D&AD in 2023

The 2023 D&AD Awards in numbers

This year, a record number of participants entered nearly 30,000 individual pieces of work, from over 70 countries, making up 12,243 entries, judged by over 300 judges from over 50 countries – back in person for the first time since 2019.

A total of 639 Pencils were awarded in 2023. Two Black Pencils, reserved only for truly groundbreaking work, were awarded.

Division and Electric Theatre Collective claimed one Black Pencil in the Visual Effects / Craft category for Pharrell Williams’ music video, Cash In Cash Out, featuring 21 Savage and Tyler, The Creator, using CGI animation to create avatars of the three musicians dancing in a magical environment.

Abby.World took home a Black Pencil in Product Design/ Design with Heartbeat Drum Machine for The Swedish Heartchild Foundation. The device, functioning as a modular synthesiser, produces rhythms using the electrocardiograms of four children with different heart defects. Channelling distress into art, it captures the core of the problem to transform it into something new and beautiful.

Two Collaborative Pencils were awarded, celebrating innovative and long-lasting collaborations. These went to Iyama Design and Kamoi Kakoshi Co, Japan, for ongoing work with Mt Masking Tape that started with the development of a logo through to a promotional exhibition still held around the world today; and Ogilvy UK and Unilever for A 66-Year Partnership, a collaboration that began in 1957 when a certain David Ogilvy wrote the first print advert for the Dove beauty bar.

Two winners were awarded the Side Hustle Pencil. Sponsored by Adobe Express, the Side Hustle category reflects the value of creatives applying their skills and personal passions to side projects that address social and environmental issues.

The recipients are Get Better Books for Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children, UK with a series of interactive books designed to help paediatric patients understand their journey through treatment and stages of recovery; and Beyond Hearing by Chun-Te Ho, UK, an augmented reality interface for deaf people to localise and experience sound with a multi-senses feedback system for safety, communication and daily sound engagement. With this interface, deaf people can intuitively know the location of the sound, and experience it with visual and tactile cues.

A full breakdown of the Pencils awarded is: 2 Black Pencils, 1 White Pencil, 69 Yellow Pencils, 166 Graphite Pencils, 392 Wood Pencils, 2 Side Hustle Pencils, 5 Future Impact Pencils and 2 Collaborative Pencils.

The President’s Award was awarded to the founders of London creative agency Mother, awarded by D&AD President Richard Brim.

New for 2023

The D&AD Awards are constantly evolving, so there’s a place for everyone to enter their best work. We frequently revise our categories and subcategories, and here is a summary of what was new for 2023:

Embracing the metaverse
One of the most talked about areas of advertising is how brands are bridging the gap between real and virtual worlds. To embrace this new reality, we evolved the Gaming category into Gaming & Virtual Worlds and added three new subcategories: Use of Avatars, Use of Blockchain and Brand Experience. Our Use of XR subcategories were also made more inclusive of work created for Web 3.0 and the metaverse. We introduced Use of XR in Direct and Media for the first time, as well as Digital, Commerce, Digital Design, Animation, Typography and Visual Effects.

The latest fashion
Fashion films are on the rise. From luxury designers to high street brands, the lure of film as a creative yet convenient medium to showcase new collections has accelerated the growth of a new genre. We added Fashion Film to six categories: Film, Art Direction, Cinematography, Direction, Editing and Production Design. For everything from haute couture to streetwear, accessories to beauty, campaign films to runway.

The craft of music videos
Every year we ask for entrants’ feedback, and for 2023, we were asked to reintroduce the craft subcategories into music videos. So you can now find Direction, Cinematography, Editing, Production Design and Visual Effects back where they belong. We also adapted the structure of our Craft categories so that any film, be it advertising, music videos or branded content, can be entered into our long and short form subcategories.

Prioritising people and planet
For entrants submitting work into our Product or Packaging Design categories, we invited them to give a short statement about how sustainability was considered in the design, selection of materials and manufacture of their work. We also announced two new subcategories: Packaging Design/Plastic Free, for packaging that has been designed or redesigned to eliminate the use of plastic, and Impact/Climate Solution, for work that’s taking action to combat the impact of climate change by driving the success of Sustainable Development Goal 13: Climate Action.

Branding 2.0
Following a consultation with leading design agencies, we restructured our Branding category so that work is grouped according to the size of the client. New branding schemes, brand refreshes and logos were submitted into one of  subcategories: Large Enterprises for brands, corporations and nonprofits with 250 employees or more; SMEs with between 10 and 249 employees; and Micro Enterprises with fewer than 10 people. This change not only brought greater clarity to the judging process, but created more opportunity for branding projects, both big and small.

