D&AD announce first round of winners for updated 2020 awards format

The first round of winners for this year’s D&AD Awards has been announced, with 129 Pencils awarded across the competition’s Impact, Side Hustle, Next and Craft categories.

This limited set of winners represents the first instalment of the organisation’s rethought awards scheme in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier this year, D&AD confirmed it would be switching to an all-digital programme of events in lieu of its usual week of celebrations, which traditionally culminates in the Pencil Awards ceremony.

Instead, the award’s categories have been split up, and winners will be announced online throughout the summer and celebrated via the D&AD website and in a social campaign designed by Studio Dumbar. The organisation’s prestigious Black Pencils will be announced at the end of the season, on 10 September.

In this first round of accolades then, three White Pencils have been awarded. The award is given to projects judges feel demonstrate “the power of creativity to drive impact”, whether that be behavioural, policy, commercial or societal changes.

The first was awarded to Berlin-based design studio Scholz and Friends, for its work with The Female Company. The project in question tackled the extortionate rate at which tampons were taxed in Germany – which at 19% was higher even than the “luxury” tax rates for things like caviar and truffles. Working with The Female Company, the team designed books that contained hidden tampons, knowing that books were taxed at the much lower rate of 7%. Following the initiative, Germany soon abolished the tampon tax.

Alongside Scholz and Friends, US-based creative studio Goodby Silverstein & Partners was recognised with a White Pencil for its AR work with Daughters of the Evolution. The team developed an augmented reality app to be used with one of the US’ most common history textbooks so that when users scan a male figure in the book, they are presented with a historical woman’s story from the same era.

The final White Pencil was awarded to Paris-based agency Marcel, for its work with Carrefour. Entitled Act For Food, the initiative examines and addresses the food giant’s role in the climate crisis.

Some 13 Yellow winners have also been recognised, all falling in the Craft category. One such winner was London-based foundry Family Type for its variable typeface, Universal Sans in the typography category. Another was Japan-based studio Grey Tokyo, for its animation work for client WildAid which demonstrated the tragedies associated with the global ivory trade (pictured in the banner above) from the animation category.

Beyond these accolades, 34 Graphite, 75 Wood and 5 Next Pencils have been awarded, with the US and the UK topping the rankings with a collective 33 and 31 Pencils respectively.

To see the full list of winners, head to the D&AD website.