When entering a craft-focused category, how do you make your project shine? What are those truly amazing projects that catch the eye and leave a lasting impression on the industry?
Ian Perkins is the Executive Creative Director at Name & Name, a professional who was given honorary citizenship in Taiwan for his outstanding skills in graphic design. Even with his incredible expertise, Ian was intrigued by the entries in the Typography category last year, which demonstrated mastery of the craft and a strong capability to catch people's attention with craft alone.
For this Judge Spotlight, we had a chat with Ian to learn more about his experience with The Annual and what he loved about 2020's entrants.
The Annual 2021 final submissions deadline is on Thursday, 10th June! Enter now to grab your slice of creative immortality.
What feels unique about judging in The Annual?
It has different entries to some of the other competitions, so is interesting to see different work.
How did it feel like to be a judge for the Creativepool Annual Awards?
It was a privilege to be part of the judging panel, it is always nice to be asked, and interesting to look at the submissions.
Will you be joining the panels again in the future?
I would like to be invited again, and assist in the judging process for sure.
Can you tell us more about your 2020 category and what impressed you the most about the submissions you scored?
I judged on the Yypography category. It is a more craft focused area compared to some of the more big impact categories like art-direction. It is interesting. How can type be the hero of a project, how can it be used as a medium, pushed and crafted so it can catch people's attention. It's an area I have long been interested in - more in creative visual typography than in pure work-horse letterform craft, and it's also an area I work in a little less when doing cross language regional work - which is more image led to avoid translation issues.
What did you love about the Creativepool community and the entrants you scored?
Creativepool seems to work hard to give platforms to various creative groups and it's nice to be able to share work there.
What advice would you share with agencies and individuals looking to grab a prize?
You probably know before you enter something if it is any good.
How do you feel Covid has impacted the creative landscape in 2020?
I am in a unique place to ride out covid - I am in Taiwan, one of the few places to not have serious spread of coronavirus - though right now we are having some local spreads, but overall for a year and a half Taiwan has done an amazing job of protecting its population and avoiding any large issues. It has made it hard for me to travel for business and it has cut international project budgets. In the work that is coming out from other creative companies, I see much more animation and illustration and less live action film and photoshoots, obviously a result of restrictions. I know from others it has been a rough time for the creative industries in some places with layoffs and cut backs, so I am glad to see UK coming out of it and hopefully places like India will not be too far behind.
What are your hopes for 2021 and beyond?
I am looking forward to international travel opening up to continue business development across the region and putting this pandemic behind us all, so we can enjoy a less restricted life again. I am looking forward to growing our client list and continuing on with a variety of graphics works, in retail, clothing, promotions packaging and branding.
What is your most exciting project in the next year?
Our most exciting projects are our global clothing works for Adidas Terrex and Adidas Outdoor brands, including sneakers, clothing pattern graphics and T-shirt designs as well as special art projects for key flagship retail environments in the China market. Alongside that I am always excited for new clients and new brand identities that come in unexpectedly and give us a different challenge with each client.
