D&AD Awards exists to stimulate, enable and award creative excellence in design and advertising.
Considered by many the world’s most prestigious benchmark for commercial creativity, the D&AD Pencil stands for rigour and integrity, everything that it takes to make the best creative work.
The 2023 Awards are open for entries. Deadline to enter 15 March.
“Winning a D&AD Pencil is a huge career achievement, both given the calibre of the work generally submitted and the international visibility that can come with a win.”
— Sarah Lefkowith, Writer & Creative Director, Creature
Why enter D&AD Awards?
D&AD is an education charity that promotes and enables excellence in design and advertising. Each year, D&AD Awards gather the world’s best creative work from across the commercial design, advertising, production and craft disciplines to be judged by more than 330 global creative leaders, practitioners and innovators.
Our categories span the full spectrum of disciplines, from commerce to digital; graphic design to book design; art direction to writing; entertainment to gaming & virtual worlds; impact, collaborative and side hustle; and much more.
If your work is shortlisted by the judges, it will appear in the D&AD Annual, an honour of distinction and a platform for exposure to more than 130,000 creatives globally.
Winning a D&AD Pencil will earn your work exposure to an audience of millions in the creative industries around the world through international press coverage, exhibitions, promotion on the D&AD website, social platforms, and newsletters, and the opportunity to be featured in D&AD content unpacking creative excellence within the D&AD Annual.
Entering your work actively supports D&AD’s mission as a not-for profit by funding learning programmes that bridge the gap between education and industry, including New Blood and Shift that help new talent prosper and pave the way into the creative industries for more diverse talent. In 2022, Awards entry fees provided more than 118,000 vocational learning opportunities to emerging creatives.
Being awarded earns you and your company points towards D&AD rankings; our official table of the most successful individuals, companies, networks, countries and clients in the world.
Entering work that’s at prototype, beta or MVP stage and using creativity for good, gives you the chance to receive up to £25,000 worth of funding when you’re awarded in Future Impact.
Finally, we will also plant a tree in recognition of your award, in partnership with D&AD Future Impact winner theOtherDada. You can find out more about The & Forest here.
Don’t just take our word for it. Find out more about the benefits of winning below
Shortlisted and winning work will:
- Be celebrated by over 160,000 visitors and 1m+ views on the D&AD Winners pages, Archive and Rankings each year.
- Feature in the D&AD Annual, now online and freely accessible to tens of thousands of creative companies and practitioners globally. The Annual reaches a global audience of over 130,000 people, three quarters of which are outside the UK.
- Earn you and your company points towards D&AD rankings; our official table of the most successful individuals, companies, networks, countries and clients in the world.
- Get exhibited around the world at one of D&AD’s international exhibitions. Past venues include The Advertising Museum Tokyo, Louvre Museum Paris, Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Design Institute, Arts Centre Melbourne, The National Taiwan University of Science and Technology and the National Design Centre of Singapore.
- Have the chance to appear in the D&AD content series for the D&AD Annual, including being selected for the popular Behind the Work videos. Judges will provide commentary on, and curate lists, of their favourite award winners.
- Inform D&AD Annual theme reports, which will be presented alongside winning work to agencies and clients all over the world.
- Be promoted through D&AD social media channels and the D&AD newsletter, reaching millions of creative professionals globally.
- Earn you prestige amongst your peers, global media coverage for you and your company and points towards D&AD rankings.
- Enable you to receive up to £25,000 worth of funding when you’re awarded in Future Impact, for prototypes, beta designs or MVPs that are using creativity for good. Includes places on the D&AD Impact Programme for project owners and 12 months of support from the D&AD community.
- Give you access to a free D&AD Masterclass and support towards your Side Hustle pitch, worth £560, when you’re awarded in Side Hustle. Pencil winners will also gain access to 12 months of mentoring from leaders in the creative industry and fields relevant to your business.
Check out some tips here on how to win a D&AD Award
D&AD Award Levels
Shortlist
Work that demonstrates merit, worthy of recognition and in the top echelon of entries. It’s awarded in all categories in the first instance.
Wood Pencil
The best of the year in advertising, design, craft, culture and impact.
Graphite Pencil
For stand-out work that rises above the rest, worthy of consideration for a Yellow Pencil.
Yellow Pencil
The iconic D&AD Yellow Pencil, awarded only to outstanding work that achieves true creative excellence.
Black Pencil
The ultimate creative accolade, reserved for ground-breaking work. Only a handful of these are awarded each year, if any.
Sounds Interesting?
Click the attached link to get the entry kit