D&AD Blog

D&AD Student Awards - Youtube Workshop

D&AD will be holding a workshop for students entering the YouTube Student Award brief. 

Speakers include a planner from Ogilvy , a YouTube Marketing Manager and a creative from Tango Zebra. The workshop will also finish with a Q&A, so please feel free to submit questions in advance which we'll endeavour to include. 

The workshop will be held at Google's London HQ:

Google

Belgrave House

76 Buckingham Palace Road
London SW1W 9TQ (map)

The event is free to attend but space is very limited, so seats will be reserved on a first come first served basis. To reserve your space or to submit your question, please contact nadia.hung@dandad.co.uk .

RSVP deadline: Monday 1 February 

Question submission deadline: 12pm, Tuesday 2 February.

 

You should only RSVP only if you are definitely able to attend.

Don't worry if you miss out - we'll be posting the session on our YouTube Channel soon after.

EDIT: EVENT POSTPONED
Sadly this workshop is another victim of the snow and has been postponed. We hope to re-schedule ASAP, and will post a new date as soon as we have one. Your RSVPs will be valid unless you tell us you can't make it.

Re: Design Weeks Article: Students Urged to Avoid Design

This Design Week article certainly cooked up a storm. And with good reason; it’s a sensitive subject. I responded, pointing out that whether or not these comments are ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ is only one question. We should also consider that they may represent a knee-jerk and poorly thought-out response to an issue that has many and complex causes, ranging from reforms in education to the global economic crisis. They don’t do the design industry justice in terms of its value as a profession. You can read my comment at the bottom of the article.

I have another newspaper article sitting on my desk, which coincidentally surfaced from D&AD’s archives a couple of weeks ago. It is entitled ‘Design Talent Faces Future on the Dole’, and was written 24 years ago.

The parallels are quite remarkable. Written by Michael Smith, the industrial editor of the Guardian, it talks about the oversupply of talent to the industry and the risk of graduates ‘increasingly taking their talent overseas’. As long ago as 1985 the government had produced something called the Verry-Pick report, which prompted this article and according to Michael Smith ‘paints a disturbing picture of how Britain neglects and underestimates the importance of designers’.

Here’s a couple more quotes from the article that echo things we are hearing today in publications such as The Cox Report:

‘If UK trade is to remain viable and indeed if trade is to grow, the UK industrial trading sector must not simply focus on costs, but must also turn its attention to the quality of the goods it produces … [sectors] like design may account for up to half of a nation’s successful trade performance … It is vital that Britain keeps pace with developments elsewhere… It’s failure to do so will mean that markets will disappear, exports will fall and import penetration will increase.’

In the light of all the talk about markets like China and India, which seem to represent the same problem today as was being faced in 1985, I wonder whether people think that progress was made, or whether we are facing similar issues today because not enough was done back then?

Laura Woodroffe, Education and Professional Development Director

Everybody Starts Somewhere. Thank you

Thanks to everyone who came along to our "love-in" last night.  Again another great evening, I think we proved that designers do have big hearts.  If you were there last night we'd love to know if there were any hook ups afterwards, of the mentor mentee variety that is! For all of you who weren't able to make it we'll get all the videos up soon so you can see some fantastic and inspiring messages from our 12 speakers.

What can become a Pencil? We had a go at finding out.

 

We built Pencils in Trafalgar Square & crocheted them on Broadway before Christmas.  You saw the pictures then, now see the films - posted at awards09.dandad.org/make_it_a_pencil.

The official deadline for entries is this Wednesday, 21 January, however, a short extension will be announced on Thursday to give entrants a little more time.  Everything has to be at the D&AD offices in London by 11 February to be included at judging in April.

New Creativity Works case studies

We've uploaded a couple of new Creativity Works case studies.

Natural Nurser won a Yellow Pencil last year in Product Design.

‘The industry hadn’t seen anything innovative for quite some time and I had a hunch that an opportunity existed to create a breakthrough,’ says Dan Harden, president and chief designer of Whipsaw Inc. ‘It’s tough to transcend convention and do something totally new but utterly simple. That’s good design.’ Read more

Black Pencil-winning Cadbury Gorilla doesn't really need an introduction.

‘There’s only so much method in the process and you then hand it on to fantastic creative minds – and that’s where Juan came in. It was one of those moments when you sit and look at each other as the script is being read, thinking, “Is he mad?”’ Read more

Nick Bell now online

Nick Bell creating a new brand identity for Manchester United

Nick Bell's President's Lecture is now online. You can watch it here, or subscribe to our video podcast through iTunes (link opens iTunes).

PENCIL migrates north

PENCIL: 45 Years of Creativity from the D&AD Annuals is heading up to Manchester for a couple of months.  It opens on 20 Jan at Urbis with a launch party from 6-8pm.  If you're interested in attending, email simon.rousseau@dandad.co.uk.

EVERYBODY STARTS SOMEWHERE: BOOKING NOW CLOSED

Does it pay to have someone help your career or should you look after No. 1?

Join D&AD and award winning designers to discuss their mentors and meet the young creatives they champion.  What advice do they choose to pass on and how do these relationships help or hinder work?

The Slaughtered Lamb
34-35 Great Sutton Street
London EC1V 0DX

Thursday 22 January 2009
Doors and free beer 6.30pm
Event starts 7pm till late

Register at http://www.dandad.org/everybodystarts.asp
Edit (08/01/09): Booking is now closed
That was quick!

For more information contact lydia@dandad.co.uk.

New D&AD Education Chair Rallies Recession Grads

We have a new Education Chairman.  Greg Quinton (Creative Director at The Partners and D&AD Exec Member) wants to keep spirits up amidst all the financial doom and gloom floating around right now.  This is what he has to say:

“Of course recession is on everyone’s minds, particularly the minds of students about to graduate. “This isn’t a time to be afraid, though – it’s a time to do your best work and get noticed and the best way to get noticed is with D&AD.  About a million years ago (ok, 2 recessions ago) I attended a D&AD Workshop while at college, I never dared think I’d one day achieve my dream of working for The Partners.

As for those of us lucky enough to have jobs now – no matter what the current situation with recruitment, we need to keep meeting students and new graduates, crit portfolios, and see what new talent is out there.  New creativity is always incredibly valuable. The grey clouds of recession will not last forever and we’ll all need new talent when the sun shines again, sometime in the future.”

Greg’s first appearance as Chairman will be to host a night of designers talking about the value and pitfalls of mentoring.  'Everybody Starts Somewhere - Sometimes Great Ideas Need Direction' will take place on 22 January at the Slaughtered Lamb in London.  The event will be filmed and posted online soon after.