Let's Get Noisy in Boise!

Last Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I had the pleasure of going to Boise, Idaho to judge the Boise Ad Federation’s Rocky Awards. Had a great time in Boise… from beer and pizza at The Front Door (ratebeer.com? Why have I never heard of this before?), to going to a Boise Steelheads hockey game, to doing some shopping and enjoying some local coffee at Hammer Coffee (which not only has good coffee, but has a cool identity/logo thing going on).

Some pics from the hockey game, where the Steelheads beat Utah by a score of 8 to 3…


above: the Steelheads arena, pre-game


above: they put this handy list of things worth taking in the closet. The armoire was tough to get under my coat.

But the main reason I was in Boise was to judge the competition. I wasn’t sure what to expect walking in, but was impressed by the quality of some of the entries. I guess it doesn’t matter how big or small a city you live in, there’s always the opportunity to do great work. But of course I can’t reveal that great work until the awards are announced. Granted, it wasn’t all great, which is probably to be expected from any awards competition.

Being one of three judges put me in an interesting position. If the other two judges were split on something, then I acted as the deciding vote. And since I didn’t know the other judges very well, there’s that “I’m going to say what I think but I don’t really want to offend anyone in the first 30 minutes” situation. Even though we were from different backgrounds, we did share many of the same opinions on what made an entry good or bad. Great concept, design, typography, writing, videography… those pieces were universally praised. Bad design, inaudible audio, and terrible writing didn’t do so well.

Everyone there made us feel welcome and were incredibly gracious hosts. Thanks again for the invitation and pleasure of being a part of this year’s Rocky Awards. If your work did well, I may have had something to do with it. If it didn’t win an award, I guess you can hold me responsible for that as well. That’s my job as a judge.

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