Last week the Seattle ADDY Awards were held and Andre and I did pretty dang well. Together we took home 11 awards, 2 gold and 9 silver, and our old digs (TM Seattle) took home 16 total. All in all, it was a pretty good show and we had a nice haul. And honestly, I don’t think we had anticipated on doing quite as well as we did, but heck, we’ll take it.

A big thanks to all the others to played a pivotal role in the agency to make all the work actually take shape and become that much better; Forrest Healy, Zach Hitner, Susana Cascais, Megan Sczesny, Leslie Hardy, Curtis Jackson and Sharron Higbee. Not to mention the great clients at Group Health and Redhook Ale. Same goes for the Seattle Ad Club for putting on a fantastic event.

If you weren’t able to make it to the awards night, do the next best thing and take a stroll through the Flickr set.

Perhaps you already noticed (most likely not), but my writing partner, Andre Vriesman and I, finally gathered up the best of the 750 photos we took of the GroupHealth domination we did this summer at the Westlake Center in downtown Seattle and added it to the ol’portfolio. It’s always tough trying to tell the story of such a big ordeal in the most simple way possible. I think it came together pretty well.

This was the third year we got the opportunity to use this alt-media canvas and, in my mind, it’s the best one yet. The idea was to turn the giant mass of granite bricks that is the courtyard of the Westlake Center into a leafy oasis where people could escape their urban surroundings. From this, the GroupHealth Park was born. We also added a 14 x 12 foot wilderness maze that encourages would be hikers to get out and be healthy and a 16 foot long tire hop to train on. Not to mention all the table top art and banners we made too. One of which is a huge topo map of Mt. Rainier National Park. My eyes could pore over that for hours on end. Take a look for yourself.

The greatest thing about doing this kind of advertising has got to be how people react to it. It’s one of the few instances I’ve had in my career where I’ve gotten to witness firsthand, people interacting with your work, smiling, taking pictures of each other and genuinely enjoying something you helped create. It’s a great feeling.