Cresta puts a line in the sands of time
The Cresta Awards has an exotic twist to its announcement of the final deadline for entering this year’s awards.
The much-respected global creative competition announced an unusually precise extension of the absolute close for entries to Friday, 30 July.
Says Lewis Blackwell, CEO of Cresta: “Being a truly global event, some people ask us ‘which 30 July do you really mean? The end of a working day in, say, Tokyo, Jakarta or Singapore is when many are still sound asleep around the other side of the world. Los Angelenos are in dreamtime then, for example, or even up enjoying the previous day. Time itself is a wonderfully creative notion… but we need to pin it down. So we want to be clear and have chosen a precise point that makes it easy to know the new deadline. No excuses now!”
Cresta has settled on the International Date Line being the final arbiter. If you enter before the clock strikes midnight in American Samoa on 30 July, then the entry is sound.
The International Date Line in fact runs between American Samoa and Samoa. American Samoa comes at the very end of the world time-zones while Samoa is the first place in the world to welcome the new day.
Blackwell added that late entrants need to be sure to know whose clock they are working to – and recommended not cutting it too fine: “Please just talk to us this week about your late entry and not the end of next!”
Says Alan Page, president, Cresta : “We have a terrific entry, a real bounce-back around the world against the continuing pressures of the pandemic. While we have a delightful range of very plausible requests for wanting more time to get work in before the entry closes, we need to give our jury their full-time too to judge the work. Hence we put this precise marker down. Our wonderful jury needs to get set to finally see the great entries early in August. Please get your work in now and let’s ensure our jurors can do their best to identify the best.”
Cresta has made a point of running reduced pricing throughout its full open period this year in order to continue to support the industry as much as it can.
Adds Page: “It’s been a challenging year in many ways but we’re delighted to see that the creative world has been doing so much great work and that they are so keen to promote it with us. We are focused on being in the forefront of showing the most innovative and expert work, doing our utmost to advance creative standards by sharing and promoting excellent work.”
Image credit: detail from a Creative Effectiveness entry by Anti AS, Oslo, in the 2021 Cresta Awards.