London, 2 November – The 55th annual D&AD Professional Awards are now open for entry. With subcategory changes in 2017, the majority of the jury foremen and women announced (including Colenso’s Nick Worthington, but no Aussies) and a sneak peek of the creative campaign by Lucky Generals, there’s quite a bit to grab your attention.
Professional Awards – what’s new?
Although there haven’t been any new category additions, there are some notable changes within sub-categories that will celebrate the latest innovations.
For the first time D&AD will now award innovations and fresh new work that comes to the market in Beta or as prototypes. New websites, products and new iterations of existing platforms will all get the chance to submit their work to be judged and win a Pencil. (This work will be eligible for a Wood Pencil).
As well as rewarding the new, long-standing campaigns and lasting professional relationships will also get a chance to win a D&AD Pencil. The Established Campaigns sub-category will recognise integrated campaigns that have passed the test of time whilst entries into Collaborative (part of the Integrated & Collaborative Category) will be rewarded for the relationship between agency and client in producing great creative campaigns for three years and over.
“D&AD evolves and changes to reflect the landscape of commercial creativity, which is why every year you’ll find us listening to feedback and making changes to our categories,” said D&AD ceo Tim Lindsay.
“2017 will be the year of awarding the established and the very new. Innovation is at the heart of every great creative idea; it is how we measure creative excellence every year. With this in mind, awarding work that has nailed that initial concept but hasn’t necessarily gone into full production was a natural next move for us.”
Creative relationships
“At the same time, it isn’t all about the new, there is much to be learned from rewarding successful creative relationships and ideas that have survived the test of time which is why we will be looking at both ends of the spectrum this year. As ever we wait with growing excitement to see what great creative work is entered in the next weeks and months.”
With the launch of D&AD Impact earlier this year, the White Pencil is no longer part of the awards line up (learn more about Impact here: dandadimpact.com), however as one of the most popular categories, Creativity For Good continues to develop with the addition of Product and Service Design subcategories which reflect the growing trend for these as part of creatively worthy campaigns.
Changes
Also in the news round-up, the following categories also have notable changes: Branded Film Content has been changed to Branded Content to reflect the changing media in this space and now live-streamed, audio or user generated content can be entered into this category as well as films.
Branding has also had some re-organisation with Logos moving over from Graphic Design and the addition of Campaign Branding & Identity which will give design agencies the opportunity to enter specific branding and identities of campaign projects.
Finally, D&AD has retired Mobile Marketing as a category as it plays a key role in most campaigns and is no longer briefed in isolation, moving instead as a sub-category to other design and marketing categories.
To see these and other changes in detail, visit the D&AD Professional Awards page here: dandad.org/en/d-ad-professional-awards.
Jury foremen and women gender split
In keeping with over half a century tradition, the 2017 D&AD Professional Awards will be judged by some of the international creative communities’ highest profile members. The scrutiny and rigour imposed by the internationally acclaimed judges is legendary, and ensures that only work of the highest standard receives a coveted D&AD Pencil.
Awards Director Donal Keenan commented: “At D&AD we strongly believe in championing equality in the creative industry and aim to lead by example. This year we are pleased to announce that our line-up of jury foremen and women are equally split by gender for the first time, a trend that we will work to ensure continues into the future.”
- Art Direction: Margaret Keene, ECD, MullenLowe USA
- Book Design: Coralie Bickford-Smith, designer, Penguin Books UK
- Branded Content & Entertainment: Tiffany Rolfe, partner/chief content officer, Co-Collective USA
- Crafts for Advertising: Toygar Bazarkaya, CCO, Havas Worldwide, USA
- Crafts for Design: Pann Lim, founder, Kinetic Singapore
- Creativity for Good: Nick Worthington, creative chairman, Colenso BBDO NZ
- Digital Design: Alessandra Lariu, former ECD Frog, co founder SheSays USA
- Digital Marketing: Farid Mokart, ceo/chief creative officer, Fred and Farid, France
- Direct: Stephane Xiberras, president/chief creative officer, BETC Paris
- Film Advertising: Fabio Fernandes, president/CCO, F/Nazca Saatchi&Saatchi Brazil
- Film Advertising Crafts: James Rouse, director, Outsider UK
- Graphic Design: Su Mathews Hale, senior partner, Lippincott USA
- Integrated & Collaborative: Colleen DeCourcy, global ECD, Wieden+Kennedy Portland, USA
- Magazine & Newspaper Design: Mieke Haase, managing partner, Loved, Germany
- Media: Karen Blackett, chairwoman, MediaCom UK
- Music Videos: Arno Moria, ceo/executive producer, Division Paris, France
- Outdoor Advertising: Josy Paul, chairman, BBDO India
- Packaging Design: Fiona Curran, creative partner, Distil Studio UK
- PR: Simon Shaw, CCO, H+K, UK
- Press Advertising: Merlee Jayme,cChairmom/chief creative officer, Dentsu Jayme Syfu, Philippines
- Product Design: Victoria Slaker, VP, Product Design, Ammunition USA
- Radio & Audio: Jenny Glover, ECD, TBWA/Hunt/Lascaris South Africa
- Spatial & Experiential Design: Douglas Broadley, group ceo/creative director, Imagination UK
- Writing for Advertising: Susan Treacy, EVP/ECD, FCB Chicago
- Writing for Design: Elise Valmorbida, founder/creative director, word-design, UK
Jury announcements will be made later in the year, full information on categories, pricing and dates can be found at www.dandad.org/en/professional-awards.
Lucky Generals
For the second year D&AD will be working with Lucky Generals London on the creative campaign for the D&AD Professional Awards.
D&AD Festival
Confirmed to run from Tuesday25 April to Thursday 27 April 2017. And the organisers say that following on from the success of the first ever D&AD Festival at the Truman Brewery in April this year, it promises to be an even bigger celebration of commercial creativity.
Set over three days, the D&AD Festival will see famous speakers and industry heavy-hitters lead talks, panel discussions and setting agendas for the future of the industry. As well as this there will be workshops, industry talks, parties and networking sessions as well New Blood and Next Awards exhibitions.
Entry Information
Work entered into the 2017 D&AD Awards must have been commercially released between 1 January 2016 and 18 March 2017 and been produced in genuine response to a client brief. It must not have been entered in previous years.
Submissions should be made in their original language by Wednesday 15 February 2017. The awards cost from just £85 (NZ$145) to enter this year. All entries received by Wednesday 14 December 2016 will save 10% on the cost of entry. Freelancers and sole traders that are members of D&AD are eligible to receive a 20% discount.
All awarded work appears in the D&AD Annual, released in Autumn and is available to purchase exclusively through D&AD.
About D&AD
Since 1962, D&AD has been inspiring a community of creative thinkers by celebrating and stimulating the finest in design and advertising. A D&AD award is recognised globally as the ultimate creative accolade, entered and attended by the best creative decision makers from around the world. Set to reward, promote and enable creative brilliance in all areas of creative communication, a Yellow – or Black – Pencil remains the pinnacle in many careers.
But it’s much more than just the Awards. Members join a vibrant global community, whilst creatives and clients are inspired by a world-class training and development programme. Students are supported with projects, awards and exhibitions, which give them a vital leg-up as they enter the industry.
As a non-profit, all of D&AD’s surpluses go straight into programmes that develop the next generation of creative talent while campaigning for the creative industries to help solve the world’s toughest social and environmental issues.
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