D&AD has re-analysed its country rankings. Brazil has moved up into #4 and Australia has moved down to #5.
D&AD has announced the Black pencil winning entries, companies of the year and the full country rankings as well as the Pencil winners for the 2021 Awards across the Design, Culture and Impact categories, companies of the year and the full country rankings. The US and UK are #1 and #2 respectively in the country rankings. Australia is #4. China is #3.
Saatchi & Saatchi Melbourne added to its 3 Yellow and 2 Graphite Pencils with another Graphite in Impact for Donation Dollar for The Royal Australian Mint.
There are 3 Black Pencil winners:
- AMV BBDO, #wombstories, in Art Direction, Film for Essity
Women animators from across the world aiming to open up the many narratives and break taboos around the experiences of people with wombs.
- McCann New York True Name, in Experiential, Community for Mastercard
A collaboration with Mastercard to support the rights of transgender and nonbinary people to use their chosen names on credit cards.
- FCB Chicago, Boards of Change, in Spatial Design, Public Spaces for City of Chicago
Turning plywood boards used to barricade storefronts during the Black Lives Matter protests into polling booths, empowering Black Americans to use their right to vote.
President’s Award: This year’s President’s Award, reserved for true industry heroes, was awarded to Australian Kim Gehrig, director at Somesuch, for her outstanding contribution to creativity.
Naresh Ramchandani, D&AD president, commented, “For me, creative excellence is work that acts both for the brief and for the world, putting social purpose at the heart of commercial success, and showing us that great creativity lifts everybody up. Kim Gehrig’s work lifts so many people up – women trying to get fitter in the case of This Girl Can, men who stand against toxic masculinity with We Believe, and people unafraid to speak up about periods with Viva La Vulva. Kim is not just an ‘issues director’, because when she addresses issues, they’re not issues at all – they’re national and international provocations and celebrations that touch the hearts of everyone who cares and many more who didn’t know they did. For this reason I believe she couldn’t be more deserving of this year’s President’s Award.”
Companies of the Year:
The top-ranking advertising companies of the year are:
- AMV BBDO
- Publicis Italia
- Africa
The top-ranking design companies of the year are:
- COLLINS
- John Knowles Ritchie
- Superunion
The top-ranking production companies of the year are:
- DIVISION
- Somesuch London
- Stink Films
The top-ranking clients of the year are:
- Apple
- Essity
- Academy
D&AD has also announced the Pencil winners across the Culture, Design and Impact categories. Across these, the top-ranking countries by number of Pencils are:
- United States – 59 Pencils
- United Kingdom – 53 Pencils
- China – 13 Pencils
- Canada and France – 11 Pencils each
The top-ranking companies for these categories, by number of Pencils are:
- John Knowles Ritchie, COLLINS and Superunion – 5 Pencils each
- Adam&EveDDB, Africa, Apple and Google / Google Creative Lab – 4 Pencils each
The total number of Pencils in each category are:
Impact: 24 Pencil Winners
- Impact: 6 Graphite, 13 Wood
- Future Impact: 5 Future Impact pencils
Culture: 41 Pencil Winners
- Entertainment: 3 Yellow, 7 Graphite, 5 Wood
McCann London won 2 Yellow Pencils in Entertainment for The Birth of Gaming Tourism for Microsoft/Xbox
Biscuit Filmworks/Revolver won 1 Yellow Penicl for Starr Park for Brawl Stars
- Gaming: 1 Yellow, 3 Graphite, 6 Wood
DDB Germany won 1 Yellow Pencil in Gaming for The Uncensored Library for Reporters Without Borders.
- Music Videos: 6 Graphite, 10 Wood
Design: 166 Pencil Winners
- Book Design: 1 Yellow, 3 Graphite, 6 Wood
- Branding: 6 Yellow, 12 Graphite, 36 Wood
- Design Transformation: 1 Yellow, 2 Wood
- Digital Design: 2 Yellow, 5 Graphite, 6 Wood
- Graphic Design: 1 Yellow, 7 Graphite, 21 Wood
- Magazine & Newspaper Design: 1 Yellow, 2 Graphite, 17 Wood
- Packaging Design: 2 Yellow, 3 Graphite, 15 Wood
- Product Design: 1 Graphite, 7 Wood
- Spatial Design: 1 Yellow, 2 Wood
- Type Design: 3 Graphite, 3 Wood
The 231 Pencil winning works and all shortlisted entries are showcased on the D&AD Website.
