Rose signs for D&AD Congress

This year’s D&AD Congress is set to launch on Monday, with identity, signage and materials by Rose Design.

Additionally, This is Real Art and Build have completed the design and art direction for the D&AD Global Awards Nominations Exhibition. Following the team’s work on the D&AD icon set, which launched last autumn, the consultancy’s have set up set of high speed photographs, by Jason Tozer, showing sheets of glass – bearing the D&AD sector icons – shattering as they hit the floor in reference to the theme of ‘ideas are fragile’. These will be shown in the exhibition, while Build has also designed a keepsake of the show.

D&AD Congress will run this year without a chief executive at its helm, following the departure in March of Michael Hockney. This week a spokeswoman at D&AD confirmed that a decision on how to replace Hockney would take place later in the summer because it is ‘completely focused on the coming month’s D&AD events’.

D&AD chairman Anthony Simonds-Gooding will oversee the work of the management team in the short term.

Rose Design, which was appointed without a pitch following previous work for D&AD, was asked to create a campaign identity for the Congress events held at Old Billingsgate. This included identity, advertising and marketing materials and a signage programme.

The consultancy was tasked with coming up with a concept that would help promote, explain and inform creatives of the events taking place over the three-week period.

Using the D&AD colour palette, the illustration is made up of graphic depictions of different people coming together from all directions and locations to meet, discuss and debate, in order to highlight the essence of the event.

The concept extends to signage, where the illustrations are used to inform and guide visitors around the events as alternatives to conventional signage symbols, such as arrows.

Congress runs from Monday 21 May until the end of June, while the exhibiton runs from 21 to 24 May.