D&AD Blog

D&AD Best New Blood

It's been a busy week at D&AD.  Student Awards last night and New Blood earlier this week.  This year we had 36 Best New Blood winners.  Students selected for this award are given a free D&AD membership for one year, are eligible for our graduate placement scheme, and are invited to join talentpool, D&AD's online portfolio site.  Congratulations!

Have a look at the list of winners (and who judged) here. 
 
Still from 'Swedish Made Simple' by Callum Parish, Ravensbourne College of Design & Communication, Best New Blood 2009 winner.

Mobile app & book design win student teams top D&AD prize

Student of the Year was awarded to Petra Muda & Harri Leppala from Berghs School Of Communication and Micheline Mannion, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in the UK.  The prize was presented at the D&AD Student Awards 2009 Ceremony in London last night.

In addition, 18 First Prizes and 36 Second Prizes were handed out. All of the work can be seen at studentawards.dandad.org/2009.  The winners will be identified by Monday at the latest.  Congratulations to everyone!

Micheline Mannion; Photo: Noah Da Costa

Petra Muda & Harri Leppala from Berghs School Of Communication; Photo: Noah Da Costa

Everyone starts somewhere

Piccadilly Circus, by 2nd year student, Richard Seymour

Throughout his year as D&AD President, Garrick's underlying theme has been that 'Everyone starts somewhere'. He has hosted the odd pub event where leading creative lights have shown their early work and has asked his President's Lecturers to include a student piece or two into their talks.

We've now brought all of this and more together into an 'Everyone starts somewhere' exhibition. If you're at New Blood this week, you'll be able to see the exhibition up on the balcony. If you can't make it, we've also put an online gallery together, with all the pics up on Flickr.

A new D&AD Chief Executive

We're very happy to announce that Tim O’Kennedy, brand and communications consultant and former MD of Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam, is our new Chief Executive.

Tim's career began at Saatchi & Saatchi London in the early 1980s, following which he was hired by Jay Chiat as ‘one of the first Account Planners in the US advertising industry’.  After 2 years at Wieden + Kennedy Portland steering the original ‘Just Do It’ campaign, he became International Marketing Director at Nike.  Tim returned to Europe with Nike in 1994 and later joined The Lowe Group Europe as Chief Operating Officer.  He was a founding partner of marketing agency Circus in 1998 and subsequently became Managing Director at Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam, where he remained until the end of 2007.  Tim currently serves as a non-executive director of digital creative agency Perfect Fools in Stockholm, and of communications agency Indie in Amsterdam.  He also serves as an advisor to DIESEL Industries in Molvena.

Tim says:

“I feel honoured to take the reins at this amazing organisation, which has always lived in my mind as the absolute reference for creativity in the communication arts. D&AD’s multi-disciplinary purview is a big part of the appeal for me: I grew up in the worlds of advertising and design, and have a deep-seated appreciation for both, as I do for the possibilities afforded by interactive media.

The world of communications is changing, and at an exponential rate - but it’s doing so in ways which can make D&AD more relevant than ever.  While I believe that the role of CEO is by definition multi-faceted, my most important job will be to reinforce this relevance, to further secure D&AD’s position as the standard-setter for creativity worldwide.”

While our Chairman, Anthony Simonds-Gooding says:

“Tim will bring an entrepreneurial mindset and fresh thinking to D&AD which will take the organisation into new territory.  His wealth of international experience will help cement the company’s position in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.  As a man who has circumnavigated the globe, I am sure that he will steer D&AD safely through the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead ensuring that D&AD continues to be the pre-eminent award for creatives in a world where the industry terrain is changing, where brands, products and services are becoming increasingly homogenised and where creativity remains the sole differentiator to ensure business success.”

Tim's first official duty will be to welcome guests to the New Blood Private View on Monday 29 June.

NOMINATE YOUR FUTURE CREATIVES NOW. (PLEASE)

We need you!

2009 has been a poignant year for both business and creativity. With this in mind, and to give industry a ‘helping hand,’ Adobe has joined forces with D&AD to introduce the Future Creative Bursary.

As an investment in the next generation, the bursary offers ten graduates or junior creatives a great platform to shine. It’s designed to provide the necessary tools to help them take those next steps and develop their talent further.

The entry deadline is 7 August, so if you know of a rising star who you'd like to nominate for one of the bursaries, please visit the awards website to find out more.

Student Awards Nominations site goes live

 

We've just launched the Student Awards Nominations site

For the moment the site features all the Nominations, but after the Student Awards Ceremony on 2 July the site will become a fully-fledged Online Annual. It will then showcase all the winning and in-book work, feature the Student of the Year and provide judges' feedback.

