D&AD launch annual for public

D&AD is launching the ‘high-street’ version of its annual, which is for the first time available to the general public, rather than just to lucky D&AD members.

The new annual, designed by Jeremy Leslie, joins Peter Saville and Luke Sanders’s members-only book, which was released last September. Saville and Sanders’s pimped-up version was unsurprisingly well-received by most commentators, its graphic motifs – such as the front cover illustration that relates to the works of D&AD as a statistic (Awards 30 per cent ; Online Content & Community 27 per cent; Student Education 17 per cent ; Annual 5 per cent ; Professional Development 13 per cent; Exhibitions & Lectures 8 per cent) – praised. However, some, such as Ben Terrett over at Noisy Decent Graphics, noted how un-user-friendly it is, with the different sections divided by foldover pages coming in for particular criticism. Leslie’s book eschews such graphic and editorial tics (presumably the great unwashed aren’t yet ready for a range of different paper stocks) and focuses on presenting all the in-book projects clearly and simply. The annual is available from Taschen at £34.99.