Check out more photos from the event on our Facebook page.

The 2012 ADDY Awards Gala was a lot of fun.
San Pedro Market Square, a new addition to downtown San Jose, was the backdrop for the biggest night of the year for Silicon Valley’s creative community. The ADDY Awards Gala started with a cocktail hour, allowing agencies to mingle while admiring the winning projects in the showcase gallery. Keynote speaker, Phil McKinney, started the night’s activities with insights from his new book, “Beyond the Obvious”. He talked about the importance of asking the right questions at the right time. Asking the right questions will lead to better ideas and therefore more effective innovations. Then the awards were announced and, by the end of it, we had been honored with nine awards including Best of Show – making it a spectacular night for Liquid and leading us to much more celebrating!

Check out more photos from the event on our Facebook page.

Liquid Agency received the most prestigious award of the night.
We are proud of all the awards we won. Each one represents the fact that our peers think we are doing outstanding work – and that means a lot to us. But, most of all, we’re thrilled to receive the Best of Show Award for a video we produced for Ernest Packaging Solutions, a client that has given us the opportunity to help them transform their company into a truly amazing brand.

Following is a list of our wins:

Best of Show and Best of Category ADDY: Ernest Packaging Solutions Video
With over one million square feet of warehouse space in nine locations across the West and Southwest United States, Ernest Packaging Solutions is not a tiny company. Started over 60 years ago by Ernest and Charles Wilson, the company is now run by Tim Wilson (Charles’s son)  as a company that truly cares about its employees, partners and customers. Liquid has had the distinct pleasure to work closely with Tim Wilson, crafting a brand strategy that has helped position Ernest as the company that is moving the industry forward through innovation, while remaining dedicated to providing the responsive and personalized service that has been at the heart of the company’s culture from the very beginning. The award was won for a video we created to capture the personality of Ernest through the faces and voices of the remarkable people that work there.

Gold ADDY: Microsoft Retail Merchandising Campaign
We have been working with Microsoft for years on a multitude of retail initiatives. The project for which we won the Gold Award at the 2012 ADDYs is a retail merchandising campaign introducing the Microsoft Limited Edition Artist Series of Wireless Mice – an ongoing collection featuring unique designs by talented artists from all over the world. The retail campaign was based on the headline “Touch the art” which invited consumers to treat the products as pieces of fine art that could actually be touched (as opposed to what we learn in most museums). The project  included a wide variety of components including inline displays, end caps, stand alone merchandising units, posters, literature and more. The campaign was featured in retail stores globally.

Gold ADDY: JXP Logo for Jeep
Liquid was hired by The Licensing Company to develop a branding program for Jeep. Working closely with TLC, we crafted a number of brand extensions for Jeep to develop products in categories such as apparel, gifts and accessories, camping and outdoor gear, etc. The JXP logo was part of this initiative and was designed to highlight the facet of the brand that appeals to serious outdoor adventurers – people who value products that deliver exceptional performance through precision engineering, quality manufacturing and innovative technology. Besides the logo, we also developed a complete visual style guide that included typographic standards, color palette, photographic and illustration libraries, and templates for packaging, print and digital marketing materials.

Silver ADDY: Holiday Retail Merchandising Campaign for HP
Our relationship with HP continues to grow and evolve to include brand strategy as well as brand identity and retail merchandising programs. The campaign that won a Silver Addy Award was designed to promote HP’s latest PC systems at retail during the recent Holiday season. Our solution steered away from stereotypical Christmas themes; however it alluded to the celebratory nature of the season. It also presented the tangible benefits of the products (great sound through Beats Audio Technology or crystal clear resolution) through clever headlines that combined seasonal imagery with differentiating features and tangible customer benefits. The campaign was rolled out globally and included a vast array of retail merchandising components.

Silver ADDY: PowerSkin Logo for XPAL
PowerSkin is the brand that dominates the battery case market for smartphones powered by Android. PowerSkin makes cases that provide reliable back-up power source for all-day phone use. Liquid was asked to develop a brand identity, and we delivered a logo inspired by an octopus because of the way that the cases seamlessly attach to phones, extending the battery life of the devices. As part of the brand identity program, we developed the logo, packaging and POP solutions all based on a visual language that is being adopted across all of PowerSkin’s touchpoints.

Bronze ADDY: New Deal Distillery Packaging
Since 2004, New Deal Distillery has been creating high-quality, hand-crafted spirits inspired by the Do-It-Yourself attitude of Portland, Oregon. We designed a unique identity to launch their new Distiller’s Workshop Series brand, as well as the packaging system of their Gin, Vodka, and Whiskey bottles. This project has won many awards already, including the prestigious 2011 Rosey Award for Best Packaging, and it is currently featured in the Packaging Design Annual by Graphic Design USA. We are very happy to have received a Bronze Addy to add to our list!!!

Bronze ADDY: Novvi Logo for Amyris and Cosan
Novvi is a joint venture of Amyris and Cosan. Novvi is a global supplier of renewable base oils for high-performance lubricants, contributing to a cleaner environment and more sustainable lubricants industry. We developed a logo designed to capture the transformative nature of the technology and its focus on environmental responsibility.

Bronze ADDY: Marketing Video Series for Ernest Packaging Solutions
This project was designed to showcase the fun side of Ernest Packaging Solutions. We developed a series of videos executed in a Monty Python inspired approach – using stop motion graphics and a good dose of humor. The videos feature Tim Wilson, the company’s CEO as he undergoes a series of adventures in often misguided efforts to solve customers problems. It takes courage to do something like this – and we value clients that have the fortitude to take risks and not take themselves too seriously. This series has been tremendously effective in separating Ernest from the competitive landscape of companies in the industry – most of which have no discernible personality.