out entries from areas of the creative industries that I’m less familiar with, such as copywriting and product design.

How does it feel to have won the Creativepool Annual Awards?

It feels amazing! I was really excited to have two data visualizations win bronze, one a personal project and the other client work. Both of them were incredibly challenging projects, but both had outcomes that I was really happy with. So it was a great accomplishment to then see them recognised in The Annual.

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Will you be entering again this year? If so, what are your hopes?

Of course! I’m hoping to enter quite a varied selection of work this year, including some infographics, various printed projects and maybe a bit of illustrative work. And after winning bronze last year, this time I guess I’ll be aiming for silver or gold!

Can you tell us more about your winning submissions and what you think impressed the judges?

One of the biggest factors in creating great data driven creative work is adding clarity to complexity in a beautiful way. I think both of my winning entries managed to do this. The ‘Walk in the Dark’ data visualization in particular was a real labour of love – it took me months to figure out how to display the data in an accessible way. And when I realised that I could also make it look like a star constellation chart, everything fell into place. I'm really proud of that project. 

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What advice would you share with other agencies and individuals looking to grab a prize?

I think the best advice I can give is just to enter – otherwise there’s no chance of winning! Further than that, consider projects that have a good story to tell. I don’t think the work necessarily has to be for a notable client or be massive in scale - if it’s beautiful, compelling and has something interesting to say, then people will respond to it. 

How do you feel Covid has impacted the creative landscape in 2020?

As a freelancer, I worried that Covid could have a really detrimental effect on how much work I’d get, but thankfully it didn’t have too much impact. I actually think freelancers may end up doing pretty well as the world adjusts to new ways of working – after all a lot of us have been working from home long before Covid! That being said, I think back to earlier in my career to my time in agencies and other companies. Those experiences, along with the guidance from my friends and colleagues, were integral to my work today. I wonder what it would be like to start out in these circumstances, and I’d imagine it would likely be a much more challenging experience. In terms of how The Annual can make a difference - it’s a great advertisement for creative industries as whole. It provides a spotlight for everyone from global agencies to individuals, and especially in strange times like these, celebrating creativity can only be a good thing!

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What are your hopes for 2021 and beyond?

Over the last few years I’ve tried to do as much work as possible for clients whose work relates to conservation and the environment. I’d love to continue this over the next 12 months and hopefully produce some really great environmentally focussed work for some new clients. Other than that, I’m always waiting for NASA to send a project my way. Maybe this is the year?

What is your most exciting project in the next year?

Over the next year I’ll be working on lots of infographic and editorial work, and I’m hoping to make some time to do some new personal projects. I also lead the design of an environmental research magazine called Resources three times a year, so I’m looking forward to seeing what fun creative opportunities that will offer over the next 12 months. The Annual is a great asset in getting my work in front of lots of the right people, so I’m excited to see what future projects are still to come about as a result of being featured there.

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