The day after the night before

We'll be back with a more in-depth review of last night's Awards Ceremony next week, but for now massive congratulations to all the winners, especially Black Pencil recipients Matt Dent (who we're calling the youngest ever Black Pencil winner until someone says otherwise) and ART+COM, and Droga5 for their two.

If you'd like to relive the evening through the medium of twitter, have a look at the #dandad stream

Otherwise, there are 450+ photos of the evening  taken by our marvellous photographer Noah Da Costa and photos of the happy winners by Ben Turner up on Flickr, and there's a Flickr group if you'd like to share your own photos from the evening.

And finally for today, here are some snippets of some our winners, hot off the stage and flush with success.

Simon Waterfall speaks on the steps of the V&A

Some footage of Simon on the steps of the V&A on YouTube:

D&AD's night at the museum

Martin Lambie-Nairn had just finished his talk at 'Inspired by' on Friday night, when the fire alarm went off.  The whole building had to be evacuated, but the show must and did go on; Tony & Simon spoke on the steps of the museum for the dedicated crowd who stayed around, and a few firefighters too.  The really good news is, the V&A didn't burn down.  

www.dandad.org is down

 If you've been trying too access www.dandad.org this afternoon you might have seen nothing but a white screen. Sorry about that. Apparently something has blown up at our webhosts.  They're working flat out to try to fix it, but they tell us it might not be up again till tomorrow morning.

Please bear with us in the meantime, and sorry once again.

Edit: We're up again! Thanks for your patience.

An Apple a Day - Technology in design

Image by Hat-trick Design

We have very limited tickets for another free designers pub event, this time in conjunction with Ravensbourne College and ERDF. We will be debating the impact technology has had on design, with 9 fantastic speakers from Wieden & Kennedy, Dare Digital, Tonic, The Partners and Tomboy Virals to name but a few.

Tuesday 16 June
Strongroom
120-124 Curtain Road
EC2A 3SQ (map)

Doors and free beer from 6.30pm, debate starts at 7pm.

Edit: This event is now fully subscribed. To join the waiting/returns list, register here.

New Blood: 'I'll be there'

With the launch of the New Blood  2009 campaign, Laura Jordan-Bambach at LBi has written some background to the concept:

"Here at LBi we've just launched the campaign to promote D&AD New Blood's 10th Anniversary exhibition, at the end of June. Its been a labour of love, something that I'm really proud of for the best (in my opinion) and most important part of the charity.

This campaign is about getting industry down to New Blood to support graduating students. First off, don't let's forget the message here.  Internships and placements just evaporated for graduates in the last downturn. For a few years students stepped out into an industry that just wasn't paying attention. These graduates went elsewhere, and as anyone trying to find mid/senior talent, particularly in digital, can attest to - the whole industry lost out, and work has suffered for it.

Call me naive (and I'm sure you will) but we wanted to try to get the industry off its arses (or out of them) and take a minute to think about what New Blood is all about, where they might have been 10 years ago, and to make a personal pledge to give these new talents the support that they deserve: there's no denying its going to be really tough for them out there.

The hero photos represent only a small part of this campaign, but a lead that we hoped would put New Blood on the industry radar again, and cause some intense discussion about why it's so important (job done there, I guess ;-) ).The images are tongue-in-cheek but the message they contain is seriously important. The point is that these people aren't the six most important people at the event, it's the students, and it's each person that stops navel-gazing and actually contributes to its success.

These industry 'icons' were selected because they are actively helping New Blood already, offering their time (extra big thanks to Nadav) and profile to help get the conversation going, and who have committed to the New Blood event - they are the first step towards creating some solidarity with our brightest young stars by challenging you to do more yourself. And it's working.

For those that haven't seen the whole campaign, please check it out. For those lucky enough to be judging D&AD professional and student awards this year, there was a booth set up (using the 2 of 2006's Best New Blood Winners - David Horwich & Paul Mansley) where everyone could pledge their support... and  of course the hub of activity is that everyone is encouraged to upload their own photos or video committing to being at the event. "I'll be there".

On top of that we're providing free space for all students to have a web presence within the same matrix, and a great digital system for tagging your favourite work at the event, so that all that fiddling about with trying to contact your favourite future teams afterwards is as painless as possible.

So please, continue with the discussion as much as you like, but know it came from the right place. Most importantly take a moment to think about what it was like when you were entering an industry with your vivid optimism and desire to do what we all do every day still intact - and pledge your support."

