Over the past several weeks, there has been a lot of talk within the creative community in Portland about the 2009 campaign for the PAF Rosey Awards. This conversation has taken place on twitter and in blogs and Dave Ewald and myself have been part of a lot of it. Our fundamental issue with the Rosey campaign hasn’t been its alleged “edginess”, nor its “swagger”— it’s that it lets Portland off the hook creatively. It asks nothing of this city or the people who work here. It says: whatever you’re doing is good enough, and we’ll just pull others down to get ahead. We believe this is the exact wrong approach and the sort of thinking that will keep Portland from becoming a top tier creative city. But while the conversation has been useful and heartfelt from all points of view, we wanted to do more than talk just about it, we wanted to do something about it.
On June 29th, we launched the Nosey Awards. A project designed to show that Portland can stand on its own, and that we have the work to prove it. It’s a chance to recognize our community and the very best work we have regardless of whether you’re in an agency or your home, big budget or no budget, jaded veteran or student. We wanted an award show that any one could enter, without any financial roadblocks and where the people making the work are the ones deciding who wins.
This isn’t anti-PAF, anti-Portland, or anti-anything other than complacency and mediocracy. What it is about is embracing the idea that the work is everything and that anyone, anywhere is capable of creating greatness. It’s about recognizing the amazing work happening everywhere, and earning the respect of others by being equally amazing. It’s about following through. It’s about taking a night to say “job well done, Portland” and knowing that the next day we’ll get back to it, do more, do better. It’s about knowing that Portland WILL get to the top, but that no one is going to hold open the door for us.
For Dave and I though, this is about more than an award. Our hope is that in competing against each other, we challenge ourselves to compete against the world and bring in a new era to Portland’s design community. One awards show isn’t going to do it all, but if it can help get people organized, help get their work showcased and recognized, or help challenge them to do something they didn’t think they could, then the Nosey Awards has succeeded.
This is our goal, and we hope it’s your goal too. Over the next several weeks we’re going to be building this with these goals in mind, but also feeling our way as we go. If you like what we’re doing and have ideas either strategically or technically that can make this better, please, email us. If you want to get involved in a bigger way – email us. We’ll keep the blog updated with info as we make it. Our hope is that just as this is a show for the creative community, it can be built by the community and itself become an example of what Portland is capable of doing.