The 7^th edition of the Art and Olfaction Awards will take place on September 17, 2020 in Los Angeles, CA.

As the awards have grown, so must our processes. In the six years we’ve been administrating the judging process, we’ve learned a lot. Now, we need to adapt to the growth of the mechanism!

Please read on to learn about some of the changes we are making to our judging process. It goes without saying that we remain committed to our core principles: Blind judging and a fair shake for all submissions.

As always – don’t hesitate to email us at [email protected] if you think we missed anything.

 

JUDGING: ISSUES TO ADDRESS

Due to the increased number of submissions and the logistical impossibility of processing them and judging them in the same way we have been, we will be changing how we judge the Art and Olfaction Awards, moving forward.

Here are some issues we have to address:
+ The sheer quantity of submissions means that the judges have become overburdened. We want to make their work easier, so they, in turn, can spend more time with each submission.
+ The sheer quantity of submissions means that our administration process has ballooned into a logistical burden for the parent organization (the Institute for Art and Olfaction).
+ The quantity of judges has become logistically challenging from a submissions sample shipping perspective.

We remain committed to our core principles: A fair shake for each submission, judged blindly on the juice (and statement of intent) alone.

 

CHANGES TO ARTISAN AND INDEPENDENT CATEGORY JUDGING

Judges
+ We will limit the judges to a maximum of 10, a year.
+ Each year we will keep 5 judges from the previous year, and replace 5 with new or returning judges, for a rotating roster of judges.
+ The new judges will only assess a random assortment of submissions in the preliminary round.
+ The returning judges ("super-judges") will assess the finalist rounds.
+ As always, each judge must sign off on our judging ethics, and declare any involvement in perfumes released in submission year.

Judging Process:
+ In line with industry standard for other award mechanisms, we will send each judge a randomized assortment of submissions, with no more than 50 to 75 submissions to assess, per judge.
+ The judges will have more time in which to assess their allotted submissions.
+ Once all the submissions have been assessed, the top ten scoring perfumes in each category will be resent to the returning judges for a second round of judging. In this way, the returning judges will participate in selecting the finalists and the winners in each category.

 

CHANGES TO THE AFTEL AWARD FOR HAND-MADE PERFUME

Judges
+ We will limit the Aftel Award judging pool to between 3 judges.
+ Each year, we will keep a judge from the previous year, and bring in new judges from the community, or from our roster of past judges.

Judging Process:
+ Nothing changes for Aftel Award judging.

 

CHANGES TO THE SADAKICHI AWARD FOR EXPERIMENTAL WORK WITH SCENT

Judges:
+ We will limit the Sadakichi Award judging pool to between 3 and 5 judges.
+ Each year, we will keep two judges from the previous year and bring in new judges from the community, or from our roster of past judges.

Judging Process:
+ Nothing changes for the Sadakichi Award judging process.

 

SUBMISSION CATEGORIES + DISCRETIONARY AWARDS

Our submission categories and discretionary awards remain the same.

Artisan Category:
For brands that are owned or co-owned by the perfumer, who initiated and created the submission's formula in-house, released under the brand's name.

Independent Category:
For brands that employed an external perfumer or fragrance house to create the submission's formula, which was then released under the brand's name.

Sadakichi Award (Experimental Category):
For creative or experimental practitioners who make unconventional use of scent, that takes it out of the domain of traditional perfumery.

Aftel Award for Handmade Perfume:
This award will be given on an annual basis to one outstanding small batch perfume that was 100% perfumer-created, in-house, with no use of outsourced compounding or expansion at any stage of the process.

Contribution to Scent Culture Award:
Given on an annual basis to an outstanding person who makes significant contributions to public awareness of artisan, independent and experimental practices with scent on an international scale.

Septimus Piesse Visionary Award:
Inaugurated in 2019, this award is given on an annual basis to an outstanding person showing proof of exceptional vision with regards to how scent is used, developed, or imagined.

+ Read the qualifiers for each category here

 

AND THAT'S IT!

Did we miss anything? Let us know! Email us at [email protected]