D&AD Education Day : Preston

(photo courtesy of Steve Wilkin)

Last Wednesday a group of us from uni attended the D&AD Education day at UCLAN in Preston. The day was set up as a chance for students to go and learn about D&AD and to get advice about the upcoming competitions, as well as an opportunity to get involved in some workshops and to meet people that worked in the creative industry.
We attended the morning lecture, where Rhiannon James (Education Director) from D&AD spoke about the history of D&AD, as well as how to approach the student competitions and how it was judged, as well as showing some work that had won awards at D&AD. 


She firstly spoke about the history D&AD and how it was set up in 1962 by a group of designers including Alan Fletcher, David Bailey and Terence Donavon, as a charity aiming to look for the best in design, and to reward those responsible. It's ran as a charity, as all the money they receive they try and give back to the designers by providing monetary prizes, and funding workshops, education days and providing links with industry to both graduates and students. 

Then she talked a bit about the D&AD awards and gave examples of some of the winners and the reasons that they had won. 

There's the yellow pencil award for - 'Work that is outstanding, rather than merely brilliant...'

and the black pencil award for - 'The best of the best, the ultimate award, for work that is truly groundbreaking.'

They have also introduced the new white pencil award introduced this year which is -  'awarded to a creative idea that changes the world for the better; an idea that demonstrates the ability to influence real and positive change in the world.'

She also spoke about how entries are judged, and showed a video of various professionals describing what they look for in a D&AD winner. These are the criteria: (as stated on the website also)

' - the work must be a highly original and inspiring idea. 
 - it must be exceptionally well executed.
 - it must be relevant to its context.

(In craft categories, such as Editing or Illustration, work is judged primarily on the strength of the specific craft, and then on how it contributes to the success of the idea.) '

There was also a small video showing how the judging was done, and how the work was displayed for judging in a huge hall down in London.

This first talk was overall really interesting, and it was helpful to learn a bit more about D&AD as a whole, as well as what they are looking for when it comes to the awards.

I'll post about the next talk by creative director and designer Jack Renwick soon, keep your peepers peeled......