On Wednesday, I had the privilege of participating in the Creative Smackdown, an advertising and design critique/competition in Grand Rapids, at the GVSU campus.
The way the competition worked was this: there are three rounds that each of the advertising and design students went through individually. In the first round, everyone sits at a different table, and a judge is assigned to each table. The student has one minute to present, and the judge has five minutes to critique. After that time is over, they choose the piece they feel the best about conceptually and visually, and that piece goes to the second round. If the student’s piece doesn’t make it to the second round, they still get to benefit from getting a second critique. During the second round, the same thing happens, only there are two judges critiquing the work. The pieces that are selected go to the third round, where three judges gave a final critique. The top winner was awarded $300 in cash, a $500 scholarship to the Portfolio Center, and a membership in AD2, an advertising group in Grand Rapids.
I had spent about three weeks preparing for the competition, which included making variations and iterations of a new poster from a previous school project that dealt with a social issue concerning the future of America’s cities. By Wednesday afternoon, I was ready with two printouts of the poster and a note card of presentation notes. I showed up around 6:45 to register, and was taken to a back room where all the design kids, about 25 total, sat. The room was very comforting to me, with a large window that looked out at a clock tower. Paintings were displayed throughout the room, which also housed a fireplace and a bar. Prior to the judges coming in for the first round, I scanned my notes. However, I didn’t end up using the note card because I didn’t think we were allowed to have one, and I wanted to see if I could remember the presentation anyway. I had been working on this poster for a few weeks and it made sense to me to just know it.
During the first round, I sat at a table with two other design students, both of which had designed CD covers. I wasn’t nervous to present during the first round. The first judge gave me good overall feedback. He really liked how the message was portrayed. He did suggest there be more of a call to action, and maybe another touch point, in addition to the poster, that stated more information as to why this issue is important.
In the second round, I presented my poster in front of two judges, which of whom one was the previous judge I had talked to a few minutes before. The second, “new” judge had some good comments. He liked the type, and he said that the poster had good visual appeal. He liked the color palette in how the red and black were used, but also how the earth tones were used instead of greens and grays. He agreed with the first judge, however, in that there should be more of a call to action. They passed the poster onto the third round for my final presentation.
The third round had four contestants from advertising and design. In the last round, I presented my poster in front of everybody which looked like about 70 people, but I had to face the judges. Again I got overall good feedback. One of the judges said that the poster grabbed his attention from across the room during a previous round. They really liked the typography, and the contrast between the textured, sketchy line, and sharp, computer generated arrows. They felt that the poster worked great in conveying the message and worked well for the audience. One thing that was stated was how the AIA logo sat. They felt that most students, especially advertising students, place the logos in the corner. They felt that this was a similar case and the AIA logo should be placed somewhere else. An interesting thing that should be noted was how one judge got a slightly different message, which is still valid, out of the poster. He said “It looks like someone is angry at sprawl, and trying to cross it off.” This interpretation is different than the message I was trying to portray but still valid, because the AIA really does have practices that are against urban sprawling. In the end, the judge pointed out a duality in the message, and that each interpretation still applies to the overall concept.
In the design round, the third place winner was a team of two girls who worked together to create an information guide that had a similar look and feel to a Pantone swatch book. The second place winner was a young lady who created a brochure on corn and fuel, using scientific metaphors to get her message across. I won first place with the sprawl poster.
In the advertising round, the third place winner was a billboard ad that portrayed AIDS relief, with a large Band-Aid which was stained with blood in the shape of the continent of Africa. The second place winner was an ad that sold cancer. The ad depicted a very homely, old fashioned looking store, with signs up saying “Cancer for sale.” And lastly, the first place winner was a VW ad that was illustrative, creating a smile out of the contours from a VW Bug.
