Although the days were grueling and, at times, it felt as though my eyes were going to completely shut down due to information overload, I was happy to be around like-minded souls. At the end of each day, my fellow judges and I would assemble at the hotel bar and talk, talk, talk. The topic of discussion was always design. Good or bad, new and different, boring and overused. We were never left wanting for material.

It felt good to talk shop morning, noon and night. I loved diving into minutiae with other designers who honestly care about the weight of a font or the pedigree of a face. I was completely in my element and loving every minute of it.

Do you have a favorite font? I pulled out my pen just in time to catch the list of judges’ favorites and jot them down. Oh, and a special thanks goes to Jeri, who was so kind as to spell-check for me.

In no particular order, here’s the list of favorites we compiled:

• Gill 262
• Helvetica
• Akzidenz Grotesk
• Bodoni
• Torino
• Didot
• Baskerville ITC
• Futura
• HTF Gotham
• Trade Gothic
• Optima
• Fedra

 

Sonia Greteman, president and creative director, went to California two weeks ago to judge Communication Arts’ 49th Design Annual, the design industry’s most respected competition. During her days, she spent hours pouring over hundreds of entries with eight other industry experts. At night, she and the judges gathered around a table to eat, drink and ruminate on the industry. In the following posts, we’ll get a glimpse into CA and the fascinating conversations.

When you receive a copy of a Communication Art’s design annual every November, its glossy pages are packed with vibrant images of stellar design. But for all of its perfection, you simply don’t realize the process, pain and dedication it takes to weed out, hone, cull and edit down the sheer magnitude of entries to a small, focused, yet inspiring show.

Entries were down this year, I’m told, though I’m sure it has something to do with the economy. Regardless, there are still a lot of design and communication materials being cranked out. The first shock in judging CA is the fact that there is a bunch of bad stuff entered – borderline atrocious, “Joe’s Pawn Shop” kind of stuff. I mean, I’m always so critical of our own work, only entering one or two pieces, but we really shoulda entered a few more this year… We woulda been a contendah.

The second realization is the pure quantity, the mountains of materials and money spent on this stuff. You can’t help but be amazed by the amount of time, energy, resources and manpower spent on design and printed materials. I saw more four-color, glossy, matte, uncoated, translucent, multi-process, die-cut, tipped-on, folded-up, foil-stamped, letter-pressed, metallic-inked, oversized, illustrated, photographed pieces than I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

But here’s the good news: Our business is alive and well… And, if not for the occasional pawn shop ad, flourishing.