Grey India wins Yellow Pencil at 2019 D&AD Awards

Grey India won a coveted Yellow Pencil, equivalent to Gold medal, at the 2019 D&AD Awards held last week in London. The agency won the award for its work titled ‘Sehat Ka Batua – The Health Purse’ done for Mahindra Rise in Graphic Design category.

Wunderman Thompson (erstwhile JWT) won two Wood Pencils, equivalent to Bronze, for its work ‘Blink and they are gone’ in Editing and Creativity for Good categories.

MullenLowe Lintas Group India’s work titled ‘Lifebuoy Plastic Baba’ won a Wood Pencil in Media category for Use of Events and Stunts. The work was entered along with MullenLowe Singapore.

With an overall tally of 4 awards, India ranked No. 20. There were 19 entries in the fray from India for 2019 awards.

Droga5 was awarded a Black Pencil in TV Commercial Campaigns and Furlined was also awarded a Black Pencil in Writing for Film for the New York Times campaign “The Truth is Worth It”. A campaign which looks to shed light on the rigor behind the journalism and unveils the lengths reporters go to find the truth.

BWM Dentsu also took home a Black Pencil in Digital Design for its Project Revoice campaign for The ALS Association. Project Revoice is a digital voice clone that integrates with text-to-speech devices, giving people with ALS (Motor Neurone Disease) the ability to speak in their own voice, even after they physically can’t.

Wieden + Kennedy claimed one Black Pencil in Integrated for its Dream Crazy campaign for Nike, led by the controversial NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, which, on the 30th anniversary of “Just Do It”, celebrated athletes who dreamed crazy, featuring household names like Serena Williams to a girl on a high-school football team.

Other Black Pencil awarded work included:

- Xbox Adaptive Controller by Microsoft won one Black Pencil in Product Design for a unified hub for devices that helps make gaming more accessible, that was designed primarily to meet the needs of gamers with limited mobility.

- Viva La Vulva by Somesuch and AMVBBDO for Libresse won one Black Pencil for Direction with their campaign designed to foster an open, positive culture to enable women to feel proud and comfortable about talking and caring about their genitals.

In total, 720 Pencils were awarded during D&AD Judging 2019. The number of Pencils awarded by level are as follows: 

- Black Pencil - 6 Pencils (2 Advertising, 2 Design, 2 Craft)

- Yellow Pencil - 58 Pencils

- Graphite Pencil - 196 Pencils

- Wood Pencil - 460 Pencils

- Shortlisted - 889 entries

Although not awarded with a Pencil at the D&AD Awards Ceremony, an additional 889 entries made the Shortlist this year. Announced live throughout judging (18 - 20 May), the D&AD Awards Shortlist was introduced in order to acknowledge the volume of high calibre submissions that, even if they didn’t win a Pencil, were in close consideration.

D&AD CEO Tim Lindsay commented, “It has been another outstanding year for global creativity, with entries received from 73 countries. The theme for this year’s festival has been “Shaping the Future” and that’s very much been reflected in the campaigns we’ve had the privilege of seeing, many of which attests to the power of creativity to help build a better future. The work I have seen has been fantastic and everyone on the jury and everyone who has seen the final list of Pencil-winning work has been knocked out by the quality. It is a hugely encouraging sign for the buoyant and vibrant direction of our industry.”

Companies of the Year:

Top 3 Advertising Agencies of the Year are:

1. Droga5 - D&AD Advertising Agency of the Year 2019 

2. adam&eveDDB

3. McCann New York

Top 3 Design Agencies of the Year are:

1. Jones Knowles Ritchie - D&AD Design Agency of the Year 2019

2. SERVICEPLAN

3. Apple

Top 3 Production Companies of the Year are:

1. Academy Films - D&AD Production Company of the Year 2019

2. Furlined

3. Somesuch

Top 3 Clients of the Year are:

1. Apple - D&AD Client of the Year 2019

2. The New York Times

3. Mars

“Next” winners

This year also saw an additional 17 Pencils awarded to “Next” winners. Next is a new D&AD Award subcategory for 2019, introduced in order to recognise individual creatives, designers and crafts practitioners who have worked for no more than three years in the creative industries.

Collaborative award

The two winners of this year’s Collaborative Award were adam&eveDDB and John Lewis & Partners (Advertising) and Design Bridge and Fortnum & Mason (Design). The D&AD Collaborative Award, launched this year, is a special award for client collaborations to applaud brave and innovative collaborations between clients and agencies alike. The award is designed to celebrate collaborations which have produced a successive body of work achieving outstanding creative excellence and success over a number of years.

President’s Award

This year the President’s Award, the highest D&AD accolade reserved for a chosen few from the creative world, goes to artist and stage designer Es Devlin.

D&AD President Harriet Devoy commented, “I am delighted to present this year’s D&AD President’s Award to the unique talent that is Es Devlin. For over two decades she’s designed sets for the world’s leading theatre and opera companies. And her creations for the biggest artists in music mean her work has shaped the Instagram memories of millions. Her craft is incredible. Its scale, awe-inspiring. She turns spaces into spectacles and makes magic happen in front of our eyes. She doesn't just break the fourth wall, she shatters it in ways no designer has before.”

D&AD will announce Network of the Year and regional rankings in early June 2019. 

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