The organisers of the Cannes Lions have announced the design category jury for this year’s International Festival of Creativity, with the bulk of judges coming from brand agencies. Presiding over the jury is Wolff Olins’ CEO Karl Heiselman, with other judges coming from a variety of advertising, design and brand agencies but notably including Landor Associates, Interbrand and Brandia Central.

Commenting on the jury line-up, Philip Thomas, CEO of Lions Festivals said, “The prestige associated with winning a Lion is largely a result of the calibre of the professionals judging the work. It is therefore fitting to have such a formidable group of industry experts.”

The design category of the annual prestigious awards event, held in June in Cannes, France, includes a sub-category for logo and visual identity work. Judges, however, have historically been hard to please. Last year no submissions were rewarded gold, with only one won entrant gaining silver recognition; to the Brazilian agency Greco Design.

A similar trend was seen at this year’s Dubai Lynx. Again the highest recognition was silver, awarded to Dubai-based Omnia for its work with Mubadala Petroleum. Steve Haysom, CEO at Omnia, commenting on the agency’s win, noted “In our category, there were 135 entrants, and we were one of four brands shortlisted – and of course the only one to win. We were up against some stiff competition in our category and it shows that clients in the region really do value relationships and are willing to put their trust in smaller teams.

The full panel for the Cannes Lions is as follows:

Karl Heiselman, Chief Executive Officer, Wolff Olins, USA – Jury President

Adrian Burton, Executive Creative Director, Lambie-Nairn, UK

Alisa Wolfson, Senior Vice President, Leo Burnett, USA

Arch MacDonnell, Creative Director, Inhouse, New Zealand

Barry Quinn, Executive Creative Director, Juniper Park, Canada

Bruno Bertani, Creative Director/ Head of Design, Prole, Brazil

Catrin Vagnemark, Creative Director, BVD, Sweden

Claire Parker, Partnership Creative Director, Design Bridge, The Netherlands

Claudia Fischer-Appelt, Partner, Karl Anders, Germany

David Park, Creative Director, Maud, Australia

David Mously, Creative Managing Director, BBDO Berlin, Germany

Fei Wang, Head of Art, Ogilvyone, China

Hideto Yagi, Creative Director, Art Director, Dentsu, Japan

Mangesh Rane, Founder Director, Open Strategy & Design, India

Mat Heinl, Chief Executive Officer, Moving Brands, UK

Miguel Viana, BrandDesign Master, BrandiaCentral, Portugal

Nancy Villanueva, Managing Director, Interbrand, Spain

Pum Lefebure, Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Design Army, USA

Sulet Jansen, Creative Director, Switch, South Africa

Ted Lim, Chief Creative Officer, Dentsu Aegis Network, Singapore

Tristan Macherel, Executive Creative Director, Landor Associates, France