One Show Design Honors HBO Voyeur, and I Meet a Sword Swallower

It was good times for Leo Burnett at the One Show Design ceremony last night. (Or maybe it just seemed that way because LB's only representative, Connie Lam, wife of Alex Lam at Leo Burnett Singapore, left with more pencils than she could carry.)

Considering we had to sit through the awards ceremony while standing amidst an indecent amount of beer and alcohol, the event was pretty swanky. The ads were amazing and the crowd littered with select members of the design elite. But I was disappointed to find most pencil recipients didn't bother to send anybody by to pick their awards up. I hate the *cricket, cricket* feel of accolades left unclaimed.

Some Gold recipients:

Collateral Design: Posters - Campaign: Jabula Hair and Braids. Agency: JWT, Cape Town

Collateral Design: Posters - Single: Amway, India. Agency: Rediffusion DYR, Gurgaon

Package Design - Single: Indesit Company. Agency: Leo Burnett, Milan

Collateral Design: P.O.P. In-store - Single: Mattel, Germany. Agency: Ogilvy, Frankfurt

HBO Voyeur by BBDO, NY walked away with Best of Show. Which is satisfying, because we dug it.

See all Pencil winners or read about the One Show Design judges.

The after party: awesomer still. Phyllis Robinson, of copywriting fame from her early days at DDB, was present. I tried to take stealthy photos while she chatted -- or rather, kindly permitted people to chat at her. I thought to myself that if anybody had a copywriter "look," Phyllis has it: eagle eyes, and a face that suggests she's still got plenty of edge left on her pen.

There was sushi, lots of snacks, a sword swallower (eek!), and the Giant Stilt People that come stock at all ad parties EVER. Drinks ran unchecked.

Mostly I hung out with Meredith Turner of The Rosen Group. She introduced me to president Kevin Swanepoel of the One Club, who whipped his iPhone out and showed us pictures of Mao pins from China.

Later I found myself shoulder-to-shoulder with the sword swallower, who told me to call him The Great Fredini and asked if I would like to pull a sword out of his throat. I said I would if he'd let me look inside his mouth while he slid it in, which he did (it's totally real!). Then I motioned to his crest of swords and asked if he could swallow all those too.

"I can," he said soberly.

"May I pick one out?" I asked.

"No," he said.

"Why?"

"It's been a big sword swallowing night. If I don't moderate my pace, I'll wake up with a sore throat."

I related this conversation to Meredith, who rolled her eyes and drawled, "Isn't that what you'd expect your sword swallower to say?"

The night ended with hugs, cheek kisses and cotton candy. Somebody helped Connie Lam pack up all her pencils. On my way out, I picked up a One Show bag and caught a cab with Diane Stefani, who regaled me with useful information about good places to live in Manhattan, her husband's catering business, and his nifty hobby of making jewelry out of typewriter bits. (I want some. Badly.)

When I got back to my hotel room (see vast gilded bed!!!), I kicked my shoes off and dumped my One Show swag out onto the sheets.

It was filled with the following items: a trial sub to the WSJ online, some ad and design magazines, a visit to the Chelsea, an OpenAd.net pen, a black Leo Burnett pencil, dark chocolate, a milk chocolate One Show pencil wrapped in gold foil, an esoteric music CD, and a big snappy One Show shirt that will serve as a nightgown for the rest of this week.