New editions: Book and Type Design
2023 also saw us reveal significant updates to two additional design categories, providing more opportunities for you to place your work. Type Design has been renamed Type Design & Lettering, with subcategories arranged by font family instead of genre and dedicated subcategories for Lettering, Symbols and Variable Fonts. Book Design went through a restructure with new subcategories including Young Adults, Photographic, Exhibition, Promotional, Anthology, and Revised Edition.

D&AD Festival and ceremony
Back for the first time since 2019, the D&AD Festival with Adobe had 2,000 attendees over two days at the Truman Brewery in London’s Brick Lane. Over 36 talks, almost 100 speakers shared insights into perspectives on creative excellence. And over in the Masterclass area, D&AD previewed six new masterclasses to attendees.

And at BFI Southbank, following a day of further industry talks, D&AD welcomed more than 800 attendees to celebrate winners over two nights.

D&AD Foundation

For over 40 years D&AD has been championing the next generation of talent. Helping them to enter the creative industry and to have a positive impact once they are there. This remit has never been a bigger part of what D&AD does. We have launched the New Gen Awards with Daydream Believers which opens young people’s eyes to our industry and allows them to explore the power of creativity. We continue to develop new learning tools and insight reports to bridge the gap between student learning and commercial creativity; and we have expanded D&AD Shift with Google into five countries and taken it online to ensure that more people are given the opportunity to reach their creative potential despite the barriers presented by society and our industry.

This is only possible due to the generosity of our industry who give their time and space, and the support of partners particularly WPP, Google, Adobe and adidas. In 2024 we look forward to doing more.

New Blood Awards

New Blood Awards is open to advertising, design, digital and marketing students, recent graduates and emerging creatives worldwide. It's an opportunity to land a job in the creative industry by getting a head start while still at university or gaining the exposure needed to kickstart your creative career. Real brands set real briefs, and the work is judged by industry professionals, putting new creative’s work in front of industry.

In 2023 New Blood offered 17 briefs from: 21GRAMS, Barclays, Duolingo, eBay, giffgaff, Google Fonts & HMCT, Gymshark, Heineken & Design Bridge, Heinz, HP Indigo & Top Trumps, IMAX, King, OMO, Unilever, Penguin, Sky, The Case for Her & Hey Jane, and William Lawson Scotch.

Over 100,000 briefs were downloaded, and there were almost 700 entrants, with entrants hailing from 28 countries.

168 judges from 25 countries judged the 2023 New Blood work, awarding 179 Pencils including 33 Yellow, 7 White and 2 Black Pencils.

New Blood Festival took place in London at Protein Studios across two days in July, with over 30 exhibitors and 11 speakers.

D&AD Shift with Google

D&AD Shift with Google is a free, industry-led night school for self-taught creatives entering the advertising, design and creative industries from outside traditional education.

In partnership with Google and adidas, D&AD Shift with Google is run in five cities: London, New York, Sydney, Berlin and Hamburg. It’s soon to launch in São Paulo. We’ve had 72 Shifters go through the programme in the past year, and 77% of this year’s cohort have landed a job within the creative industries since graduating.

Impressive things Shifters have gone on to do include: original Shift Londoner Edem Wornoo directing music videos for the likes of Dave and Stormzy, and recently the BBC; Juan Veloz from NYC 2017 is a successful freelance photographer who has done shoots for Yara Shahidi, Kid Cudi, John Boyega, Nike, Netflix, Patti Labelle, Dior, Vogue and others; Shakira Polite from NYC 2023 led experiential strategy and corporate sponsorships for Juneteenth Festival, Uniondale, NY; London 2021's Luke McCabe and AyChibs led visual direction and visuals respectively for Sugababes' comeback show.; Keiddy Cruz from London 2022 has been making music and was named by Complex UK as a key player on London’s Latin music scene; and just recently art director, photographer and NYC 2023 alumnus Curt Saunders became the latest Shifter to graduate from the night school and win a place on the prestigious Spotify Pulse Fellowship.

D&AD Masterclasses

D&AD Masterclasses deliver unrivalled professional development to creative people at every stage of their working life. With a remit dedicated to education, inclusion and the highest standards of craft, quality and inventiveness, Masterclasses are not just a step in the right direction – but an entire staircase of learning. Every subject related to creative thinking and skill is made accessible by professionals, for professionals.

This year, we've taught over 3,500 individuals and teams from companies including Kraft Heinz, Save The Children, Droga5, Media.Monks, Penguin and many more. Plus, over 2,500 people have made use of our free learning resources hosted on our campus, including courses on launching a startUp, developing purposeful communications and demystifying strategy.

Check out D&AD courses at dandad.org. Here, you’ll also find information about how to enter next year’s awards, and information about D&AD New Blood and Shift programmes, whether you want to enter, or support.