'Inspired by' at the V&A

Simon Waterfall, Martin Lambie-Nairn, Tony Davidson

Simon Waterfall, Martin Lambie-Nairn & Tony Davidson
Inspired By
Friday 5 June
Lecture Theatre
19.00-20.15

The V&A is an extraordinary repository of artefacts and objects from many different cultures, covering many centuries and artists. Designers and Art Directors have been inspired by its collections since its foundation. But how does the art of the past influence the creative minds of today?

Three past D&AD presidents select their personal favourites from the V&A collection and explain how those pieces inspire them: digital designer Simon Waterfall, creator of award-winnign websites for Alexander McQueen and co-founder of Poke; branding expert Martin Lambie-Nairn, the creator of the launch identity for Channel 4; and Tony Davidson, the creative genius behind award-winning TV ads for Honda.

£8 or £6 for D&AD members/concessions (please mention when booking)

Book online or call +44 (0)20 7942 2211

Jonathan Ellery President's Lecture tonight

A reminder that Jonathan Ellery is giving a President's Lecture tonight at Logan Hall. Jonathan will be talking about his triple-faceted working life, encapsulating design, publishing and art. It should be a goody.

7pm – 8:30pm
Logan Hall
Institute of Education
20 Bedford Way
London
WC1H 0AL (map)

Tickets will be available on the door.

Product Design Nominations & In Book

We held Product Design judging at a different time to the rest of Awards judging this year, as the main week (20-23 April) coincided with the Milan Furniture Fair.  With a total of 10 entries going In Book, four nominations have been awarded to Seymourpowell, Apple, PearsonLloyd and bocci.  

These additional results, along with finalised proofed basic credits, have been added to the pdf on our website: http://www.dandad.org/awards/pdf/inbook09.pdf

The Awards website will go live on 22 May: www.dandad.org/awards09 and results will be announced on 11 June.

Student Awards Nominations online

Congratulations to the 308 student teams whose work made it through Student Awards judging.  From that group, one hundred teams have been nominated for a Student Yellow Pencil. 

The full list is available to download now.  All the work will be featured on the D&AD Winners’ Site, which will launch at the end of May.

Nominated work will be on exhibition at New Blood (29 June-1July) at the National Hall, Olympia, London.  Winners will be announced on 2 July at the Student Awards Ceremony at King’s Place, London and online on 3 July.

Greg Quinton, D&AD Education Chairman, has this to say, “Student Awards work was judged with the professional Awards this year, and frankly it was difficult to tell the two apart – a testament to the quality of the work submitted.  The creative standard is simply brilliant this year. Answering a Student Awards Brief is a big challenge and the judging (like all things D&AD) is of the highest standard possible.”

In-book entries list now online

D&AD judging at Olympia by Websites judge Jason McCann (TAXI NYC) - click to see it in its full-sized glory

We've now polished up our lists and you can now see all the In-book entries as well as the Nominations. Hearty congratulations to all those who made it in and better luck next year to all who missed out.

Nominations and In-Book results

We've got a record breaking 165 nominated entries this year from 717 In-Book.  A full list of nominations can be found here.  In-Book credits will be available to download from tomorrow.  All entrants have been notified.

Product Design results will be published next week, as judging will take place this Friday (1 May).

“I felt a touch of apprehension before judging began, especially so in a ‘recession year’.  Will the work be good enough?  Have slashed budgets cut creativity to the bone?  The results so far show that’s not the case,’ said D&AD President Garrick Hamm.  “D&AD is famous for it’s tough standards, but this crop of nominations shows that the industry continues to produce great work.  Will that translate into a record-breaking number of Pencils at the ceremony?  That remains to be seen.”

Black Pencil Judging will take place on 7 & 8 May in London and winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on 11 June.

D&AD Judging 2009 - Final Day

The final day has arrived and is nearly over... Votes have been cast, nominations are in and everyone is ready to celebrate the success of D&AD Judging.

After 4 days of intensive judging jury members have selected the best of the best professional work in categories ranging from traditional TV and cinema advertising to mobile marketing. With some judging lasting for the full 4 days and others only a few hours, everyone agrees the work has been of a high standard with many exciting new ideas surfacing through in a bid to receive a pencil!

Student awards has been just as intense with an array of work spread over 26 briefs. With jury members commenting on some work rivaling professionals, it has been an amazing year for unique entries. All work has been judged accordingly with the best being acknowledged and awarded. Good Luck!

Interviews with judges from both professional and student awards will be posted soon, giving an insight into the awards from the point of view of the decision makers!

D&AD Judging 2009: Interviews with Judges

An interview with Chris Frazer Smith, a location photographer, who is judging Photography...