The beginning of each year is always owner/creative director Kevin Fullerton’s favorite time of the year — judging season. Of course this year was really, really weird

Fullerton judged three different competitions:

• AAF-Tuscon American Advertising Awards
• AAF District 5 (Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia) American Advertising Awards
• AAF District 10 (Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana) National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC)

And he judged them all remotely. Which added some serious challenges to judging.

• For the AAAs, the print work was harder to judge, because Judges were judging a photo of the piece. Judges couldn’t flip through it, experience it or even spend time with it.
• Getting the judges to interact on the Best Of categories was also challenging, as the coordinator couldn’t just pull pieces and review them with the judges. Judges had to remember them.
• But NSAC judging was more difficult. A large part of the competition is the interaction between the judges and competitors. Fortunately, District 10 had a great coordinator who made the judging as smooth as possible.

Here’s to the 2021 judging season getting back to normal. We hope.