Five ADDY wins across five categories
Palmer Creative Co. earned five ADDY Awards in the 2025 American Advertising Awards cycle through AAF Southern Illinois, with recognition across brand identity, copywriting, packaging, interactive/web, and out-of-home work. The ADDY Awards are the advertising industry's largest and most representative competition, recognizing creative excellence from agencies, studios, and in-house teams at the local, district, and national level.
The five recognized entries represented work from four different client relationships, each at a different stage and in a different category. The wins spanned outdoor gear, luxury skincare, children's e-commerce, and pregnancy-focused skincare — which reflects the range the studio works across rather than a narrow specialty.
The full list of recognized work:
- Gold ADDY for Best of Show — Throughike brand identity
- Silver ADDY for copywriting — Throughike brand voice
- Silver ADDY for sales promotion / packaging design — Golden Tallow packaging
- Silver ADDY for online / interactive website — RightSide Children's Apparel ecommerce website
- Silver ADDY for out-of-home poster design — Saucy Mama poster campaign
Throughike: the Integrated Brand Identity Campaign that earned Best of Show
The 2025 Gold ADDY for Best of Show went to the Throughike brand identity, entered in the Integrated Brand Identity Campaign category — a full identity system built for an outdoor gear company that needed to enter a competitive category with no existing market history behind it.
The challenge with Throughike was building something that could carry the weight of an established brand before the company had years of presence behind it. Outdoor gear is a category where buyers trust visual recognition, consistency, and a strong point of view. A brand that looks provisional gets treated as provisional, regardless of the quality of the product.
The identity work included the core logo mark, brand architecture, color system, typography, and the application of that system across gear tags, packaging surfaces, jacket mockups, bottles, and campaign materials. The same engagement also produced a brand voice direction — which earned a separate Silver ADDY for copywriting.
Best of Show is not a category award. It is the highest single recognition at the competition, awarded by AAF Southern Illinois to the entry judges considered the strongest work of the entire cycle across all categories.
The four Silver ADDY wins
Beyond Throughike, three other client relationships produced recognized work across packaging, web, and out-of-home.
The Golden Tallow packaging design earned a Silver ADDY in sales promotion and packaging. Golden Tallow is a premium tallow skincare line, and the work spanned jar labels, packaging layout, and the full product presentation system — built to read as premium and intentional at every point a customer encountered the product.
The RightSide Children's Apparel ecommerce website earned a Silver ADDY in online and interactive. RightSide sells 100% reversible, sensory-friendly shirts designed to help children dress more independently — a specific product that required the website to explain a nuanced value proposition clearly and earn trust from a parent audience quickly.
The Saucy Mama poster campaign earned a Silver ADDY for out-of-home poster design. Saucy Mama is a pregnancy-focused skincare brand founded by a midwife, and the poster work was part of a campaign built around a highly specific audience and product story.
What award-level creative actually looks like in practice
None of the five recognized entries started with making something award-worthy as the brief. Each one started with a real business problem — a new outdoor brand needing credibility before it had history, a skincare line needing packaging that could hold up as premium, an ecommerce brand needing a site that could explain a specific product to a skeptical audience, a campaign needing a poster that could move product.
The ADDY recognition reflects what happens when creative work is built to actually solve those problems rather than to look impressive in isolation. A brand identity that earns trust in the outdoor gear market has to survive competitor shelves, gear hangtags, and digital ad formats at the same time. Packaging that earns a category win has to do more than look premium — it has to hold up across the product experience a customer has before, during, and after purchase.
For prospective clients, this recognition matters less as a trophy and more as a signal about the standard of the work. Palmer Creative Co. operates as a full-service creative studio with a client base that includes regional businesses, consumer product brands, nonprofits, contractors, and national-level accounts. The five ADDY wins represent five distinct examples of that range being recognized at a competitive level.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an ADDY Award?
The ADDY Awards are the advertising industry's largest creative competition, run by the American Advertising Federation. Entries are judged at the local level, with winners eligible to advance to district and national competition. Awards are given in Gold and Silver across categories including branding, web, print, packaging, out-of-home, and more. Best of Show is the highest single recognition at each competition level, awarded to the standout entry across all categories.
What work won Best of Show?
The Throughike brand identity earned Palmer Creative Co. the 2025 Gold ADDY for Best of Show from AAF Southern Illinois, entered in the Integrated Brand Identity Campaign category. Throughike is an outdoor gear company that needed a full brand identity — logo mark, system, color, type, voice, and launch assets — built to feel established in a competitive category from launch.
Does Palmer Creative Co. only work with large brands?
No. The five award-winning projects spanned four different clients — an outdoor gear startup, a premium tallow skincare line, a niche children's apparel brand, and a pregnancy-focused skincare company. Project sizes range from focused brand identity and packaging engagements to ongoing full-service creative relationships. The studio also works with regional service businesses, contractors, nonprofits, and colleges.
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