D&AD Blog

D&AD Marketing Breakfast

D&AD's Marketing Breakfast briefing - Brand Building in a Recession: How creativity can give you the edge saw Rory Sutherland chairing a cross disciplinary debate between Farah Ramzan Golant, AMV's CEO, Richard Murray, Founding Partner, Williams Murray Hamm and Marc Guisti, Chief Digital Officer, Leo Burnett.  We have packaged the morning up into bite sized chunks. Have a look:

D&AD Members' Survey: impact of the recession on creative business

With so much recession doom and gloom in the air, we thought we'd check in with our membership to see how they're feeling about things.  Almost 200 responded - thanks to everyone for the time spent and congratulations to Stephen Green from Lillington Green who won a bottle of single malt whisky in the draw.

So how is everyone feeling?  Over 70% of respondents feel that creative companies will have to refocus the nature of their business in the current climate.  More than half feel that independent creative companies will be best placed to face the recession compared to regional or international networks.  Only 4% say that clients are prepared to take risks at the moment, with 49%  identifying no change in client behaviour.  67% of feel that now is the time become more entrepreneurial and 60% see that digital agencies are increasingly at the centre of clients' marketing plans and executions.

If you're interested in seeing the full results of the survey have a look Download Final survey analysis.

Kyle Cooper President's Lecture now online

Carrying on the President's Lecture's theme of the afternoon, Kyle Cooper's lecture is now online, complete with Kyle's Shakespearean soliloquy introduction. It's also available to watch and download through iTunes (link opens iTunes).

Jan van Toorn Q&A

Jan van Toorn's President's Lecture last night was a feast for anyone interested in Dutch design and design theory.

Here are the Q&As:

Pictures from ADFEST

We've been sent a few snaps of the Student Awards exhibition:

Employment opportunities in design

Laura Woodroffe, D&AD's Education & Professional Development Director, took part in a Design Week podcast this week.  The topic is one on the minds of many people these days - employment opportunities in design.

Have a listen: Download DesignWeekPodcast

Student Awards 08 at ADFEST

Our reception is filling up with entries as the 20 March deadline for the Student Awards 2009 approaches, but we're not quite done with the 2008 student winners.

We've teamed up with ADFEST, and work from nine 2008 advertising & digital categories plus the Student of the Year winners are on show in sunny Thailand all week.

Jimmy Lam, President of ADFEST, has this to say, "I am delighted to be able to welcome D&AD to exhibit at ADFEST. We both share a passion for showcasing creative innovation, improving industry standards and for supporting those that are just starting out in the industry."

PENCIL Exhibition closes.

The PENCIL Exhibition at Urbis, Manchester closed on Sunday.  We hope the 15,000(!) people who passed through the doors enjoyed it.

If you'd like one of the very nice exhibition programmes designed by Build, you're in luck, as we're selling them through our online shop for a very reasonable £3.50 each + P&P.

Peter Saville Q&A

Here are all the questions asked in Peter Saville's Q&A last night, all nicely packaged in one handy album.

Peter Saville's President's Lecture

Peter Saville and Adrian Shaughnessy, by James Kirkup, on Flickr. All rights reserved.

It was the first of several President's Lectures of 2009. Need I say more?

As a D&AD intern, I wasn't sure what to expect when I found out that Peter Saville would be speaking. Who would come to see the lecture? What would he talk about? What would he be like?

The event sold out rather quickly and there wasn't an empty seat in the venue. As I worked at the front and helped with ticketing, I soon realized that Saville has such a diverse group of fans; so many different kinds of people walked through that door and they were all there for the same thing. They all wanted to hear Saville's philosophies and ways of thinking and see in-person what it is that continuously draws us to this man and his work. I suppose then that it shouldn't come as a surprise that Saville spoke with (often humorous) candour about his career and life. He had so many stories to share and the lecture proved to be interesting, educational, and often times, quite entertaining.

Overall, it was an great lecture and if it was any indication of what's to come, the remaining lectures in the series will not disappoint.