D&AD New Blood

posted by Emily Gosling July 20, 2021

D&AD rounded off last week’s New Blood Festival by announcing the winners of the 2021 New Blood awards. A total of 187 pencils were awarded to recent graduates and emerging talent for responses to briefs set by brands including The Walt Disney Company, Tesco, Spotify and Penguin.

In total three Black Pencils, six White, 45 Graphite and 104 Wood Pencils have been awarded to emerging creatives. Black Pencils are the most prestigious D&AD creative accolade, while White Pencils are awarded for outstanding work that uses the power of creativity to do good.

Students’ responses spanned disciplines including advertising, branding, typography, experiential, illustration and game design.

Briefs were set by leading brands and agencies including 21GRAMS, Audible, BBC, Burger King, Connect4Climate & World Bank Group, Coors Light, The Walt Disney Company, Duolingo, giffgaff, Key4Life & Landor, Penguin, Rare & Xbox, Spotify, Tesco, and Refinery29. The briefs were designed to provide new talent the experience of working on client briefs that tackled varying current commercial challenges and social issues.

Responses to the Penguin brief seemed to have reaped the most rewards. Both a Black and White Pencil were awarded to The Black List for Penguin. Gareth C E, Jack Walsh and Osagie Samuel from the School of Communication Arts 2.0 created a campaign that aims to persuade the UK government to change the literature curriculum by spotlighting underrepresented, marginalised and “more relatable” voices within writing. According to D&AD, “The Black List movement hopes to reposition writing in a more authentic way and help young people understand that consuming words and stories can empower their own voice.”

Another Penguin brief response, Lit on Beat was also awarded a Black Pencil. Selina Smyllie of Leeds Arts University created a campaign that aims to help black teenagers, especially those with Dyslexia, “who feel disconnected from the written word.” The campaign looks to highlight the similarities between Rap and poetry with the broader aim of pushing curriculums to recognise the alignment between the two, and in doing so, help those who might struggle to connect to traditional literature.

The You Tour, a response to the 21GRAMS brief, was awarded the final Black Pencil. Pernille Lund and Jonathan Fjord of DMJX – Danish School of Media and Journalism created a campaign that looks to raise awareness about melanoma among young people of colour through reframing the body as a “landscape of must-see places”. Through leveraging the expansion of the Black travel movement, the designers aim to “transform a curiosity for travel into a catalyst that helps people to recognise the signs of melanoma and have it diagnosed as early as possible.”

Among the White Pencil winners was Happy Meno-Day! Created in response to the brief set by The Case for Her & Refinery29, the campaign looks to end the taboo around menopause that’s bolstered by its portrayal in mainstream media. The campaign is built around the little-known fact that menopause is technically the one day that marks 12 months since the last period in the menopausal transition. As such, it celebrates the “Meno-day” and states that it should be something to be celebrated rather than ashamed of.

Among the highlights of the Yellow Pencil winners is the Duolingo brief response, Duolingo PillowTalk. The idea was born of research showing that 40% of young people find learning new vocabulary too hard, putting off many Gen Z people from downloading Duoliongo. Taking advantage of the fact that if we listen to the vocabulary we’re learning in the daytime when we head to sleep, we’re more likely to remember it the following day; the campaign puts language learning at the heart of bedtime through new audio content specifically created to be listened to when we sleep.

Much of the winning work explored the potential of creativity to tackle social change, with themes around solving the climate crisis and inclusive representation, such as a response that harnessed typography to make a stand against knife crime.

“It is clear to see that the next generation of creative talent have what it takes to challenge accepted wisdom, to disrupt what our industry thinks and does and ultimately push to develop a new sense of creative excellence within it,” says Naresh Ramchandani, President at D&AD.

“Being able to award 3 Black Pencils after a year unlike any we’ve seen before is testament to the creative thinking of this next generation,” adds Paul Drake, Foundations Director at D&AD.