Vega Durban and Red & Yellow School win D&AD New Blood Awards Pencils
The New Blood Awards is among the world's largest student competitions, showcasing top emerging talent from around the globe.
The D&AD New Blood Awards Pencils are awarded following the invitation by leading global brands for emerging creatives to respond to a series of briefs tackling environmental issues, human connections and other challenges such as technology inclusivity.
The competition had over 6,000 entrants, from over 60 countries and more than 3,000 entries were judged anonymously by over 150 judges.
The Awards ceremony took place following the New Blood Festival at Protein Studios in Shoreditch, London that took place from 2 to 4 July where the work was on display in a graduate showcase of more than 40 exhibiting university courses, alongside talks by industry leaders and portfolio reviews aimed at helping emerging creatives navigate the industry.
Nando’s & NCA for Express Your Peri-Peri
Vega School of Brand Leadership, Durban won for its entry for Nando’s & NCA for Express Your Peri-Peri New Blood Entry — Express Your Peri-Peri.
The Creative Team included Chantel Adendorff, Nicole Smith, Paige Harwood and Kiaryn Maistry, with tutors Ally Chapman, Jody Simpson and Siobhan Gunning.
Adobe for Unlock Your Express Era
The Red & Yellow school’s winning entry was for Adobe for Unlock Your Express Era.
The Creative Team included Allegra Carrara, Ammaarah Ismail, Georgia Wallace, Melandré Fourie and Nombulelo Mtshakaci with tutors Heloise Bottomley, Wilna Combrinck, Liz Pienaar and Stephanie Simpson.
Briefs by leading global brands
Winning work covered ideas such as using typography to highlight losses caused by climate change, campaigns addressing the lack of sex education for young people, and using AI to aid social interactions on dating apps.
The work was evaluated based on idea, insight, and suggested execution.
Although all work is conceptual and the intellectual property belongs to the entrant, any of the brands setting the briefs can choose to move forward with a winning idea by employing the winning creatives and collaborating with them professionally to develop the concept further.
This year, emerging creatives were invited to respond to a series of briefs set by leading global brands including Google, Adobe, Airbnb, Bumble, Coca-Cola, Nandos, Universal Music, HSBC and more. Covering a wide range of disciplines including UX/UI, animation, advertising, typography and experiential, the briefs were designed to provide new talent with the experience of working on client briefs.
18 briefs
These 18 briefs tackled varying commercial challenges and social issues, including asking entrants to create a festival event poster (Universal Music), create a banner icon for the fossil fuel-free movement (Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty), a design brief to break down barriers to sexual freedom (Durex and Design Bridge), and a brief to create an inclusive future for the connected home (Sky).
In total 179 Pencils were awarded, including three Black Pencils (the highest D&AD New Blood accolade), 22 Yellow, 45 Graphite and 107 Wood Pencils. Three White Pencils were also awarded for outstanding work that uses the power of creativity to do good.
Paul Drake, Foundations Director at D&AD, comments, "In a time when creativity is becoming increasingly vital to global economies, it has never been more important to celebrate the next generation of talent. For 44 years, D&AD's New Blood has showcased the best emerging creatives from various disciplines, who are getting ready to leave education and join the industry. Explore the winning work, meet the creators behind it, and give them an opportunity."
