I have to tell you, I’m lucky to work with some wickedly talented people. I’ve often said to my creative colleagues that no one hands out awards for the best creative brief or powerpoint deck on messaging strategy or emerging media point of view. Ultimately, the real fruits of my labor is THE WORK. For any anyone that works in advertising outside of the creative department, if you’re not enabling, empowering and laying the groundwork for great work, you’re simply not doing your job.

This past February, my shop had a great showing at the Kansas City ADDY Awards, taking home a valet’s cart full of lucite and two Best Of Shows. Recently, the annual AAF District 9 regional ADDY awards were held and we once again had a great showing. Included among our Gold ADDY honors was our work for Commerce Bank and McDonald’s as well as self-promotional Interactivism piece. (For a full accounting of our wins, make with the clicking here.)

But the highest honors went to our branding work for one of Kansas City’s fantastic new dining hot spots, Julian. Mad props go to the creative team of Brent Anderson, Nathaniel Cooper and Jordan Gray for their Best In Show win. To cruise through the work, check out the slideshow below.

[Photos: Gabe Hopkins]

While I personally had nothing to do with the effort, you better believe I’m jazzed for these guys. More importantly, it puts me on my toes as “the account guy” when I work with a talented crew like this for other projects, knowing not only what they’re capable of achieving but also understanding that I must be a catalyst and partner in enabling them to do their very best work.

If they’re going to bring their “A” game, I owe them mine in return.

All of our Gold-winning work will automatically advance to the national ADDY competition — scheduled for June in Orlando, Florida — along with a select number of our Silver winners. Can’t wait to see how we stack up against the national competition!