D&AD: Raising Standards Of Creativity

26 Mar 2008 Category: Events & Exhibitions, Worldwide

D&AD: Raising Standards Of Creativity

A yellow pencil? That's the icon for good design! View from the D&AD Awards 2007 exhibition at Advertising Museum Tokyo, Shiodome.

For the last forty-six years, the British D&AD has been awarding the most innovative works from all over with their Yellow and Black Pencils. As a not-for-profit organisation, this charity has cheerfully set industry standards, it educates and aims to inspire the next design generation with its innovative selections of creativity. At the current D&AD Awards 2007 exhibition at the Advertising Museum Tokyo (ADMT) in Shiodome, you can see what was definitely hot last year, so PingMag went there for an in depth chat with D&AD president Simon Waterfall, also creative director of Poke.

Written by Chiemi

The exhibition space of D&AD awards 2007, Advertising Museum Tokyo.

First, explain about D&AD please.

D&AD represents excellence and education in advertising and design. We have run the Awards for forty-six years – the Yellow Pencil represents the very highest accolade as it’s bestowed by 300 of the world’s best creative artist who judge the work each year. We educate and inspire creativity in all levels, from students to professional - and we do it because we love it!

And how about the D&AD awards?

The Awards were founded in 1962 to raise creative standards in advertising and design. There are now thirty different categories that are constantly being re-evaluated to make sure we keep up with the high-speed evolution of the industry. The Awards have grown over the years and we now get entries from over sixty countries.

The Yellow Pencil is awarded to work that sets new benchmarks of creative excellence. Fifty-nine of these were awarded in 2007. The elusive Black Pencil is awarded to work that breaks entirely new ground in creativity – last year we only awarded two of those. Some years. the judges award none…


The “Yellow Pencil” - not an easy mark to make…

… and the “Black Pencil” for the most outstanding works.

Who exactly judges the works?

In 2008, we’ve got 300 judges coming from all over the world, including David Adjaye for Environmental Design, Marian Bantjes for Typography, Nagi Noda for TV & Cinema Crafts and Tetsuya Mizuguchi for Gaming. Depending on the size of the category, they spend up to a week in London looking at 25,000 pieces of work.

A big choice! And all of these works have been judged by juries, one by one.

We heard that the judging is quite strict… tell us more about the process, please

Work is judged against three criteria – is it a good idea, well executed and appropriate to its context? Although debate and discussion is allowed in each round, all voting is anonymous. D&AD doesn’t allow judges to vote by a show of hands, and judges don’t have to bestow any awards if they don’t feel the work’s up to it.

Work that’s voted through to go ‘in book’ - meaning it will be included in the D&AD Annual - is representative of the best work of the year. Work that’s nominated to win a D&AD Yellow Pencil is judged against forty-five years of past Yellow Pencil winners and is awarded to work that sets new benchmarks of creative excellence – that’s why it’s so hard to win. For example, this year’s work will have to be at least as good as the massive type signage by Flame, Inc. at Fukutake House, which won in Graphic Design, or Evolution – the Dove viral that ripped holes in myths of beauty, the stunning and graceful windmills designed by quietrevolution, and the - not so pretty, but ‘what a great idea?’ - Concrete Canvas, a portable, durable shelter for use in disaster zones.


The Yellow Pencil 2007 winner, Fukutake House by Flame, inc., is a sign for the first exhibition at the Fukutake House in Niigata, Japan.

Beautiful windmills - “quietrevolution” is also a Yellow Pencil 2007 winner in the product design category.

You surely remember this spot - “Evolution,” another Yellow Pencil 2007 winner, shows how a ordinary-looking girl gets Photoshopped into a super model. You can see the clip over here.

Interesting piece of architecture - the “Concrete Canvas Shelter” could save many people’s lives in an emergency situation. Also a Yellow Pencil 2007 winner.

How about the Black Pencil?

We only award one, maybe two for Black Pencil a year – if any! The Black Pencil work has redefined its medium. Last year, R/GA won for Nike+ - the groundbreaking website that made jogging an online community activity. This website has changed the way I run, buy music and share my competitive edge with others. Two years ago, The Guardian newspaper in Britain won for a brave redesign that has had it’s competitors running to catch up since.

The Black Pencil 2007 winner, “Nike+” by R/GA cleverly created a jogging online community.

The Black Pencil 2007 winner, “War orphans / Chechnya” by Kolle Rebbe Werbeagentur GmbH, Germany. This very strong visual deals with war orphans.

With an innovative design, the British Guardian surely attracts readers. The proud winner of a Black Pencil in 2006.

So, what about the current D&AD Awards 2007 exhibition in Tokyo?

The aim is to inspire and promote the best creativity from around the world. All of the work selected for the exhibition won at the D&AD Awards or the D&AD Student Awards in 2007. This is quite simply the best creative work in the world on show right now in Tokyo.

What do you expect in the future of design?

New categories have to be developed to keep pace with the ever-changing field. Our new mobile marketing category will surely show that however small the first steps are, they will very rapidly blur into everyday, as technology accelerates at such a startling pace.


Simon Waterfall, D&AD president.

Any word for visitors of the show?

Come and be inspired.

Simon Waterfall from D&AD, thank you very much!

Information

D&AD awards 2007
Venue: ADMT Advertising Museum, Shiodome, Tokyo. Map.
Date: Till Saturday April 5th, 2008.
Open: Tue to Sat from 11 a.m. to 6.30 p.m. (Sat until 4.30 p.m.)
Admission: Free

35 Comments

  1. These awards sound amazing and the receivers of the yellow and black pencils are definitely inspirational. Thanks for the article, I’m certainly going to their site to find out more.

    Posted by: Stewart on March 26th, 2008 at 11:37 pm

  2. Is very nice to find articles like this one. As a designer, a find in the D&AD awards an inspiration to improve mi work and try to get better and more creative things.
    Thanks.

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  4. Hello! These D&AD works are very inspiring. I’m just a design student, so a yellow or even a black or a rainbow pencil are to far for me!! These designers are genious!!

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