In a world where it feels like everyone claims to be award-winning, and every project has seemingly won something somewhere or other, it pays to explore the rare air of the D&AD Black Pencil.
Since 1963, only 184 black pencils have been awarded.
There’s a link on the D&AD website which lets you study this rather hallowed hall of fame. And as halls go, it’s ludicriously short.
If you do take a look you’ll notice that the 184 includes all the multiple winners too.
So when you reflect on the feeling that that many Grands Prix or Gold Lions get given out at Cannes each year these days, it does get you thinking.
Is there a point of an award show which so rarely gives out its top prize? And if there’s so little chance of winning one, what’s the point of entering?
Simply put, D&AD sets the standard that the entire industry can judge itself against.
So if you want to know if your best is average by the industry’s standards, it’s worth knowing that. It can be both humbling and inspiring.
But it doesn’t hurt to know where your favourite pieces of work stand.
Australia has had more than its fair share of success in recent years. From Pulau Pledge to Meet Graham, from Project Revoice to Most Powerful Arm, from Best Job in the World to Dumb Ways to Die.
Wondering through the hall of fame is like being inspired all over again.
Honda Grrr, Guinness Surfer, Volvo Epic Split. Levi’s Twist, Volvo Twister, Lego Kipper.
What you start to realise is that these pieces of work pioneered to the point that they created a legacy.
The Channel 4 Identity, the BBC 2 Idents, Fearless Girl.
And in some instances careers have been born from receiving this highest of praise. Thomas Heatherwick’s work for Harvey Nichols catapulted him into the limelight.
Jonathan Ive’s Apple work is almost like a catalogue of black pencils.
In this best of the best list, it’s hard to find something that feels a bit weak.
But inevitably there are some that feel supreme.
For me, Chris Cunningham’s music video for Bjork’s All is Full of Love is about as fresh today as it was then.
It’s been ripped off but never overtaken as a wonderful piece of theatricality.
The Greenpeace film, Dumb Animals, turned the tide on the fashionability of wearing fur.
And it’s hard to go past the Billboard film for Benson and Hedges.
What if anything has a claim to being that brilliant or remarkable today?
But one thing does strike you about looking at this set of work.
The things you THINK would have got a black pencil but didn’t. The things we all see as iconic, and yet, at the time someone found sufficiently fault to restrict the recognition to yellow.
I hope you’ll take the chance to see where you stand.
The closing date this year is March 20.
In a world where you could win anything elsewhere, wouldn’t it be wonderful to win something here?
