Yellow Pencils and Creative Excellence at the 2024 D&AD Awards Ceremony

The last day of this year’s D&AD festival was abuzz with anticipation for the award ceremony later that night. Like the day prior, Wednesday was filled with talks, Jury Insights panels and masterclasses. The crowd was keen to gain further insights and hints of the potential pencil-worthy projects to be announced.

Indonesia’s own Andi Rahmat, Design Principle at Nusaé, was part of the Graphics & Type Design Jury Insights panel held that morning. Andi is the one of two Indonesia-based D&AD judges—a first for the design festival. He was joined by Liron Lavi Turkenich, designer of Aravrit, Rosey Trickett of Stop, Look and Listen, type designer Sulekha Rajkumar, and Tyrone Ohia of Extended Whānau moderated by Amah-Rose Abrams, contributing editor at Wallpaper. The project of choice for this panel includes ADLaM, 855-HOW-TO-QUIT-(OPIOIDS),  OC Blimp, OC Washi, and Quilts for Collaboration. A recurring motif in the discussion was the idea of the cross-section between craft and technology—this is particularly evident in the OC Washi and Quilts for collaboration. These particular projects combine a certain tactility in its execution, with OC Washi being a font that maintains a level of hand-made feel and Quilts for Collaboration combining the long traditions of quilting with a contemporary flair.

Another highlight of the day was the talk by Brian Collins and Leland Maschmeyer of COLLINS on brand world building and making the future so irresistible that it becomes inevitable. The two co-founders began the session by talking the audience through the evolution of branding and the state of the scene today—how clients are now looking for a brand world rather than branding design. Excitingly, they revealed the COLLINS brand world building model and maintained the importance of determining the culture at which the brand sits to find the right branding approach. Two successful case studies of the model that they showed included the Chobani and Bose rebrands by COLLINS. They also explained how they have applied the idea of a brand world to COLLINS itself, with the pandemic being the trigger in re-evaluating the environment at which their team works in.

The awards ceremony later that night showcased numerous incredible projects brought forth by the best and brightest of our industry. There were many standout works of the night but one that seemed to have really enamored the judges was the Channel 4 Idents for 2024 which took home a total of six yellow pencils including one in the Branding category. Another project that really took the night by storm was the Michael CeraVe PR campaign by Ogilvy PR. The cheeky social media campaign took home two graphite and three yellow pencils and rightly so after a 25% increase in sales and a 2200% increase in searches for CeraVe. 

The Graphic Design category awarded a total of five yellow pencils, two of which went to the 855-HOW-TO-QUIT(OPIOIDS) project in the subcategory of integrated graphic design and graphic design for websites & apps. In the Illustration category, the My Japan Railway project by Dentsu Tokyo really stole the show and was awarded a yellow pencil in the integrated subcategory—they later won one of four black pencils awarded last night. The other black pencil winners include WoMen’s Football by Marcel for Orange in the Digital & Social; Tactile category, VisionOS by Apple in the Digital Design; Connected Experiences category, and Where to Settle by McCann Poland in the Experiential; Community Activations category. Jessica Walsh of &Walsh was also present and was awarded the President’s Award by this year’s jury president, Jack Renwick, for her long-time contributions in the effort to bridge the gender gap and lack of diversity in design studio ownership worldwide. This year also saw Indonesian entrants being awarded. Three Indonesian projects were shortlisted; Padlette for Softex by Flock, Yellow Canteen for Dulux by Innocean Indonesia, and Coastal Vision by Ardneks and Jordan, jordan Édition. Coastal Vision was also awarded a wood pencil and Yellow Canteen gained two graphite pencils in the Spatial Design; Creative Use of Budget and Impact; Local Solution, as well as a yellow pencil in the Spatial Design; Public Spaces category.

D&AD is an eye-opening awards system that truly honors excellence in the creative field. It is a brilliant accolade that acknowledges the cream of the crop of our industry but doesn’t neglect to acknowledge the extraordinary work of smaller creatives in the playing field. We hope to see more entrants from Indonesia at the D&AD award in the coming years—putting their work forward on the center stage of the global creative Industry. Check out the full list of D&AD 2024 winners here.