The Open Call for the 30th Edition of the ADCE Awards has just been launched and we wanted to reflect on what it means for us to judge the best European design and advertising today, and where we see the real power of creativity.
There is no doubt that awards are not the only measure of creativity, and that creativity for creativity’s sake is nice, but in the current context of climate emergency, political polarisation and pandemic, it feels inadequate. This realisation has made our Awards evolve in recent years, and beyond celebrating and giving visibility and promotion to the best European award-winning work, we have come up with a set of new awards that recognise a series of values that we feel deserve standing out, now more than ever.
As we’ve been increasingly experiencing in the last decade, and as our President Alex Schill reflected when he joined ADCE, creativity has an amazing power to leave a mark in society. This means that it is in our hands to use this power to promote higher causes and use creativity to push for a better world and solve society’s most pressing problems.
That is why our Awards seek to keep striving not only for excellence, but also to support key European values through three special recognitions:
Hannes Böker and Susana Albuquerque present the ADCE European Star Award in 2019.
In 2019, we launched the European Star Award, renamed ADCE European Star-Johannes Newrkla Award last year, to pay tribute to one of the founders of ADCE who we lost to Covid-19 in the early days of the pandemic. The award recognises, amongst all submitted entries, ideas that reflect European values such as diversity and inclusion, freedom, justice, and the promotion of peace. Because Johannes fervently believed in Europe and in the power of creativity and the idea of “Unity in Diversity” we thought this award should bear his name.
In 2020, we presented the ADCE Genius Loci Award with the aim of celebrating the values of Europe’s diverse local cultures across work in all categories. This award rewards creative excellence with the power to reveal a European location’s distinctive atmosphere, the spirit of a particular place within the exceptionally rich European cultural heritage.
This year, we are adding another special award to the list, the ADCE Green Star Award, which has been created to foreground, also across work of any category, pieces that promote circular economy, sustainability, or the protection of the environment.
We believe these distinctions enable us to keep our Awards relevant and have a positive impact not only in the creative industries but also in society and the planet.
If your work has been recognised at a national level in Europe, you can submit your awarded pieces until 29th October. Let us celebrate our 30 years with a big showcase of creativity that matters!