It was comeback time for Trigger at the 2011 Anvil Awards in Calgary Friday. The agency has been at or near the top of the Anvil award count in recent years, but failed to win a single first-place Anvil in 2010. This year it topped the winners list with nine awards.
“We came back from the dead this year,” said Todd Blevins, co-creative director for Trigger. “We not only won nine Anvils, we also won 17 Merit awards.”
Best of Show, however, went to boutique design firm Foundry Communications for its annual report for the Graphic Designers Society of Canada. The report was printed on recycled press sheets with a clever binding that could be removed with the pull of a string to allow the paper to be recycled again.
Trigger won Anvils for non-traditional guerilla, outdoor single, radio single, radio series, advertising campaign, poster design single, out of home single, poster design series and display ad single.
Wax, which has dominated the Anvils the last two years taking home the most Anvils and winning Best of Show, won a respectable five Anvils for best use of illustration, poster design series, magazine single, magazine series and out of home series.
MacLaren McCann Calgary also took home five first-place awards for TV series, TV single, logo, corporate identity and environmental design.
Other multiple winners include Karo, Stem Communications, Taxi and ZGM Collaborative Marketing with two Anvils each.
Blevins, who was also director of judging for this year’s Awards, said he was impressed by the number of smaller agencies who took home Anvil and Merit awards. “We had a wider range of winners and new winners like Stem, which is great for the show.”
Over 600 people attended the sold out awards gala at Calgary’s Hotel Arts.
The Anvils are organized by the Ad Rodeo Society.
