IDEO Chicago Annual Studio Awards

For 14 years, I helped design, produce, and MC IDEO Chicago's (AKA ChIDEO's) annual studio awards. The ritual started with a request from the Managing Director at the time to have an end-of-year celebration that was more meaningful than a regular holiday party — something that celebrated our collective work and highlighted individual contributions.

From the beginning, we anchored on the structure of the Academy Awards. Our twist was to make the awards about the weirdest, most wonderful, innovative things that happened in our studio that year. We had 10 categories, which we, as a leadership team, tweaked each year to incentivize emerging behaviors beneficial to our business (and de-incentivize those working against our shared goals). "Amp up the collaboration!" "Tamp down overworking."

Award categories included: "What the What?!?" (for the weirdest, whackiest thing that happened in the studio), "Business Unusual" (best BD effort), "Agent Provocateur" (for the team that most pushed their client out of their comfort zone), "Tough Mudder" (for the team that showed endurance in the face of adversity), and "Culture Club" (best internal initiative), among others. We would end the evening with a celebration of landmark IDEOversaries and drink a shot of homemade Cherry Bounce (or cherry-flavored non-alcoholic equivalent), a ChIDEO tradition started by one of our Design Research Directors/resident foodies.

I acted as project lead of Studio Awards most years, setting and blowing out the theme, managing the activities of various sub-teams, helping to find a venue if we were going offsite, organizing the balloting and voting processes, and being showrunner and co-host.

The roles I played aside, I believe the reason ChIDEO Studio Awards became legendary and long-lived was because the event was co-designed with the community. Everyone participated, so everyone had a little skin in the game. Another reason was the ritual stood in stark contrast to our day-to-day consulting work. Our designers were always being asked to look into the future. In comparison, Studio Awards were nights about collectively pausing and looking back: we reflected, told stories about our shared triumphs and tribulations, and bonded.

We kept ChIDEO's Annual Studio Awards alive through the first year of the pandemic, transitioning it to a Zoom format to give our community a sense of stability during an anxiety-ridden time. We finally retired the ritual in 2022 when IDEO reorganized and we became a larger, IDEO North America region.

Please join me in giving out this final award — a "Lifetime Achievement Award" — to Studio Awards: a tie that bound our community together for 14 long years.