Well for the people who don't know what D&AD stands for it's Design and Art Direction, it is a British educational charity which exists to promote excellence in design and advertising. The D&AD Awards are highly respected and regarded as a major event in the world design and advertising, and it was the judging for these awards that I went and observed.
They were judging for four awards...
-Black Pencil (very special only one or two given every year)
-Yellow Pencil (are recognized the world over as a symbol of true creative achievement)
-Nomination (this is being nominated for a yellow pencil)
-In Book (this award is when you get your work published in the D&AD annual)
Upon arriving at the Earl's Court Olympia each student was given a discipline for them to shadow for the day, I was given Typography which I was quite happy to get.
The judges for this category were...
Erik Spiekermann, founder of Fontshop and type designer
Alan Kitching typographer, established The Typography Workshop in London in 1989.
Kutlu Çanlıoglu, Senior Creative Director - BBC World Service
Philippe Apeloig, Graphic Designer - Apeloig Design
Rian Hughes, graphic designer, illustrator, comic artist, author, and typographer.
Sonya Dyakove, Art Director - Frieze magazine.
Zoë Bather, Creative Director & Founding Partner - Studio8 Design.
The juries considered the following three criteria,
- the work must be a highly original and inspiring idea.
- it must be exceptionally well executed.
- it must be relevant to its context.
There are three rounds of judging. All voting is private, never by a show of hands. After each round, juries discuss the preliminary results before the final selection is made.
In the first round, In Book awards are given to pieces of work that receive votes from at least 50% of the jury. In the following rounds, Nominations, Yellow Pencils, and Black Pencils are given to pieces of work that receive over 50% of the votes.
Before I went to the D&AD judging I thought it would be really busy and that there would be loads of people, but when your there you realize just how few people outside of the judges get to see the work and the judging process. Luckily I got to wonder around the entire building and see all the work (about 20,000 pieces) from all the categories not just Typography.
It was a real privilege to go and witness something so private and i can say to any students who might get the chance to see the judging process next year that it will definitely change your perspective about the field of design.
p.s I took hundreds of photographs of the event which I will put in another post for everyone to see.
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