Bruce Duckworth, principal at Turner Duckworth, began his year as D&AD President on September 23.
With him comes a renewed focus on the power and importance of design.
Each year D&AD, appoints a president from the Board of Trustees to lead the charge and shape the conversations for the year ahead.
In 2017, the D&AD Festival will return for its 2nd year and the President’s Lectures series will run internationally. As well as spearheading these ongoing events, Duckworth intends to raise the profile of designers and great design and build a stronger bond between design and D&AD.
Duckworth explained, “This year I’d like to strengthen the relationship between D&AD and the design community. To bring the design community back into D&AD. And to give design a louder voice.
“How? We need to make D&AD a hub for our creative community. A place where the different creatives come together. One of the things I love about D&AD are the conversations I have with people from other disciplines, from different industries, people with different ways of seeing things. I find it energising, inspiring, and creative.
“We have to work together, and the best creative work comes about when we do work together, from established greats to people embarking on a creative career, that’s where the magic is. So we have to get the different communities within D&AD talking, design and advertising, sharing ideas. Embracing the “&” in D&AD.
“All this year we will be talking about design. The Festival that was the most inspirational thing I’ve ever been to will be even bigger and better than last year, bringing people together and sharing ideas on how to shape our future. The President’s lectures will focus on how design excellence is central to business success, and we’ve got some fantastic names booked. (Fingers crossed).”
“There’s a real opportunity to help creative practitioners stay in control, and lead business through creativity, not accountancy. We need to help creative people become better business people. There are lots of small brilliant companies that would love to be bigger brilliant companies, but don’t know how to get there. So we’ll be looking at a program of professional development to help creative people who run companies to understand business better and to take creative excellence to more people.”
“And by educating people about the opportunities that exist within the creative industry, and with exciting programmes like D&AD New Blood Shift, I want to help D&AD to continue to bring new kinds of people into the industry. New kinds of people with new ideas, which is so vital for us all.”
See Duckworth’s manifesto for the year here.
Eight new creatives have been elected to sit on the D&AD Board of Trustees:
- Alexandra Taylor: Consultant head of art, Mrs. McGuinty
- Bruno Maag: Chairman, Dalton Maag
- Graham Shearsby: Chief creative officer, Design Bridge
- L.A. Ronayne: Creative director, Havas London
- Kath Tudball: Design director, The Partners
- Paco Conde: Group creative director, BBH London
- Steve Spence: Lecturer, London College of Communication
- Thomas Manning: Junior creative, Havas London (New Blood Trustee)
Tim Lindsay, chief executive, D&AD commented, “I would like to extend a warm welcome to Bruce who brings with him experience from a stellar career in the design industry. It comes as no surprise that he has big plans to bring the D&AD design community closer together and we are excited to see how his leadership will help to guide and shape D&AD over the coming year.”
“September always brings change here at D&AD but this whole year has been one full of new beginnings: the first ever D&AD Festival, the launch of New Blood Shift and we are days away from the inaugural D&AD Impact Awards. I’d like to thank Andy Sandoz on behalf of all my colleagues at D&AD and the Board of Trustees for his fantastic commitment over five years culminating in a great presidential year.”
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