D&AD Awards Black Pencil, 4 White Pencils to Burgeoning Creatives

The D&AD New Blood Awards handed out 186 Pencils this year, as it once again honored emerging creative talent from around the world. The New Blood Awards are handed out at the end of the four-day D&AD Festival—with briefs set by global brands, including Audible, BBC, Disney, Duolingo, Google Fonts, Netflix, Penguin and Snapchat. Designed to give young creatives the opportunity of working on almost-live briefs, the awards covered a range of creative disciplines including UX/UI, animation, advertising, typography and PR. The highest accolade of a Black Pencil was awarded to one environmental entry titled “Clout,” which was developed in response to a brief set by Do The Green Thing and Pentagram. The work entered by Sam Pilkington-Miksa and Holly Killen from the School of Communication Arts 2.0 highlighted the detrimental impact of fast fashion on the environment. Clout’s aim was to promote upcycling to consumers by teaching them to sew and repair their clothes, rather than disposing of them. The digital aspects proposed for the Cloud project The awards also saw 27 Yellow, 46 Graphite and 108 Wood Pencil awards for responses to this year’s issued briefs. In a statement, Paul Drake, foundations director at D&AD, said that creative thinking had “the potential to unlock a more sustainable future”—and that the organization was committed to celebrating ideas “that make a positive impact on the planet.” To support that endeavor, D&AD awards White Pencils, which highlight creative ideas that support purpose beyond profit for brands. Four were awarded among this year's winning entries. Drake added, “It was wonderful to celebrate these incredible works alongside our other winners at our digital ceremony this afternoon—and we hope those that joined were inspired by what they witnessed.” The big winners One of those winners, answering a brief from sustainability organization Do The Green Thing, was awarded to Sergio Del Hierro and Elena Casas Espejo from Miami Ad School Madrid for “The Conscious Merch.” This was another upcycling idea, which would see pre-owned clothes turned into fan-engaging garments instead. 'The Conscious Merch' proposes upcycling clothes by tapping into fandoms. Another White Pencil was handed to Will Engebretson and Flavio Arnizant de Zorzi from Miami Ad School New York with “Belong Here,” which was devised in response to a brief from Google Fonts and HMCT. This work would aim to promote peace and human rights around the world, through the Noto typeface from Google, while using technology to help drive universal translation to allow everyone to belong. The "Belong Here" work proposed the use of technology to help universal translation. The third and final White Pencil was received by Matthew La Croix from School of Communication Arts, London for his development of a metaverse to protect LGBTQ+ communities, giving them access to queer and classic literature. This brief was issued by Penguin books. This metaverse proposal supported LGBTQ+ reading. Rebecca Wright, president at D&AD, highlighted the organization’s continued commitment to nurturing the next generation of creative minds by giving them practical briefs to respond to. “Having witnessed 181 winning pieces of work, chosen by 168 judges from over 5,000 entrants and sent in from 57 countries, I am excited that the next generation of creative talent is pushing the boundaries when it comes to applying creativity to live briefs—and to addressing the big issues of our times. The fact that we awarded four coveted White Pencils this year is evidence of this—and it has been a joy and a privilege to see this ambitious creativity firsthand,” she added. This winners of D&AD's main awards were announced in May, with two Black Pencils awarded to "The Lost Class" by Leo Burnett Chicago. These Are the 2022 Winners of D&AD’s Coveted Black Pencils