Our fifth event, EXTRA BOLD: An Evening with Ellen Lupton was a huge success – thank you so much to everyone who came out and to all who helped organize. MUN's Signal Hill Campus was a buzz with advertising folks, marketers, designers, and enthusiasts to hear Ellen Lupton speak about inclusion, feminism, and sensory in graphic design. It was an incredible perspective that we're sure was inspiring to everyone. Thank you so much to Sheridan College's James March for travelling home from Toronto to be with us, and to Perfect Day's John Devereaux for his natural hosting skills. The 2019 'thedesigners award' was presented to Jeanette Pelley by John Atkins (JAC) and Courtney Wells (Ray Agency). CNA graduating design student Tera McDonald spoke on behalf of her graduating class, who were exhibiting some of their work during the intermission – thanks to everyone that went over to view the work and meet with the students.
Thanks so much to Ellen Lupton for coming to St. John's – it was Ellen's first visit to our province and she had a great time. She went out on a boat to see icebergs up close, ate incredible meals at Mallard Cottage, The Merchant Tavern, Battery Cafe, and Seto (who kept their kitchen open late for us just so Ellen could have a great evening - THANK YOU!).
Special thanks to Adam Hefferman for taking photos all night for us.
This year's 'thedesigners award' was presented to Jeanette Pelley – Jeanette Pelley is an industry innovator and a ‘breaker of glass ceilings’, paving the way for new generations of women in advertising and design. She started out as a television star on NTV’s childrens show Fun-O-Rama where, for four years, she played Miss Anne. This relationship with NTV led to her role as Creative Director of NTVs advertising department for the next eleven years.
When ad agency Sega Communications landed the coveted Newfoundland & Labrador Tourism account, Jeanette was recruited to join Sega’s team as ‘Project Manager’ for this new account. “Tourism” was a relatively new term in Newfoundland & Labrador, not the multi-billion dollar industry it is today. Jeanette’s innovative thinking, strong leadership, and ability to get the job done helped shaped the beginnings of an new direction for marketing this province to the world.
It wasn’t long that she took over as Manager of Sega. She stayed at Sega for four years before branching out to start her own agency, APPA, with Gary Antsey and Rick Pardy – where as far as we can tell, she became our province’s the first woman ad agency ‘owner and partner’ – at a time when women were not seen in leadership roles. APPA had a reputation for doing great work for their clients, who now included that Tourism account. News articles reported APPA had over 1.5 million in billings in their first two months of business - thats what we call hitting the ground running!
A few years later, APPA merged with Sega to form Bristol Communications, with offices in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and later, Qatar. Jeanette was part owner and VP, and now director of the biggest agency our region had ever seen.
Jeanette married and had two wonderful sons. And, we’re not sure where she found the energy or time, but Jeanette also gave back to the community by taking on board roles with The Waterford Hospital Foundation, The Red Cross Council, The Health Science Centre Foundation, and Hospitality Newfoundland & Labrador among others.
Many of us got our starts in this industry under Jeanette’s leadership. Many of us have opportunities available to us because of the work Jeanette and the other kickass glass-ceiling-breaking-women did, creating space for smart strong women. Jeanette dominated as a provincial TV star, a broadcast advertising director, ad agency manager, then owner, community leader, inspirational thinker, and loving Mom. Congratulations Jeanette, so glad you could be with us at MUN Signal Hill Campus to accept the award in person.
We all need great sponsors to make an event a success, folks always say this but we want to reiterate how important our sponsor community is for an event like our's. Ticket sales only make up a very small portion of the operating and marketing costs needed, the sponsors generously take care of the rest. Essentially the sponsors pay the bills so we can all have a great night out talking graphic design ––– thanks so much to all our sponsors -- our extended design community, friends, co-workers, fellow-creatives. Love you all!
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We're working on some ideas for more events, including next year's main event with a guest speaker. Who would you like to see? What other types of events would you like us to present? Let us know at thedesignersnl@gmail.com
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Enquiries: thedesignersnl@gmail.com
and we'll send out updates as soon as we have plans made for next year's event.
