
D&AD New Blood Awards 2021
Kick start your career in advertising and design with an award for students, graduates, and aspiring creatives.
The entry deadline for 2021 has now passed. Contact newblood@dandad.org with any queries.
New for 2021, New Blood Quickfire is shorter, timed briefs, accompanied by short courses and paid opportunities. Winners for Quickfire to be announced soon.
Real briefs, set by real clients, judged by the industry's top creatives
New Blood Awards is open to advertising, design, digital and marketing students, recent graduates and emerging creatives worldwide. It's your opportunity to land a job in the creative industry by getting a head start while you're still at university or gaining the exposure you need to kick start your creative career.
Your Butterfly Effect
Your butterfly effect is the step you take when you enter the New Blood Awards, When you find your team, When your idea sparks, When you speak to real people to solve a real problem.
Your butterfly effect is the stimulation of your creative ideas, the space to explore them, the tools to learn how the commercial industry works, and how you can make it work better.
The creative spark that keeps going, growing, every decision, every step, every ‘mistake’.
Your butterfly effect is your own, unlike any other, an unfathomable shape, a unique texture, constantly moving, accepting new parts, new roads, new paths.
Your butterfly effect.
Download the briefs
Here they are, in all their glory. Take them in and take them on.
Meet the creatives who will be judging your work
Key dates
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13 October 2020
D&AD New Blood briefs launch
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Top brands issue real world briefs
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Early 2021 — Entry site opens
Entry site opens
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Enter your response to the brief
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23 March 2021
Entry deadline
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Enter your work by 5pm GMT
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April–May 2021 — New Blood judging
New Blood judging
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Judges decide on Pencils
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Late May 2021 — Winners revealed
Winners revealed
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Winners will be announced without Pencil levels
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Summer 2021 — D&AD New Blood Ceremony
D&AD New Blood Ceremony
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Pencil levels revealed at the ceremony
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New Blood Quickfire 2021
Applying for creative placements and jobs right now? New Blood Quickfire [formerly known as New Blood Shots] is a brand new set of shorter briefs and accompanying short courses. Quickfire is aimed at recent graduates, emerging creatives and students looking to continue their learning, develop their portfolio and find paid opportunities.
Our first brief deadline from publisher HarperCollins, a chance to rebrand 'The Chronicles of Narnia' has now passed. If you have entered you will be contacted with further information.
Our second timed brief with Chivas Regal is now live. A chance for your ideas to become real client work. Download the brief and get ready for the 4 March Deadline 5pm GMT.
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Creative Directors reveal where they look for inspiration, and where their ideas come from.
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L.A. Ronayne shares her killer tips on how to make your ideas next-level
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Your step-by-step guide to making your work more brave, and more ballsy.
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Stuck for ideas? Try these 6 tips to get you back on track
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Before you find that winning idea, craft it and enter it – you have to do the hardest part. Start.
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Henry Hicks knows just what it takes to create work for change
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What makes big ideas 'big'? Simple. It’s the fact that they’re, simple.
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Use real connections and tangible experiences to bring your experiential activations to life.
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Keep your eyes on the prize, with tips from New Blood Alumni
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Have you got the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit that’ll drive our industry forward?
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Are you onto a winner? Try asking yourself these five key questions
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Brief asking you to rebrand, refresh or reimagine? Be inspired by these makeovers.
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These ideas created more than just a reaction. They provoked real action.
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We’re throwing a spotlight on purveyor of ‘mammamerch’, Mère Soeur
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Tech got you feeling like a robot? These big winners prove the power of tech when it’s driven by emotion.
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Here's how to turn that difficult creative challenge into a chance to shine
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Keen to impress? Get the inside scoop on what the Judges want
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Ready to get the Judges’ attention? This is how you do it
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Vikki Ross reminds us why words are the copywriter's weapon of choice
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The best creative work knows what’s next and how to change it up
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Get down to the nuts and bolts with a brief-busting exercise
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Understand the issue that's affecting the industry as a whole
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Learn how to turn facts and figures into creative building blocks
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How about using your New Blood entry to get people talking?
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See our handy cheat sheet to find out what each Pencil represents
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Discover the organisations and initiatives bringing new blood into the industry
D&AD Side Hustle
Creative competition to start-up or scale-up your passion projects. Pitch your big ideas to investors and creative directors, with a chance to win the mentoring and resources needed to help you succeed.
Keep up to date
Be the first in the know. Sign up for articles and videos to keep the inspiration flowing, tips and tricks to take you to the top, and of course the latest D&AD News.
Get in touch
New Blood Team
Contact D&AD New Blood
Partnerships Team
Contact Sammi