D&AD New Blood Awards Black Pencil winners 2016

The Black Pencil is D&AD’s most infamous accolade. To win it in the New Blood Awards requires making the Judges – some of the industry’s top creatives – fear for their jobs a little. To make them think – shit, I wish I’d done that. If they don’t think anything is worthy? They don’t have to award it. So it’s kind of a big deal if you get one. 

After a day of fierce debate about all 2016 Yellow and White winning work, two entries emerged victorious. And here they are. Warning, side effects of the following content include severe pangs of jealousy and paranoia about job security. 

  Bottles Of Squash

Award: Yellow and Black Pencil / New Blood Awards / 2016
Credits: James Wuds
Brief: DAZED

The feeling of being a teenager. That in-between age. Finding independence in youth where it may otherwise seem unattainable. The glimmers of frantic excitement in the mundane. That teenage angst and rebellion. Fizzy drinks and bottles of squash.

  Retro Serif

Award: Yellow and Black Pencil / New Blood Awards / 2016
Credits: Polina Hohonova/ David Barnett / Ray O'Meara / Chelsea College of Arts
Brief: Monotype

Retro Serif is a project about the revival of abolished Russian glyphs. With the Bolshevik overthrow, it was decided to omit the letters I, Ѳ, Ѣ from the ‘new’ Russian alphabet as these were regarded as symbols of the aristocratic ‘High Russian’ and representative of the defunct Tsarist Russia. Those symbols were part of the original language that was adopted by creative minds such as Pushkin and Tolstoy. Reviving these characters is a protest against the prescribed dictatorship of the language.