Regular readers of the Advocate may be familiar with the work of the winners of this year’s ADDY Award competition Best in Show award. Rob and Damia Stewart of Rob & Damia Design won for their Transit Authority Figures Posters, earning both the gold in the category of collateral material and the competition’s overall award. The posters present imaginary subway systems for regions, like the Pioneer Valley, that don’t actually have public rail systems. The flights of fancy encourage the viewer both to consider their own geography and to imagine what it might be like to have an improved transit system. (These award-winning designers were responsible for the Advocate’s Dec. 31, 2009 Halos and Horns, which also used public transportation as its theme.)
Each year the Advertising Club of Western Massachusetts (ACWM) presents the awards, honoring creative excellence in advertising in all media including print, broadcast, interactive, mixed/multiple media and advertising for the arts and sciences. There were 141 entries this year from 31 agencies, companies or individuals.
Rob & Damia Design also won gold awards for their work on the Museums10 location campaign, a brochure for Williams College’s theater and dance season, and the logo for Transit Authority Figures.
The awards are given concurrently across the country in local markets. Gold Award winners in these local contests compete regionally, and winners of the regional contests go on to a national and international competition.
