Judging the Art and Olfaction Awards is the most important part to get right. Without a healthy judging mechanism, our efforts would be pointless. Here's a run-down on how we judge, and why!

For the simple reason that thoughtful people make good decisions, the first step to a fair judging process is picking the right people to judge. For this reason, we take pains to get to know our judges before inviting them to participate. When we start the judging process, we ask the judges to disclose any relationships that would hamper their ability to judge fairly, supplementing this with our own research. We also ask them to sign off on a code of ethics, which states the principles of how we run the awards. Read our judging code of ethics, here (scroll down, its at the bottom of the page!)

To make sure the judges are all scoring the scents to similar parameters, we provide instructions about the scoring categories (which, incidentally, they score on a scale of 1- 5, where 1 is bad and 5 is good). Here are the instructions they receive!

ARTISAN + INDEPENDENT CATEGORIES

CREATIVE:
Judge this based on your impressions of the creative aspect of the scent. Use your own intuition about what you think makes a perfume ‘good’. Make sure to revisit the scent to assess the drydown, as well as the initial topnotes. Here are some questions you can ask yourself:
Do I like this?
Do I hate this, but recognize its brilliance?
Is this original, unexpected?

TECHNICAL
Judge this based on your impression of how well the scent was created, from a technical point of view. Here are some questions you can ask yourself:
Does this scent match the intention, as stated in the project description?
Does it seem like the perfumer was in control of the material?
Is there some element of technical mastery in the scent (for instance, a technical resolution of a difficult accord or material)?
Note: English is not the first language for many of the submitters, so be careful not to judge the grammar or style of the project description.

TOP 5
We ask you to provide your top five scents, in order of preference. This is your chance to highlight work that you really like; your opportunity to add points to a project that has a special something that speaks to you. This is your space to be completely subjective and highlight your personal favorites, independently of how you scored them otherwise. Note that the top five is not always reflective of the top creative and technical scorers. That’s OK! Questions you can ask yourself:
Does this perfume have something undefinable but special, that warrants note?
Is this original, insane, brilliant, new… Or simply beautiful?
Do I want to tell my friends about this?
Am I still thinking about this, hours later?

 

SADAKICHI AWARD

For the experimental category (known as the Sadakichi Award for Experimental Work with Scent), the process is very similar, except that the judges are aware of the artist's name and work, and have the opportunity to view supporting materials - images, video, sound.

Here are the instructions we gave the experimental judges:

PROJECT IDEA
Judge this based on your impressions of the originality and thoughtfulness of the concept informing the project. Questions you can ask yourself:
Have I seen this before?
If so, is this a new take on an existing concept?
Is there sound conceptual thinking or historical research behind this project?

EXECUTION
Judge this based on the quality of execution of the overall project. Questions you can ask yourself:
Was this project well produced?
Did the creative team make valid aesthetic and production decisions?
Did this project fulfill the potential of the idea?

USE OF SCENT
We are not judging for ‘beautiful perfume’, here. Rather, we are judging the use of scent in an experimental context. As such, make sure to judge this based on your impression of how well thought-out the use of scent was, in addition to how well-made the scents were. Questions to ask yourself:
Would this project have worked just as well without scent?
Was the scent component simply an add-on?
Did the scent component effectively support the project concept?

TOP 5
We ask you to provide your top five projects, in order of preference: This is a chance to highlight work that you really like; your opportunity to add points to a project that has a special something that speaks to you. This is your space to be completely subjective and highlight your personal favorites, independently of how you scored them otherwise. Note that the top five is not always reflective of the top scorers. That’s OK! Questions you can ask yourself:
Does this project have something undefinable but special, that warrants note?
Is this original, insane, brilliant, new… Or simply beautiful?
Do I want to tell my friends about this?
Am I still thinking about this, hours later?

 

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Once a judge has finished going through the submissions, we ask him or her to take a moment to write down their impressions in all judging categories for their top scoring perfumes - identified, still, only by code.

The judges' numerical scores are compiled and entered into a master database by the A+O Awards team, visibly only to our submissions staff.

The scores for each submission are averaged, giving each submission its overall score. The judges' scoring sheets are then placed into an envelope, sealed and destroyed. And that's about it!

 

THOUGHTS?

It is very important to us that the judging be as fair and consistent as possible, with maximum respect given to the excellent work that the perfume community has entrusted to us. Please share your thoughts or feedback by emailing us at [email protected].