Tosh Hall, Global Chief Creative Officer at Jones Knowles Ritchie and D&AD Branding Jury President, looks at the year in branding and shares insights into the judging process for the tough fight for a Yellow Pencil.

As an increasing number of campaigns seek to effect change and go beyond public affiliation with causes, what is branding work that does good? Hall says the answer lies in breaking new ground and acting with purpose. Considering this year’s crop, the CCO says, “I think the thing that’s interesting is more emphasis on campaign branding, the moving image and the newer underrepresented categories.“

Hall’s favourite work from this year includes Channel 4’s Complaints Welcome ident by 4creative, which takes the brand voice and uses across multiple channels. The jury also liked its humour and cultural relevance in terms of trolling and online bullying.

He also notes branding on small under-the-radar brands such as We Compost in New Zealand. We Compost—Feed the Worms by Seachange took a very unglamorous company and created a worm-like font and lush green branding.

“It was a brand refresh and quite small and maybe didn’t have that much reach… but we also thought it’s good to recognise small and interesting things that are happening.”

On the judging process itself he says, “By the end we had done such good work defining the Wood and Graphite Pencils it became easy to see what rose to the top.”

Hall also says that there was some soul searching to do in the wake of Covid-19, but believes one upside is that the talent pool for companies is now very international, with distance being no barrier to working with someone.

Host: Laura Swinton, editor-in-chief of Little Black Book
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