An Award Winning Creative Agency
Standing on the ACE Awards stage on Saturday, April 7, 2018 marked an important moment in the history of Top Draw. As we enter into our 25th year in business, the agency (finally) won a few creative awards, including an ACE. In all fairness to past members of the creative team here, we haven’t ever actually entered creative award shows before this year. That had a lot to do with the way we saw ourselves.
Two and a half years ago that began to change. Ken and Adriel had an employee recommend me for my current position (thanks!) and I was given the mandate to build a proper creative team, build a sustainable creative practice, and win awards – in that order. All of those things have already or are starting to take place.
It’s All Happening At Our Agency
I’ve been around long enough to know that even when there is a plan, there is no plan. So the fact that we have been able to make things happen, in the right order is pleasantly surprising to me. I suppose much of that is because we are humble enough to be self-critical about what is and what isn’t working, about what Top Draw is really good at and set goals that use our strengths and make up for our weaknesses. We also wanted to build the right thing, the right way. Step one was building a creative team that is high functioning and ambitious. We now have that.
The sustainable practice has been a harder thing to do. Even though Top Draw was founded as a graphic design shop in the early 1990’s, our approach to selling design had always been by treating it as a product to sell to a business rather than the output of strategic business activity. “Do you need a website? We make affordable websites that are Lead Generation Machines™.”
Of course that worked for a certain type of business, and still does because it targeted the thing that most businesses worry about the most – ROI. But if delivering ROI is the singular way you brand a creative agency, it becomes a certainty that creativity (as defined by Designers and Art Directors) will eventually wane, and that the creative reputation never fully matures. No reputation = no top-flight creative talent, and no interest from clients that want the kind of creative agency that wins awards and attention.
But, because work is not something we are typically short of, the past year and a half has led a small group of customers with broader needs to Top Draw. This group then discovers that we have a high functioning creative team that is worthy of being trusted with nuanced brand problems. Because of that trust, we have been able to start building a book of work that is winning awards.
To date, 2017/18 has seen us win 14 creative awards: 7 Muse Awards, 6 Hermes Awards, and an ACE award.
Of those, I’m especially proud of our ACE award for best logo and Word-mark. This is because it’s not any ACE award, but an ACE in a category that typically has a lot of competition, and is filled with a lot of high-level work. I’m also proud of that award because of who the judges were (like Gail Mak from ZAK). I have followed their careers passively for a decade, and their recognition carries weight.
A new stage for a creative agency
So we have a great team, and have won a few awards, but I want more. More work that is challenging and complex, more great people looking to join our team, and more awards (hopefully). But we still don’t get clients seeking us out directly because of the quality of creative work that we are capable of producing.
Check it out. Pour praise on us. Be critical. Or just say hi.