D&AD in 2025

The D&AD Annual is a free resource that has provided inspiration and insight to the creative community for over 60 years. Digital since 2020, we now reach even more people worldwide to truly democratise learning from the professionals behind the year’s most talked about creative work. This year, our Annual once again includes the D&AD Trend Report, which captures the insights from the jury rooms and the work, underscored by the patterns of change in the wider world.

This year's Annual is particularly special for us. It's the first edition we're hosting on our own brand new website – something our team has been working on for over a year. Once again produced in-house by D&AD, with visuals this year from Jones Knowles Ritchie, the Annual shares perspectives on the winning work by experts, explanations into how it was made by the creatives involved, and insights on the major trends this year from our judges fresh from the jury rooms.

Participants from 86 countries, the highest number on record in the history of the Awards, entered over 30,000 individual pieces of work in 2025, making up 11,689 total entries.

Out of these, 768 made it to the shortlist. We awarded 668 Pencils, including 3 Black Pencils this year. The work was judged in-person at London’s Southbank Centre by over 300 judges from 47 countries.

Overall Total – 668 Pencils

• Black – 3 Pencils awarded
• Yellow – 48 Pencils awarded
• Graphite – 176 Pencils awarded
• Wood – 434 Pencils awarded
• Future Impact – 4 Pencils
• White – 3 Pencils

The D&AD Awards are constantly evolving, so there’s a place for everyone to enter their best work. As part of this, we frequently revise our categories and subcategories.

Reflecting the dynamic nature of the industry, the 2025 Awards introduced a dedicated Creator Content category. This new category awarded the strategic use of the creativity of influencers and creators to deliver success for brands. Heading up the jury was Karl Haddad, Head of Global Creative Lab at TikTok.

Further evolving the Awards, the branding category was divided into two distinct categories: New Brand Identity and Brand Identity Refresh. This change addressed the significant volume of entries received in previous years (over 900+ in 2024), ensuring each submission received the focused attention it deserved by the jury. The New Brand Identity category was led by Johanna Roca, Creative Director at branding agency Koto, while the Brand Identity Refresh category was led by Frederico Gelli, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Tátil Design.

The D&AD Festival and Ceremony 2025 took place at London's Southbank Centre. This year, on 21-22 May, the Festival gathered 350+ global creative leaders and featured 80+ speakers across two main stages, activations, jury insights, networking, parties and a first view of some of the shortlisted work on display, closing the two-day event with the D&AD Awards Ceremony.

Speakers included industry experts such as Gail Bichler, Creative Director, The New York Times Magazine; Javier Campopiano, Global CCO, McCann Worldgroup and McCann; Leland Maschmeyer, Co-founder and CEO, Collins; Nils Leonard, Creative Founder, Uncommon Creative Studio; Pum Lefebure, Chief Creative Officer, Design Army, and Martin Rose, Executive Creative Director, Mother, among others.

You can watch the D&AD Jury Insight sessions and see more highlights from the festival talks on the D&AD Instagram and YouTube channels.

As a charity, D&AD puts funding back into the creative industry via educational programmes such as D&AD Shift, a free, industry-led night school for self-taught creatives from under-represented backgrounds. 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.

D&AD Shift is an award-winning free night school for self-made creatives without a university degree. D&AD Shift is now run in six cities: London, New York, Sydney, Berlin, Hamburg and São Paulo, powered by our partners and industry volunteers who generously donate their time to teach on the programme.

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 work by new creatives in front of the industry. This year, brands including Depop, On, giffgaff, Xbox, Yahoo!, Google Cloud, Suntory Global Spirits, Hellmann’s and HSBC set briefs, which were answered by 6,000 emerging creatives from 72 countries.

Creative skills build better businesses. D&AD Masterclasses upskill you and your colleagues with short courses or bespoke team programmes, led by today's industry leaders. From pitching to writing short, sharp copy, and developing impactful ideas to navigating AI, we provide creative professional development for every stage of your career.

All our trainers actively work at the top of their fields, so they understand the realities of your team’s role and challenges.

This year, we've run 135 Masterclasses, taught 4,500 individuals via our on-demand courses, supported 15 leaders via our Creative Leaders Programme, and worked with the Prime Minister's media team at Number 10, Hello Fresh, BBC, Publicis, Sony Music, Lloyds Bank, VCCP, and more.