D&AD has announced the first round of this year’s awards with a record number of entries judged by 400 of the world’s top creatives. Two Black Pencils have been won:
- DDB New Zealand’s Samsung iTest, for Samsung in Media, Mobile
Samsung built a website that allows any iPhone user to try a Samsung from the comfort of their own iPhone, using iPhone devices as media placement.
- Leo Burnett Chicago’s The Lost Class for Change The Ref, in Direct, Film
To fight for common sense gun laws, Leo Burnett Chicago held a graduation ceremony for the 3,044 students who would have graduated this year if they hadn’t been killed by a gun.
Famously tough to win, there are no quotas for D&AD Awards, meaning that the number of awarded entries fluctuates each year. In some years, no Black Pencils, the highest creative accolade, are awarded. The highest ever awarded in one year currently stands at seven.
The Black Pencils were announced with winners from across the Craft categories, including Visual Effects, Editing, Sound Design & Use of Music, Direction, Casting, Cinematography, Art Direction, Animation, Production Design, and Writing for Advertising; Advertising categories including Experiential, Direct, Media, Digital, Radio & Audio, PR, E-commerce, Film, Press & Outdoor, and Integrated; and the Collaborative Awards which celebrate long-lasting relationships between clients and their design, advertising and/or production companies that have led to the creation of noteworthy work in recent years.
The Collaborative Award winner was AMV BBDO for its continued work with Essity as a recognition of the outstanding craft and excellence work produced in recent years with Blood Normal, Viva la Vulva, and Wombstories.
The total number of Pencils in each category are:
Craft: 155 Pencil Winners
- Animation: 21
- Art Direction: 15
- Casting: 26
- Cinematography: 5
- Direction: 19
- Editing: 10
- Production Design: 7
- Sound Design & Use of Music: 18
- Visual Effects: 15
- Writing for Advertising: 19
Advertising: 268 Pencil Winners
- Digital: 52
- Direct: 23
- Experiential: 29
- E-commerce: 9
- Film: 54
- Integrated: 11
- Media: 28
- PR: 28
- Press & Outdoor: 26
- Radio & Audio: 8
Collaborative: 1 Pencil Winner
All 424 Pencil winning & shortlisted entries are available on the D&AD website.
Donal Keenan, awards director at D&AD, commented, “Based on the first round of judging, it is clear this year has been another outstanding one for global creativity. With a record-breaking number of applicants in 2022, it was a particularly challenging one to judge, so we are delighted to have been able to award two Black Pencils to DDB New Zealand and Leo Burnett Chicago, who have astounded us with their unique creative approaches. We are grateful to have been able to celebrate, learn from, and be inspired by the immense talent that our industry has to offer alongside the rest of the global creative community at part one of the D&AD Ceremony and look forward to the second with anticipation.”
The Pencil winners for the remaining Craft, Side Hustle, Design, Impact and Culture categories as wel las Black Pencils and Companies of the Year will be announced in the second virtual ceremony on May 26 at 7pm BST. Find more information on the D&AD website.
The President’s Award will be announced at a special in-person event in September to celebrate D&AD’s 60th Anniversary and to launch this year’s D&AD Annual. Further details will be announced shortly.
In addition, D&AD is producing the Jury Insight 2022 series in order to celebrate the great work that has been produced over the last year. Select juries will unpack some of the winning work from the Awards, exploring what creative excellence means in 2022, as well as discussing wider themes and trends across the industry. The panel discussion will be published bi-weekly as a series throughout the summer on the D&AD website and YouTube channel.
