WPPED Cream 2007  

JURY CHAIRMAN, RODNEY FITCH | CHAIRMAN & CEO | FITCH


Rodney Fitch



WPP has a stable of some of the best Design & Branding agencies around. As a result, our jury of creative leaders more or less chose itself as follows:

Peter Knapp from Landor; Gregg Quinton from The Partners; Martin Lambie-Nairn from Lambienairn; Glenn Tutsell from Enterprise IG; Stephen Bell from Coley Porter Bell; Tim Greenhalgh from Fitch; Marcus Codrington Fernandez from Ogilvy; and David Villiers from G2.

We first met in april and agreed the following categories:

Product, On Screen/Digital, Environmental - Retail & Hospitality, Environmental - Exhibition & Live Events, Branding - Identity & Print, Branding - Promotional & Packaging, and Integrated.

Our selection criteria was unanimous: absolutely the best work and absolute quality. Therefore it was a pleasure to find not only quality, but also breadth in the work submitted: from the sublime to the humorous; from the beautiful to the pragmatic; from the very large to the tiny. The work embraced projects from big brands to no brands; from a wonderful children's book to the branding of a new airline.

It's not easy judging a book against a shop or a pack against a car but in the end our Crème de la Crème award went to The Partners project for the National Gallery in London. A smallish project from a smallish agency but a big idea that demonstrated wit, subtlety and topicality. An idea that not only brightened the streets of London but showed quite clearly the relationship between good design and successful brand building.

It was an honour to work with my fellow judges, they really are the best in the business. At times I was wet eyed but the exercise served to remind me why I'm in WPP in the first place.