New Blood Pencils have been awarded to emerging creatives this year, including five to Australians and 1 to a Kiwi.

Australia’s Pencil winners are:

• Jisu Im, Aaron Davies, Mulanne Phan & Mike Spiteri won a Yellow Pencil for their project, Bonk, for VBAT Superunion.
• Jenny (Jiayi) Fang & Thomas Zoldhelyi won a Graphite Pencil for their Customisable Dyslexic Books for Penguin
• Simon Mullins won a Wood Pencil for his project, Rebuild The Wild, for Lego
• Madison Chan & Rachel Holt won a Yellow Pencil for BlackOut for Connect4Climate
• Richard Anderson, Dian Tsuchida, Alex Kastanas & Dimostenis Tsalikis won a Graphite Pencil for Onya Bike Share for VBAT Superunion.

• New Zealand team, Conal Wilson & Hannah Grant won a Wood Pencil for Penguin Shelfies for Penguin

2 Black, 1 White, 39 Yellow, 43 Graphite and 128 Wood New Blood Pencils were awarded.

This year, emerging creatives were invited to respond to a series of creative briefs set by a wide range of global brands: Audible, Barclays, BBC, Burger King, Connect4Climate & World Bank Group, Durex, giffgaff, Google & HMCT, HSBC, Intel, Lego, Martini, Nike, Penguin, Rare & Xbox, The Case for Her & Teen Vogue, Twitter, VBAT Superunion and Yula.

Both a Black and White Pencil were awarded to Inside Stories, an entry in response to the Penguin brief. As books donated to prisons must be brand new, Alex Morris and Jay Parekh from the School of Communication Arts 2.0 conceived the idea to give prisoners the first read of new Penguin books, which ethically conscious readers can purchase afterwards to establish a connection between them and the prisoner. With reading in prison statistically proven to reduce the re-offence rate, giving prisoners access to better quality books is a way to help young offenders find the joy in reading, improve their skills and have a better chance when they reach the outside again.

William Smith, head of brand at Penguin, noted, “Inside Stories took our brief – to enhance the reading experience – and responded with so much more than what that means for an individual. It asked us to consider whether we’re engaging in a reading community that includes everyone and respects every intellectual contribution, and to acknowledge that when books aren’t available to everyone, we’re all poorer. For these entrants, getting books to incarcerated people wasn’t a benevolent act of generosity, but a vital part of connecting readers and helping to foster sharing and reciprocity. We’re absolutely thrilled that this big-hearted and incisive project has been awarded both Black and White Pencils.”

Her Snkrs also won a Black Pencil. This looks to find equality in the sports community by giving young female athletes the chance to show off their potential. Clara Laorden, Dani Navajas, Karolina Sosa and Pia Volpino from Miami Ad School Madrid approached the Nike brief by envisioning a new feature in the brand’s app that allows people to sponsor young athletes by buying their Nike merchandise before they get famous, helping to channel young women into becoming professionals in their respective sports field.

The winners were celebrated during the New Blood Awards digital ceremony, which took place via the D&AD New Blood Instagram page. The ceremony will include an introduction by D&AD President Kate Stanners, a range of pre-recorded videos with Jury Presidents, and animations designed by Soft Power. D&AD and Soft Power have also collaborated to create a series of augmented reality Instagram filters that reveals virtual Black, White, Yellow, Graphite and Wood New Blood Pencils to the winners ahead of the ceremony.

More than 200 industry professionals donated their time and expertise to this year’s New Blood Digital Festival through a series of over 600 portfolio reviews with new creatives.

Kate Stanners, president at D&AD, commented, “The New Blood Awards and Festival, along with the Shift Programme, are the highlight of the D&AD calendar. Shining a light on new talent. This year’s entries were of a fantastic standard, with the diverse briefs set by client sponsors giving them a chance to showcase their potential. From the responses, you could see real innovation and raw creative talent. Some were simple and smart, others showed unbelievable craft, all showed us that the industry has an exciting future.”

Paul Drake, foundations director at D&AD, stated, “I am always blown away by the high calibre of creative thinking that our emerging creative community has to offer, and 2020 is no different. To award two Black Pencils in a year that has been so turbulent demonstrates perfectly the resilient and inspiring nature of the next generation of creative talent. The past few days has seen some of the most exciting creative minds offer advice and inspiration to new creatives through the New Blood digital festival, which continues to offer a nurturing environment for our emerging talent pipeline. I am excited to celebrate this year’s most outstanding work through tonight’s digital ceremony.”

Find all of the Pencil winning entries here. D&AD website.