D&AD launches 2023 Awards entries with new creative campaign via Re Australia / US / UK

D&AD has opened entries to the 2023 Awards with a digital creative campaign from Re, a global brand-led design and experience business. The “What making it is made of” campaign aims to engage the global creative community by celebrating the power of creativity, and the processes, tools and emotions that help creatives win Pencils and find commercial success in the industry.

The campaign celebrates the impact that the design and advertising communities have on the world at large with a multitude of animated Pencils that illustrate the inner workings of different creative disciplines. The campaign will be rolled out on social media between 2nd November when entries open and the Awards Ceremony at the end of May.

Says Darren Bowles, executive creative director of Re: “D&AD is at the heart of a global reaching creative community, so we engaged our own teams across Australia, the US and UK to ensure that the community could see itself in this campaign. Our lively and humourous Pencil animations speak directly to creative makers and decision-makers around the world, by illustrating exactly what goes into “making it” within our ever evolving industry, and touching on inside jokes and truths we’ve all experienced. We feel privileged to have the opportunity to reach out to our creative community through this work and hope it resonates with them as much as it has with our own team.”

Says Donal Keenan, awards director at D&AD: “D&AD Awards are all about putting creative ideas on the global stage so that they can nurture further ideas and inspire the next generation of creative leaders. We know that the skill sets behind those ideas are incredibly diverse, and the journey is not always easy. We are incredibly grateful to Re, led by founder Patrick Guerrera, for bringing this reality to life in such an engaging way.”

Says Patrick Guerrera, global CEO of Re: “D&AD has always set the benchmark for nurturing, recognising and celebrating extraordinary creative talent globally. It is an absolute privilege to be partnering with them on the 2023 Awards campaign, as they continue to grow and inspire great creative hearts and minds everywhere.”

D&AD Festival and Ceremony to be held in person for the first time since 2019

Following 3 years of successful digital Awards ceremonies, both the Festival and the Awards Ceremony will be held in person in 2023

D&AD Festival will be hosted at The Truman Brewery in London from Monday 8 – Wednesday 10 May 2023 as part of D&AD Awards Judging. The festival will include keynote talks, Judges’ insight sessions, networking parties and an exhibition of winners, all celebrating the best in creativity.

The 2023 D&AD Awards Ceremony will be held in person across two nights in London on 24 and 25 May. This will be a chance for the industry to gather together to recognise and award the finest creative minds from around the globe. A number of keynote talks from industry luminaries will accompany the ceremony days, with more details to be announced in January 2023. Speakers at previous events included Photographer Rankin, Ajaz Ahmend – CEO of AKQA, Dan Goods – Visual Strategist at NASA, and Debbie Milman, author and host of Design Matters podcast.

Key category changes reflect rapidly evolving industry

D&AD has also introduced a suite of category changes addressing fundamental themes currently permeating the creative industries to ensure that the Awards remain a benchmark for creative excellence in design and advertising.

Says Keenan: “D&AD remains committed to evolving the Awards to accurately reflect the current nature of the creative industries. The creative landscape is so multi-faceted, and I believe this is reflected in D&AD Awards where we celebrate those big ideas and designs along with those nuanced crafts.”

Ukrainian entries remain free of charge – discounts for freelances and SMEs

In 2022, D&AD announced it will not be accepting entries from Russian companies or individuals based in Russia to the Awards. The ban against Russian entries remains for 2023. Entries from Ukraine will continue to be accepted free of charge in 2023.

To encourage and highlight creative excellence achieved with limited resources and budgets, the 25% discount for freelancers and small businesses will also remain.

D&AD Annual continues to grow as free digital platform; crowdfunding campaign to be launched for those wishing to purchase print edition.

For the past three years, D&AD has produced the Annual as a free-to-access enhanced digital platform, allowing the work to be explored in its entirety by the global creative community. As a digital edition, the Annual expanded to include insights into how the work was made in Behind the Work interviews with the creators as well as analysis of the work’s wider significance in relation to contemporary social and cultural contexts. As a result, reach and engagement increased 6,400 percent, and is now accessed by more than 130,000 users, including 30,000 emerging creatives, who freely benefit from the Annual as a deeper, richer educational resource to support their professional creative journeys.

As an education charity, D&AD will continue to invest in the Annual as a free digital resource with the work presented in its entirety alongside insights and analysis. D&AD has always respected print and the value it can bring, and as a number of people in the creative community have been calling for the return of the famed printed D&AD Annual, this year D&AD will provide a printed version if there is enough demand through pre-orders.

The print edition will feature, as before, images of the winning work accompanied by the list of winner credits. The pre-order site will be live in January 2023 and will take orders through the end of June 2023. A minimum number of orders must be achieved by the pre-order close date for the printed edition to be published. More details will be released in January.

D&AD Awards are now open for entries. A full list of key dates, category changes and 2023 Jury Presidents confirmed to date can be found in the Notes to Editors section. For full details on categories, judging criteria, pricing and deadlines please visit the D&AD website.

Category changes:

• 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, D&AD has 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 are also more inclusive of work created for web 3.0 and the metaverse; find Use of XR in Direct and Media for the first time; as well as Digital, Commerce, Digital Design, Animation, Typography, Visual Effects.
• Photography in focus will be a new category in 2023. The Photography category has evolved to include personal style, where you can now share your portfolio to be judged.
• To reflect the rise in Fashion films D&AD has added Fashion Film to 6 categories – Film, Art Direction, Cinematography, Direction, Editing and Production Design.
• Creatives submitting work into the Product or Packaging Design categories, will be able to provide a short statement about how sustainability was considered in the design, selection of materials and manufacturing process. D&AD also announces 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 Goals.
• Following a consultation with leading design agencies, D&AD has re-structured the Branding category so that work is grouped according to the size of the client.
• 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 has undergone a restructure with new subcategories including Young Adults, Photographic Books, Exhibition Books, Promotional Books, Anthologies and Revised Editions.
• After considerable consultation with the industry, craft subcategories have been reintroduced to music videos, including Direction, Cinematography, Editing, Production Design and Visual Effects.

A list of the 2023 Jury Presidents confirmed to date can be accessed here.

Key Dates

• Awards Launch: 2 November 2022
• Super Early Bird Discount Deadline: 7 December 2022 – 40% off
• Printed Annual Pre-Orders Open: January 2023
• Early Bird Discount Deadline: 8 February 2023 – 20% off
• Deadline: 15 March 2023
• Final Physical Shipment Deadline: 5 April 2023
• D&AD Awards Judging (final live rounds): 7-10 May 2023
• D&AD Festival: 8-10 May 2023, at the Truman Brewery
• D&AD Shortlist Announced: 11 May 2023
• D&AD Awards Ceremony: 24 & 25 May 2023
• Printed Annual Pre-Orders Close: 30 June 2023
• D&AD Annual Launch (digital edition): 14 September 2023
• Printed D&AD Annual publication: to be confirmed