D&AD: The Beautiful Meme shows that Pencils matter

The Beautiful Meme’s D&AD Festival 2017 campaign is all about the Pencils that make work matter and the work that makes Pencils matter. That’s all the more apt because this year for the first time, The D&AD Awards Ceremony will take place during the Festival, with a new format to be announced soon.

The evolving colours, textures and shapes of the Beautiful Meme’s animations represent the ever shifting nature of D&AD’s categories, thinking and work.

The executions pay homage to either award levels or categories from the D&AD Professional Awards and use previous winning work as executional inspiration.

Ben Haworth, creative director, The Beautiful Meme explained, “In advertising and design, the D&AD Pencil, the symbol of excellence, is ever-present. Around it the industry is weft and warp and flux. Nothing stays still and that’s as it should be. That’s what this year’s identity is about.”

Tim Lindsay,chief executive officer of D&AD added, “D&AD is much more than an Awards show and the Festival is a fine example of this – bringing together 26,000 pieces of work, 250 jurors, speakers, exhibitions, events, parties and the awards ceremony itself in what is a slightly crazy, slightly chaotic evocation of the wonderful world of creativity and the dividends that excellence delivers. This year’s branding from the Beautiful Meme builds on their rich visuals and sharp statements from last year in a brilliant expression of what the Festival and our business is all about at its best.”

There will be at least 20 designs in the campaign with a number of them light projected on the walls at the Truman Brewery – adding movement and colour to the areas where the winning work is displayed. Executions will also appear as animations on screens at the entrance to the events and as prints throughout the venue. The series will be shared through D&AD’s social channels as well as on their website in the run up to the Festival.

The D&AD Festival has been organised into three distinct days this year, each with its own agenda:

Tuesday, 25 April – The Earth Will Shake: This is a day of responding to the big issues our world faces. D&AD want to inspire you to build a better, fairer and more sustainable future.

Wednesday, 26 April – Staring at The Sun: Shifts in technology, trends and work-styles are upending the creative industries. This is a day of leading innovators thinking, predicting and demonstrating how they are adapting to a transforming sector.

Thursday, 27 April – Outrageous Magic: This is a day of our industry’s leading designers and creators talking about what they do when crafting the big ideas.

Festival Highlights Include:

Over 150 speakers across three days of Festival and four stages.
Insight sessions with D&AD Professional Awards Judges, sharing their experience of the judging process.
Bite-sized Training Sessions from some of D&ADs most popular (and most exclusive) professional development classes.
An exhibition of over 26,000 pieces of work including areas dedicated to Graphic Design, Packaging Design and Film Advertising.
The Next Awards are putting on a show in the form of a Next Photographer Exhibition sponsored by Getty Images and a Next Director Showcase screening sponsored by Adobe.
New Blood will be putting forward speakers and training sessions as well as having a dedicated area at the Festival where you can learn all about the D&AD Foundation projects.