This year’s D&AD Festival celebrated the world’s best in craft, creativity and culture, awarding its highest accolade, the Black Pencil, to three ad campaigns: Nike, The New York Times and Libresse.
The Design and Art Direction (D&AD) awards have been running since 1963 and see four different levels of black, yellow, graphite and wooden pencils given out to merit great design work from the last 12 months, with black being the highest accolade.
This year saw thousands of entries received from 73 countries across 35 categories, with US creative teams submitting most entries, followed by the UK. The total number of awarded projects is 720.
Key winners:
• Droga5 New York’s “The Truth is Worth It” for the New York Times won in the TV Commercial Campaigns category.
• Wieden + Kennedy’s “Dream Crazy” for Nike won in the Integrated category
• AMV BBDO’s “Viva La Vulva” for Libresse won in the Direction category
• Droga5 also won Best Agency, while adam&eveDDB took second place.
Like Cannes Lions, D&AD awarded its top marketer award to Apple, and in addition named two runners up: The New York Times and Mars.
The US was the top country with 223 awards, way ahead of the UK in second place with 158 awards. Germany came third with 40 awards.
An exceptional evening celebrating the most original and inspiring work of the past year. See all the phenomenal Pencil winners from #dandad19 here: https://t.co/PzBZG0KCoZ pic.twitter.com/WtClwzkbiE
— D&AD (@dandad) May 24, 2019
Nike’s Dream Crazy, featuring Colin Kaepernick, and the Xbox Adaptive Controller are among the Black Pencil winners at this year’s D&AD Awards
D&AD gave out a total of 720 pencils at a ceremony in London tonight, to projects from around the world – although the US and the UK dominate the list. The organisation’s Black Pencil is notoriously tough to win, with past recipients including Guinness’s Surfer ad, and Bjork’s All Is Full Of Love video.
The New York Times campaign The Truth Is Worth It – capturing the hard work that goes into the paper’s investigative features
BWM Dentsu’s Project Revoice helps people with ALS to speak in their own voice.
Black Pencils also went to Wieden + Kennedy’s Dream Crazy for Nike, the Xbox Adaptive Controller, and Somesuch and AMVBBDO’s Viva La Vulva
D&AD CEO Tim Lindsay says the winners “attest to the power of creativity to help build a better future”, but also point to the “buoyant and vibrant direction” the creative industry is going in. It’s certainly notable that each Black Pencil winner has some element of purpose, or awareness of wider issues.
As part of the awards, the organisation has also named its top ad agencies, design studios, production companies and clients, with first place going to Droga5, Jones Knowles Ritchie, Academy Films, and Apple, respectively.
The President’s Award this year goes to artist and stage designer Es Devlin – who was recently selected to design the UK’s pavilion at Expo 2020, and has worked with musicians including Kanye West and Beyoncé. “She doesn’t just break the fourth wall, she shatters it in ways no designer has before,” says newly appointed D&AD President Harriet Devoy.
View the winners in full below:
Wieden + Kennedy, Integrated, Nike Dream Crazy
Somesuch and AMVBBDO, Libress Viva La Vulva
Microsoft, Product Design, Xbox Adapative Controller
Droga5, TV Commercial Campaigns, New York Times The Truth is Worth It
BWM Dentsu, Digital Design, The ALS Association Project Revoice
“It has been another outstanding year for global creativity, with entries received from 73 countries,” says D&AD CEO Tim Lindsay. “The theme for this year’s festival has been ‘Shaping the Future’ and that’s very much been reflected in the campaigns we’ve had the privilege of seeing, many of which attests to the power of creativity to help build a better future.
“The work I have seen has been fantastic and everyone on the jury and everyone who has seen the final list of Pencil-winning work has been knocked out by the quality. It is a hugely encouraging sign for the buoyant and vibrant direction of our industry.”