BDA Awards (and a little confession)

Posted by Justin Cone

I just got back from the BDA Awards, and I’m really impressed by the winners in all the categories. Congrats again to SCAD’s Matt Smithson and Will Campbell for earning awards in the student category. Many other schools (*cough* Otis *cough cough*) did really well, too.

And now for the confession: After pumping fists and slinging drinks with all these people over the last few days, I’m starting to feel like a real poseur. It’s kind of embarrassing that Motionographer is getting so much attention despite the fact that my motion graphics skills are nearly non-existent. This whole thing has really motivated me to create some kick-ass work over the next couple quarters. I’ve always been upfront about my lack of experience and my role as a cheerleader, but now I’m ready to join in the game and get dirty.

I’ll be posting a feature story soon about my experience at BDA that will hopefully shine some light on the event for those who’ve never attended. It’s a pretty damn crazy conference for a pretty damn crazy industry.

About the author

Justin Cone

/ justincone.com
Together with Carlos El Asmar, Justin co-founded Motionographer, F5 and The Motion Awards. He currently lives in Austin, Texas with is wife, son and fluffball of a dog. Before taking on Motionographer full-time, Justin worked in various capacities at Psyop, NBC-Universal, Apple, Adobe and SCAD.
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13 Comments

Dave

The last BDA conference I went to was like 8 years ago when it was in Toronto. It was before Belief was huge, and the 2 main guys (Mike Goedeke, and I can’t remember the other guy’s name) hosted a session called “Better, Faster, Cheaper: The Macintosh.” I was like “holy sh*t…I can do this stuff too!” Yeah, the BDA conference is great…mega inspiring.

jan

justin if things go wrong you can always ask divorce

ryan

Hey Justin, don’t feel like a poseu. The world needs cheerleaders too! Promax is always very inspiring. Everytime I go it stresses me out because I see so much good work.

Jon Y

Best speakers I’ve seen at Promax BDA:

New York 2004: Stephen O. Frankfurt
London 2005: Peter Saville

Sarah

Hey Justin, I was in the audience of your BDA session this morning and I thought it was great, actually one of the best of all of the sessions I attended this year. Your critiques and offerings to this industry are invaluable, to both the seasoned veteran and the newbie alike.
You’re not a poseur at all, because your contributions to motion graphics are not only legitimate, but helpful and spot-on – and that makes you the real thing.
thanks!!

Matt

whats the website for bda and how do you get tickets?

bne

maybe you’ll know why mograph.net isn’t up at the moment! I CAN”T TAKE IT ANYMORE!

adam

i can understand why you feel like a poseur, but you shouldn’t.. you actually contribute something and dont make any pretenses about your own personal abilities.. its kind of funny that you feel the need to create “kick ass” work because i’ve noticed a lot of people going to your site to get inspired to do just that.. i feel like many of them fall short because they’re relying on their solid visual inspiration to guide them and not their inner creative beings. im sure you’ll do good but dont think that you need to make something that kicks ass. just make something and make its as good as you can (conceptual and well designed with good audio doesnt hurt either :))

Roxanne

You are all so lucky that you can even attend the BDA awards. I live in little ol’ South Africa and would kill to be exposed to a whole conference dedicated to only motion! I wish i could be feeling like a poseur and watching Justin’s presentation…

David Lewandowski

If you’ve got the eye and a good sense of motion, all that seperates you from the rest of us, is experience. :) Don’t worry Justin ;)

Shawn Burns

Hey Justin. I don’t know you personally, but it seems you know what the hell is up when it comes to good work, and good motion. I think the future will definately prove that you will be a great designer when it comes to motion graphics and anything else associated with it. If you’ve got a good eye, you’ll be fine. I know how you feel when it comes to personal skill levels, that’s what schooling is for right?

I’ll be contacting you soon. Keep up the ridiculously awesome site.

chad bonanno

“whats the website for bda and how do you get tickets?”

Promax.tv

adam

“motion – o – grapher, is lame!” haha.. jus kidding man. you do a great service man, critiques always seem right on you never come in with a pretentious tood. plus your getting your masters… dont sell yourself short, look forward to watch you develope! cheers

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