Announcing the Winners of the 2019 Adobe Government Creativity Awards

The Adobe Government Creativity Awards (AGCA) broke records again this year, with more than 500 creative projects submitted from around the world.

The AGCA is an annual awards program for government professionals hosted by Adobe. Since its inception in 2015, thousands of creative professionals have been recognized across government.

“It was a real eye-opener to see the high level of visual media within the public sector,” said one of this year’s judges, Arthur Robillard, Design Officer with The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO).

Categories of submissions ranged from photography, graphic and print design, video animation and motion graphics, web and mobile design, to overall citizen-facing and/or employee-facing campaigns.

The ultimate goal of the program is to celebrate creativity in public service — and to recognize best practices in government, showcasing individuals and teams who are working hard to support their organization’s mission through design.

“It was so gratifying to see that in some cases, neither small budgets nor limited resources stifled the creative process,” said another judge, Ken Bodine, from the Public Affairs & Communications office at the Civic Center. “The level of professionalism and the quality of each team’s storytelling abilities were incredible.”

This year, inspiring work was submitted across seven (7) countries: the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Germany and India.

View the 2019 Winners Showcase

****2019 Winners

89 projects were recognized this year, including:

What makes a winning entry?

“There’s so much exciting work happening in government right now. The AGCA shows only a snapshot of the best that’s out there,” said Cecilia Piedrahita, Senior Enterprise Marketing Programs Manager at Adobe.

Visually compelling and intuitive designs are a necessity today. People’s attention spans are shrinking so quickly — and it’s demanding even more creativity from all of us in order to earn attention and make the impact we want to make.

“It’s always hard to narrow down,” Piedrahita said. “In fact, we expanded the number of people who were recognized for honorable mentions. The work was that good!”

Winning entries also had qualities such as:

“This year, I noticed an increased number of entries with digital and interactive elements; which, I believe, is an on-trend approach of added value to a brand’s message and delivery,” said one AGCA judge, Kathleen E. Wilson, Communications Strategist, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield/FEP® Operations Center and CEO, Kayson Creative LLC.

For example, the brilliance of We Love You to the Moon and Back – NASA Valentines by category winner Sara Blumberg of NASA Goddard showcases the versatility in application of design. One symbol represented multiple layers of meaning and thought — and was ultimately used in different, fun and creative ways.

“Creatives at NASA Goddard in Greenbelt, MD, love to tell a story. From the scientist, to the producer to the science writer, we all work together to tell the public very complicated science information in a relatable way. What better way to do it than by showing some love?” shared Blumberg when explaining the backstory of this project.

“Bringing this project to fruition took a lot of communication. For the last two years, I served as the project’s design lead. As a member of the Goddard Social Media team, I coordinated with social leads in different divisions to come up with a design plan. Together we came up with a list of sayings and storyboards. Graphics included everything from simple stills to interactive gifs.” “For each of the designs I used a variety of Adobe software: Illustrator, After Effects and Photoshop,” explains Blumberg.

The larger impact of AGCA

The AGCA’s purpose is to highlight the best creative work taking place in government each year. But it doesn’t stop there.

“AGCA grew into more than an awards program. It’s become one place for our niche industry of government creatives to share their work, learn from each other, get better, and get recognized for it. That’s the vision,” said Piedrahita.

The judges are selected from a diverse set of industries from both public and private sectors.

“With each AGCA entry, I am impacted and inspired by the conscious art of expression, interpretation of content and creative blend of words and images used to make a statement. I value this unique opportunity as one of the most rewarding of my career. My role as a judge allows me to share great advice with talented artists and graphics designers worldwide, ultimately, influencers who are shaping the future of communications,” said Wilson.

View all 2019 submissions in the AGCA Virtual Gallery

Thank you to all who submitted and congratulations to all the winners of 2019! We look forward to seeing what you’re working on next for AGCA 2020!