What happens when you gather over 200 of the world's leading designers and clients to celebrate the best of branding? Awards, accolades and air-guitar...
It was a sparkling evening of awards, champagne and celebration. Thursday 6 March saw over 200 leading designers from the world's best branding agencies and their clients gather at the London Film Museum for the inaugural Brand Impact Awards 2014.
Josh Widdicombe
Comedian Josh Widdicombe, the evening's compere, pitched up within heckling distance of Network Career Consultants, one of the event's main sponsors. He reduced the room to tears of laugher before announcing the big winners of the night.
Over 150 world-class entries were submitted to the first-ever Brand Impact Awards. They were judged by a team of branding experts from the industry's top agencies and organisations, including Wolff Olins and D&AD, plus a host of creatives on the client side, independent design writer and consultant Lynda Relph-Knight, and Computer Arts editor Nick Carson.
Best of show
Coast took home Best of Show - Branding Programmes for its Smets department store identity, while Rose landed Best of Show - Branded Campaigns for its Mark Wallinger: Labyrinth project for Art on the Underground.
A special Collaboration Award went to R/GA London and Getty Images, for their The Feed by Getty Images project. And Hat-trick walked away with the Social Impact Award for its Action on Hearing Loss campaign.
You'll find full details of all the winning and commended projects in a free supplement in issue 225 of Computer Arts, on sale now.
Wine and conversation flowed as the evening unfolded, with the party later moving to Carriage 37 - where a free bar facilitated laughter and dancing into the wee hours of the morning. The Computer Arts team were last seen carving some serious shapes on the dance floor (reports of air-guitaring remain unconfirmed).
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If you'd like to enter your agency for 2015's Brand Impact Awards, you'll find the entry form here.
Scroll down for a full round-up in pictures of all the best moments from the Brand Impact Awards…
Bruno Maag
SomeOne in London
Michael Johnson talking
Brand Impact Awards tables
Computer Arts' Julia Sagar presented Frédéric Vanhorenbeke with Coast's award for Best of Show - Branding Programmes
Rose were delighted to pick up Best of Show - Branded Campaigns
The special Collaboration gong went to R/GA and Getty Images
Hat-trick scooped the special Social Impact award. The team later went home with an award in the Technology - Programmes cateogory too
Michael Johnson returned to the stage three times to pick up awards; while Jack Renwick Studio took home the Property - Programmes gong
BrandOpus came top of the Beer, Wines & Spirits category. The agency also walked away with the FMCG - Programmes award
Handsome and The Feral Creative joined Hat-trick on stage after also winning in the Technology - Programmes category
Purpose won in the Education - Campaigns category for Apprentices
Bond & Coyne came top in the Education - Campaigns category, with its Arts University Bournemouth project
The Entertainment category award went home with Moving Brands; R/GA won Fashion - Campaigns with Beats by Dr Dre
Julia is editor-in-chief, retail at Future Ltd, where she works in e-commerce across a number of consumer lifestyle brands. A former editor of design website Creative Bloq, she’s also worked on a variety of print titles, and was part of the team that launched consumer tech website TechRadar. She's been writing about art, design and technology for over 15 years.
