Okay, so I have about three minutes to write this entry.

Yesterday was the first day of judging for the Art Directors Club (ADC). It was amazing and exhausting. There were over 12,000 entries for the entire competition. Yes, 12,000.

The basic format was to split all the judges into groups of five. This was nice because you got to spend all day with four other people and really get to know them. You then rotated between four different stations if you were in the print design category: Broadcast, Print 1, Print 2 and Digital — Digital being digital images and/or movies of interior/architectural design and typography.

We worked like maniacs spending almost the entire day — 9 am to 6:30 pm — doing nothing but looking at entries. For the broadcast and digital categories, the group of five sat in front of a projector or TV and watched the entries and ranked each one "in" or "out" on a small clipboard. For the print —poster, book, branding, etc. — we walked around with miniature Post-its and stickered the backs of the entries we liked. The assistants to the judges then tallied which entries made it to round two, which is today.

Random note about Japan: Wow, the Japanese have a huge presence in this year's show, mainly in print (almost nothing in broadcast or space-design). There were some posters I was really pushing for that I hope made it through to the next round. Generally speaking, beautiful printing and well executed design.

Okay okay, I'm going to be late. More later.

update: Notes from Day 2