Golden Apple is sweetest

If the relative success of an awards scheme can be measured by the number of entries it receives, then this year’s D&AD Awards was a corker. A record 17 823 individual pieces of work were submitted for more than 200 judges to deliberate over. Those deliberations thinned down the field considerably, awarding just four Gold Awards and 40 Silvers. A total of 406 projects make the grade to be included in the 2000 D&AD book.

The celebrations will no doubt still be underway in the in-house design department of Apple Computer, which has won a Gold Award for product design for the second successive year. Last year’s success with the popular iMac has been followed this year by the Apple Cinema Display, and the group has taken Silver Awards for both the Cinema Display and the iBook laptop.

And a precedent has been set with two Golds awarded for one project. Unfortunately – for the design industry – it is for a TV ad, Abbott Mead Vickers. BBDO’s Surfer for Guinness. The film won the TV Commercials and the Best Direction categories.

Design groups should not feel ashamed with their performances, though. The Design Museum’s website, by Deepend, and Tomato’s self-promotion CD-ROM, tomato.three, both scored Silver in the Interactive Media category. Deepend also had two Silver nominations, for websites for Viaduct and Cartoon Network UK.

In the Corporate Identity section Lambie Nairn won Silver for its BBC identity. Similar plaudits went to The Partners for its work for Models 1, and Koeweiden Postma Associates for its Andre Dammers Stationery identity.

The Graphic Design category saw four Silver Awards: for a Veterans Memorial telegram by Slaughter Hanson; a Thrislington Cubicles calendar by The Partners; the Tom Jones mailer with projectile knickers from Tucker Clarke-Williams Creative; and the famous AIGA Detroit Poster from Sagmeister, in which founder Stefan Sagmeister had lecture details carved into his body.

CDT Design’s work on Millennium Stamps for the Royal Mail took a Silver in the Graphic Design Crafts category, while Trickett & Webb scored with its book for the same client, A Thousand Years, A Thousand Words, in the Complete Books category. Simon Conder Associates’ work on the Yo! Below Bar in Soho’s Yo! Sushi took a Silver for Environmental Design.

Design projects which didn’t win the big awards still made a good showing, with Lewis Moberly’s identity for Stuart Crystal being nominated for two Silver Awards, along with Pentagram’s identity for Joyco. Form, Claus Koch Corporate Communications, Cahan & Associates and Slaughter-Hanson were also nominated for Silver.

Panel judges at the British Design & Art Direction Awards 2000 certainly had their work cut out, with a record-breaking number of entrants to trawl through. Matthew Valentine reports

Winners & Nominations

Stefan Sagmeister Inc’s AIGA Detroit Poster – Silver Award for Graphic Design, Posters (non music);

Slaughter Hanson’s Telegram – Veterans’ Memorial for Alabama Veteran’s Memorial – Silver Award for Graphic Design, Direct Mail;

The Partners’ Now Wash Your Hands of the 20th Century for Thrislington Cubicles – Silver Award for Graphic Design, Calendars;

Koeweiden Postma Associates’ Andre Dammers Stationery – Silver Award for Corporate & Brand Identity, Small Identity Schemes;

Tucker Clarke-Williams Creative’s Tom Jones Mailing for Granada Media – Silver Award for Graphic Design, Direct Mail;

Lambie-Nairn’s BBC Corporate Identity – Silver Award for Corporate & Brand Identity, Large Identity Schemes;

The Partners’ Models 1 Identity – Silver Award for Corporate & Brand Identity, Medium Identity Schemes;

Apple Computer’s Cinema Display – Gold Award for Product Design, Products for Work