I’d gone off advertising awards a bit.

I even very publicly chucked out 40 years worth of trophies on Facebook.

I hadn’t even entered any awards for donkey’s years.

And then Kinsale Sharks asked me to speak at their 2018 festival along with an invitation to sit on the print jury.

I wasn’t busy at the time so I gave it a bash, after all I had nothing to lose.

I had a fantastic time. Better than I could ever had imagined.

It was probably the best audience I’d ever done my talk to (possibly helped by the fact that a few people brought their kids along too).

My experience on the jury was just as entertaining, passionate and committed as any I’d sat on in the olden days.

So I’m back, fired up again and DELIGHTED that I’ve been asked to be the Kinsale Shark Awards, Jury President for 2019.

This year the flag that I’ll be waving about has got CRAFT written large on it.

Craft in ideas, writing, art direction, typography, photography, editing, illustration the lot.

I’m looking to enrol a lot of crafty creatives to get involved as well, the more the merrier.

I think 2019 is going to be a very creative year for Kinsale Shark Awards, I can’t wait to be part of it.