D&AD New Blood Award Winners Announced

This year, emerging creatives were invited to respond to a series of briefs set by brands and agencies including: 21GRAMS, Audible, BBC, Burger King, Connect4Climate & World Bank Group, Coors Light, The Walt Disney Company, Duolingo, Fossil & MSL, giffgaff, Grey Poupon, Key4Life & Landor, Penguin, Rare & Xbox, Spotify, Tesco, and The Case for Her & Refinery29.

As well as the three Black Pencils – the most prestigious creative accolade – there were six White Pencils for outstanding work that uses the power of creativity to do good. D&AD also awarded 28 Yellow, 45 Graphite and 104 Wood Pencils in recognition of the exceptional creative responses to these briefs.

Both a Black and White Pencil were awarded to The Black List, an entry in response to the Penguin brief. With reading playing a pivotal part in developing young people and 40 per cent of GCSE students stating they can’t find anything of interest to read, Gareth C E, Jack Walsh and Osagie Samuel from the School of Communication Arts 2.0 created a campaign that aims to persuade the UK government to change the curriculum. By spotlighting underrepresented, marginalised and more relatable voices within writing, The Black List movement hopes to reposition writing in a more authentic way and help young people understand that consuming words and stories can empower their own voice.

Lit on Beat was also awarded a Black Pencil in response to Penguin’s brief. Selina Smyllie of Leeds Arts University created a campaign that aims to help black teenagers, especially those with Dyslexia, who feel disconnected from the written word. The campaign aligns the worlds of Rap and poetry in order to highlight the similarities between the two, helping to push for curriculums across the country to recognise this commonality and help those struggling with connecting to the written word.

The final Black Pencil was awarded to The You Tour, a response to the 21GRAMS brief, which looks to raise awareness about melanoma among young people of colour by leveraging the expansion of the Black travel movement. Reframing the body as a landscape of must-see places, Pernille Lund and Jonathan Fjord of DMJX - Danish School of Media and Journalism, aim to transform a curiosity for travel into a catalyst that helps people to recognise the signs of melanoma and have it diagnosed as early as possible.

Naresh Ramchandani, President at D&AD, commented: “The New Blood Awards is a programme that equips and inspires young creatives around the world every year to become tomorrow’s practitioners and redefine what creative excellence is for us all. As has always been the case, 2021’s winners once again encapsulates this aim perfectly. With 186 winning pieces of work, chosen by 179 judges, from 3,000 entries by nearly 6000 entrants, sent in from 62 countries it is clear to see that the next generation of creative talent have what it takes to challenge accepted wisdom, to disrupt what our industry thinks and does and ultimately push to develop a new sense of creative excellence within it.”

For information on all of the Pencil winning entries, see the D&AD website.