The winners were announced during the second of two digital ceremonies hosted on the D&AD website, which featured speeches from D&AD President Naresh Ramchandani in celebration of the winners.
Donal Keenan, awards director at D&AD, commented, “D&AD Black Pencils are an incredibly special and rare industry accolade. I am delighted that this year we have three projects that are driving real behavioural change, from helping empower communities, to increasing freedoms and smashing taboos. The discussion in all three Black Pencil juries was insightful and rigorous this year. D&AD would like to say thank you again to all our fantastic judges in making these Black Pencil choices.”
The total number of Pencils awarded for the D&AD Awards 2021 by level are as follows:
- Overall Total – 664 Pencils
- Black – 3 Pencils awarded
- Yellow – 63 Pencils awarded
- Graphite – 190 Pencils awarded
- Wood – 390 Pencils awarded
- Side Hustle – 2 Pencils
- Future Impact – 5 Pencils
- Next – 9 Pencils awarded
- Collaborative – 2 Pencils awarded
D&AD will be launching the Jury Insights series, a programme of panel discussions in which judges from select categories will discuss what makes Pencil-winning work, as well as the trends and themes from the 2021 Awards. The series will be released fortnightly from June 8 on the D&AD website.
Full List of Pencils Awarded by Country:
| Rank | Country | Winning Entries | Total Points |
| 1 | United States | 355 | 1087 |
| 2 | United Kingdom | 296 | 836 |
| 3 | France | 90 | 255 |
| 4 | Brazil | 57 | 194 |
| 5 | Australia | 51 | 156 |
| 6 | Canada | 37 | 121 |
| 7 | Germany | 46 | 115 |
| 8 | Spain | 34 | 110 |
| 9 | Sweden | 34 | 103 |
| 10 | Italy | 21 | 98 |
| 11 | Netherlands | 34 | 97 |
| 12 | China | 32 | 83 |
| 13 | New Zealand | 24 | 77 |
| 14 | Japan | 24 | 64 |
| 15 | India | 14 | 49 |
| 16 | Ireland | 11 | 45 |
| 17 | Denmark | 17 | 39 |
| 18 | South Africa | 15 | 38 |
| 19 | Taiwan | 10 | 28 |
| 20 | Hong Kong | 16 | 28 |
| 21 | Mexico | 6 | 27 |
| 22 | Ukraine | 3 | 24 |
| 23 | Singapore | 9 | 24 |
| 24 | Lithuania | 3 | 21 |
| 25 | Thailand | 9 | 20 |
| 26 | Switzerland | 4 | 14 |
| 27 | Norway | 3 | 11 |
| 28 | Colombia | 5 | 11 |
| 29 | United Arab Emirates | 7 | 9 |
| 30 | Argentina | 7 | 9 |
| 31 | Poland | 3 | 8 |
| 32 | Lebanon | 3 | 8 |
| 33 | Russian Federation | 4 | 8 |
| 34 | Macao | 2 | 7 |
| 35 | Pakistan | 5 | 7 |
| 36 | Chile | 1 | 6 |
| 36 | Czech Republic | 1 | 6 |
| 38 | Korea, Republic of | 4 | 6 |
| 39 | Egypt | 2 | 4 |
| 39 | Finland | 2 | 4 |
| 41 | Austria | 1 | 3 |
| 41 | Dominican Republic | 1 | 3 |
| 41 | Ecuador | 1 | 3 |
| 41 | Uganda | 1 | 3 |
| 45 | Belgium | 2 | 2 |
| 45 | Vietnam | 2 | 2 |
| 47 | Iceland | 2 | 2 |
| 48 | Belarus | 1 | 1 |
| 48 | Indonesia | 1 | 1 |
| 48 | Malaysia | 1 | 1 |
| 48 | Nicaragua | 1 | 1 |
| 48 | Peru | 1 | 1 |
| 48 | Romania | 1 | 1 |
| 48 | Slovakia | 1 | 1 |
| 48 | Sri Lanka | 1 | 1 |
| 48 | Turkey | 1 | 1 |
