Stepping Back to the 1920’s!

February26

DSCF9047.jpgOn Friday, February 15th, we celebrated the 2008 Annual ADDY Awards in Gainesville, Florida with the Jazzin ADDYs. Every year advertising professionals in Gainesville show off their best work at a Gala event and wait for their names to be called as the recipient of a Silver or Gold ADDY award.

Every year we have a theme for our event and this year we stepped back to the 1920s Andy and I, dressed to the nines – him in a black shirt and white tie (very gangster like) and me in my feather headband, boa and sexy black dress …

With that – the ADDYs started with finding your gangster names – so happens ours was Bonnie and Clyde – we then took a walk through the “alley-way” to view the artwork hung on the “walls” and finally entered into the “speak-easy” where we enjoyed a drink and a little bit of jazz. The awards ceremony started an old-fashioned silent movie filmed in Sepia tone….about someDSCF9036.jpg gangsters trying to steel the ADDYs! And the next thing we knew, they were running through the “club”. They passed themselves off to the bouncers as the hosts of the show and ran up on stage to begin things.

We all watched the screen and waited eagerly for our names to be called – everyone wants to walk out with an ADDY in their hand! When they called “Blu Dove Designs” I actually had to ask Andy – did they just call my name? I was surprised. Later they called our names again and again — and at the end we walked away with 6 ADDY Awards! 2 for web site design (1 that John worked on with me); 2 for logo design (1 that John created), 1 for stationary design and 1 for collateral campaign design.

DSCF9202.jpgI feel, with these ADDYs, I have finally won my place in Gainesville as a top design
company; that Blu Dove Designs has finally made it! It’s such an tremendous accomplishment and am grateful for all the support I’ve gotten. I thank the people who came to me and have entrusted me with creating their image – who gave me the opportunity to create the artwork that won. I thank John for all of his help with our projects and I thank God who gave me my talents – without which I would not be here.

All of these awards will go on to the District competition which is all of the state of Florida and the Caribbean. And after that comes Nationals if they place high enough – wouldn’t that be an awesome accomplishment for Blu Dove Designs — to win at District and go to Nationals!?

So What is an ADDY? What’s the Big Deal Anyway?
They are considered the Emmy’s or the Oscars of the Advertising world…especially if your entry goes all the way to National competition!

With over 60,000 entries annually, the ADDY® Awards are the world’s largest and arguably toughest advertising competition. The ADDY® Awards represent the true spirit of creative excellence by recognizing all forms of advertising from media of all types, creative by all sizes and entrants of all levels from anywhere in the world. These awards honor the best in local advertising and cultivate the highest creative standards in the industry.

The American Advertising Federation, a not-for-profit industry association conducts the ADDY® Awards through its 200 member advertising clubs and 15 districts. It is the only creative awards program administered by the advertising industry for the industry.  Local entries are judged by a distinguished panel of advertising creatives from outside our market. Local winners proceed to the District and, potentially, to National competitions.

Without shining examples, we cannot fully grasp what advertising excellence really is. That’s why AdFed holds the Annual Gainesville ADDY Awards Banquet every February, where the awards are given out.

For more information, visit:
http://4aaf.com/awards_addys.cfm
http://www.aaf.org/default.asp?id=27

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