Four Black Pencils have been awarded, equally weighted to design and advertising and including such once-overlooked crafts as copywriting – all are extremely worthy winners.

Talking of cynicism-busting projects, look no further than Heatherwick Studio’s Olympic Cauldron, Black Pencil winner from the Spatial Design category. The cauldron’s unveiling was the moment when even the most apathetic observer decided that this Olympics thing might not be so bad after all.

And if you’re looking for the best TV ad of 2012, then really you don’t have to look any further than Channel 4’s superb Meet the Superhumans Paralympics ad, which also picks up a Black Pencil.

Sure some questions remain. There are a tonne of Graphic Design In-Book and Nominated projects for example, but only two Yellow Pencils, while some of the Pencil-winning projects – like, in my view the Pantone Queen – don’t seem quite up to scratch.

But really this is nit-picking for the sake of it. Last year will go down as one of the vintage years for UK design, and these winning projects reflect that.

For a look at the Black Pencil Winners and Yellow Pencil Winners in Design click here.

D&AD Black Pencil Winners and Yellow Pencil Winners in design