Five international designers join forces for D&AD annual

The five studios working on the project come from Australia, Brazil, India, Japan and Vietnam.

Outgoing D&AD president Laura Jordan-Bambach, who selected the designers, says she wants to showcase ‘a new wave of emerging design, which shakes off the shackles of the white, middle-class, Western, male perspective, traditional in the industry’.

She adds, ‘In my year as D&AD President, I’ve spent a lot of time exploring design communities and cultures all around the globe. I’ve not only unearthed so much incredible work, but I’ve learned about what design truly means in these places.’

Técha Noble and Emma Price from Australian performance art quartet the Kingpins have created the cover for the annual.

Four other studios will work on the editorial design of the book. A D&AD spokesman says, ‘Each will be contributing to different sections, but all have worked with or through Laura to ensure that the design is a coherent and consistent one throughout the book.’

The four other studios involved are Brazilian book designer Elaine Ramos, who works at publishing house Cosac Naify; Indian consultancy Codesign; Japanese digital design collective Rhizomatics and Vietnamese multidisciplinary consultancy Rice Creative.

Jordan-Bambach says, ‘Bringing together five very different and distinctive artists, whilst creating a cohesive editorial design is a huge challenge, but I’m incredibly excited to see the final product.’

The 2014 D&AD Annual will launch on 16 September at the London Design Festival.

Last year’s annual was designed by Fleur Isbell, a member of the D&AD graduate academy.