New Jersey branding agency Brand Force 5 received three honors at the 58th NJ Ad Club Jersey Awards, including two first-place awards recognizing its identity and packaging work for Silvio & Filomena’s Olive Oil.
The Bergen County-based agency won first place in both Consumer Logo Design and Package Design for the olive oil brand, while its identity work for legal operations consultancy Legal Ops Fox received a Certificate of Excellence in B2B Logo Design.
The awards extend a three-year run for Brand Force 5 at the Jersey Awards. Since entering the competition under its current name in 2024, the agency says it has collected 10 awards, including multiple first-place recognitions in logo design.
The 2026 results are notable for an agency competing in a field that includes larger advertising, marketing and design firms. The NJ Ad Club says this year’s competition was streamlined from more than 109 categories to 84, creating a more selective structure across individual disciplines.
The Jersey Awards have recognized work across New Jersey’s advertising, marketing, design and communications industries for 58 years. Entries are evaluated by advertising professionals from outside the state, with criteria including originality, creativity, memorability, visual design and innovation.
Brand Force 5’s two first-place awards centered on the identity created for Silvio & Filomena’s Olive Oil. The visual system uses a custom family monogram in which interlocking initials represent multiple members of the family. The same concept carries through the packaging through typography, materials and a premium visual treatment.
The olive oil project also received a 2026 American Package Design Award from GDUSA earlier in September, adding another industry recognition to the work.
The agency’s third Jersey Award was for Legal Ops Fox, a B2B brand identity created for legal operations consultant Adrienne Fox. The brief called for a sophisticated interpretation of the fox while incorporating visual references to the legal industry.
Brand Force 5 combined the animal with legal symbolism by incorporating scales of justice into the fox’s face. The resulting mark was designed to communicate qualities such as strategy and agility without relying on a conventional corporate legal identity.
For branding agencies, these projects illustrate the difference between developing a visual system around a predetermined style and building an identity around a client’s specific story and positioning. The two winning projects occupy very different categories and audiences, but both rely on distinctive visual concepts to establish brand recognition.
That approach is increasingly relevant in crowded digital environments, where logos and packaging are only part of a larger brand system that can extend across websites, social media, advertising, commerce platforms and physical products.
However, the Jersey Awards recognition itself is primarily an industry awards development rather than a technology announcement. Brand Force 5 has not announced a new advertising platform, AI system, media technology or marketing technology product as part of the awards.
The 58th Jersey Awards ceremony took place September 16, 2026, at The Grove in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, bringing together agencies, design studios, corporate marketing teams, media organizations and production partners.
For Brand Force 5, the latest recognition adds to its recent awards record and reinforces the agency’s position within New Jersey’s independent branding and design community.
Market Landscape
Brand identity remains an important component of advertising and marketing, but the agency awards market is distinct from the advertising technology ecosystem.
Modern brand systems increasingly need to work across digital advertising, social platforms, websites, e-commerce experiences and physical products. That creates opportunities for agencies to connect traditional identity design with digital brand execution.
The Brand Force 5 announcement, however, concerns recognition for completed creative work rather than a new technology, advertising platform or measurable change to the media-buying ecosystem.
Top Insights
- Brand Force 5 received three 2026 Jersey Awards, including two first-place honors for logo and packaging work for Silvio & Filomena’s Olive Oil.
- Legal Ops Fox received a Certificate of Excellence for B2B logo design, recognizing an identity combining fox imagery with legal symbolism.
- The agency says it has earned 10 Jersey Awards since entering the competition under the Brand Force 5 name in 2024.
- The NJ Ad Club reduced the competition from more than 109 categories to 84 in 2026, creating a more selective awards structure.
- The announcement primarily concerns branding and creative recognition rather than advertising technology, media infrastructure or programmatic advertising.
Get in touch with our Adtech experts.
