2018—2019
Andres Marti for Fresh 18
Through our creativity we make sense of our world. Our capacity to create thrives when there are no boundaries, no borders and no limits. It is inclusive and diverse, it is individual and cultural, it is local and global but most of all it is free to everyone.
We built Fresh to realize and nurture a new way to reward creativity.
Against Isolationism
August 2017
Witnessing a year in which worldviews turned inwards and the social mediastream started to overflow with confused, divisive opinions, Fabrik, the UK and Europe's leading creative portfolio builder, recognises the need for a new way of supporting and championing creative and artistic thought.
With eyes locked on the year ahead, Fabrik turns to it’s own community of creatives and artists to predict the upcoming uncertainties and opportunities of the next 12 months.
October 2017
Against a backdrop of destructive politics and saturated online spaces, Fresh is conceptualised to be a brand-new global initiative to uncover incredible creative talent.
The team reach out through their own networks to creatives all over the world. The result is a hand-picked global panel of 114 creative leaders and curators that establishes the most prolific reviewing team ever assembled for a free awards showcase.
December 2017
The team build out the structure for the awards showcase, defining 30 categories across the creative industries and developing the value of the initiative.
The initial Fresh site goes live to introduce the initiative. We realise we have a lot of work ahead of us. The opportunity to find and build partnerships begins. Speaking of the showcase, Fabrik's CEO, Tim Jarvis says: "We believe creative work should be awarded based on its capacity to inspire and energise the community and the cultures we’re all part of, and not based on client and agency budgets."
January 2018
The Fresh 18 Call for Entries invitation goes out, encouraging creatives from all backgrounds, cultures and disciplines - at every stage of their careers - to submit work they've created in 2017.
Free to enter and open to everyone contributing to the creative industries, Fresh 18 is a call to empower the visionaries, a believe that creativity aspires hope and an opportunity to shape the future.
Discovering Talent
February 2018
The Fresh 18 Call for Entries closes with over 1600 approved entries. Our shortlist judging panel begins to review the entries.
Shortlist judges are encouraged to review submitted entires across all categories, including creative fields that they don't specialise in.
Each entry is reviewed on average 26 times during the reviewing period.
March 2018
Following the judging round entry scores are calculated based on their criteria averages from all judges, and Fresh's internal multiplier is applied; which weights the five criteria independently.
The most active judges are invited to become curators, who will help the Fresh team form insights into the ideas and concepts expressed across the entire catalogue of entries - not just the winners - in a series of free-form editorial articles.
Rewarding Creativity
April 2018
As our curators confirm their inclusion, the Fresh winners submit their extended entry content and our Best in Book winners are confirmed for film, photography, design, motion & 3D, art and fashion.
The site is expanded to display the winning entries and our planned Insight programme kicks off with an idea generation period for our curators.
May 2018
Fresh is live with a platform that allows us to build new creative partnerships and to generate new ways of empowering and celebrating creativity. Gold, Silver and Bronze winners receive personalised posters, honouring their work and their place in the Class of 18.
The Insight programme continues through summer and autumn with explorations, ideas and concepts from across the Fresh 18 entry pool.
The Journey Ahead
From simple beginnings
Creativity is at the core of our humanity; it is our ability to create and inspire that allows us to evolve. We shape the impossible, the remarkable and the unbelievable.
We're working in a time when our institutions and governments stifle creativity and our media and politics are becoming more divisive and destructive. As worldviews turn inwards, expression becomes choked. Platforms for creativity rather than rhetoric have never been more important. We believe Fresh can be such a platform.
With clear objectives
We believe in transparency and simplicity. We believe that those who make and shape our world should take responsibility for the way it impacts society.
This is an ambitious project but the message is simple; we're levelling the playing field. Creativity has no boundaries, no borders and no gender. Fresh is a new start. We see only craft and creativity. Free to all, it's global and it has never been more important. Fresh 18 is a call to arms for all creatives to thrive and a message of acceptance for all.
This is a call to empower the visionaries.
This is a belief that creativity aspires hope.
This is an opportunity to shape the future.
This is Fresh.