
{"id":5330,"date":"2009-03-26T10:00:13","date_gmt":"2009-03-26T18:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=5330"},"modified":"2009-03-26T10:00:13","modified_gmt":"2009-03-26T18:00:13","slug":"the-splinter-group-wins-big-in-ad-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/03\/26\/the-splinter-group-wins-big-in-ad-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"The Splinter Group wins big in ad awards"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Margot C. Lester<br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At the recent American Advertising Federation RDU Addy Awards, a five-person Carrboro-based agency took more gold awards than any other Triangle-area agency. The Splinter Group, which creates visual identities for businesses and organizations, won four gold Addys, three silvers and a judge\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s choice award. Since its inception nine years ago, the company has won 34 Addys, a Telly and garnered a Grammy nomination.<\/p>\n<p>Only Raleigh agency CapStrat won more Addys this year, with nine.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They have about 60 more employees than us.\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 So we were thrilled to do so well against the big shops,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Steve Balcom, the agency\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s co-founder. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Seventy agencies entered work and the judging was really tough this year. Far fewer awards were given out than usual.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Balcom is hard-pressed to say which award made him proudest. The \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Circa 1958\u00e2\u20ac\u009d book created for the Ackland Art Museum show of the same name \u00e2\u20ac\u0153was a ton of work, so it was nice to have it recognized,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Balcom said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153For sentimental reasons, it was also awesome to win a gold award for the holiday concert poster we did for Squirrel Nut Zippers. We go way back with that band from our Mammoth days. <\/p>\n<p>One of our designers, Ryan Dean, hand-lettered the majority of the poster, so it was incredibly labor intensive.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>A surprising winner was a small ad for Durham Catering Co., which netted a gold and the judge\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s choice. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was a small ad that was a spoof on one of those froofy wedding announcements that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d read in the society section of the newspaper,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said co-founder Lane Wurster. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But instead of listing a bunch of the typical wedding information about the groomsmen, bridesmaids, setting, etc., our ad just described all of the food that was served at the reception. Four paragraphs of detailed text about the passed appetizers, entrees and desserts. It was a simple idea, but we were psyched that the judges took the time to read it and got it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s success comes in part from working together for many years. Though The Splinter Group is nine years old, the principals have been collaborating since they worked together at the now-defunct local label Mammoth Records. That long working relationship allowed the team to develop a solid philosophy that drives the agency\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We pride ourselves on being an anti-ad agency. No bureaucracy, politics, focus groups or smoke and mirrors,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wurster said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We see our clients as our peers and we try to do right by them. Most of our clients are developing, niche brands that don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have huge budgets, so we have to get creative to maximize their resources.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s creativity is inspired by Merge Records, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Office\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the Love Train (Sound of Philadelphia box set), HBO\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Flight of the Conchords\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and a few local influences like Ryan Adams, Flagship I.P.A.,\u00c2\u00a0Neal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Deli and, of course, Tar Heel hoops.<\/p>\n<p>Not content to sit pretty on recent successes, The Splinter Group team is keeping its collective nose to the grindstone. For instance, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s working on a logo for John Currence\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new restaurant in Oxford, Miss., a brasserie called Snackbar in the style of Balthazar or Bouchon. But most of its clients, like Carolina Brewery or Aventine (a cabinetry\/woodworking shop) are in Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Durham, where the business was based for its first seven years.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Durham was cool, but we never really felt like we were part of the community,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wurster explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Here in Carrboro we love not having to draw a line between work and play.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Margot C. Lester Staff Writer At the recent American Advertising Federation RDU Addy Awards, a five-person Carrboro-based agency took more gold awards than any other Triangle-area agency. The Splinter Group, which creates visual identities for businesses and organizations, won four gold Addys, three silvers and a judge\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s choice award. Since its inception nine years&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5331,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5330\/revisions\/5331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}