D&AD Announces New Blood Winners 2015

At a special ceremony last night at Shoreditch’s Village Underground, D&AD revealed the winners of this year’s New Blood Awards. With 288 winners from 49 countries, this year’s awards were the most popular and most international yet.

New Blood Award entrants respond to real briefs set by real clients, with the resulting work judged by top professional creatives. This year the briefs were written by Airbnb, BBC, WWF, Facebook, Nationwide, npower, Pantone, i-D, Monotype, John Lewis, TalkTalk, VICE, WeTransfer and WPP.

Designed in collaboration with industry experts, no other programme offers such a comprehensive test, or a more accurate representation of the challenges that await on the other side.

"Through our partnership with the D&AD New Blood Awards we have a brilliant opportunity to support and reward new talent,” says New Blood brief setter Paul Godfrey, head of brand at Talk Talk. “We have selected entries that reflect both innovation and creative thinking while being well routed in TalkTalk’s brand purpose. A huge congratulations to the winners, it has been an absolute pleasure to be able to support new people and we have been highly impressed by the entries we judged."

Young creatives and employers the world over value the D&AD New Blood Awards above any other. Winning puts the recipients of the Award in a top percentile of employable young talent, and previous winners, like Wieden+Kennedy’s UK ECD Tony Davidson, have attributed the launch of their careers to winning the Award.

Entry is open to anyone in full or part-time education, recent graduates who finished their course within the past two years and anyone 23 or under. This year 41 young creatives were the recipients of a Yellow Pencil, with three receiving the ultimate accolade: a Black Pencil. Four White Pencils, given for projects aimed at making a positive difference to society, were also awarded.

In line with the Professional Awards, ‘In Book’ status was marked with a Wood Pencil, while projects ‘nominated’ (but not quite making) a Yellow Pencil were recognised with Graphite.

Mark Bonner, D&AD President, adds: “The New Blood Awards offer an unparalleled opportunity for young creative people to shine. The list of winners is a curated resource for employers to cherry pick the hottest talent just as they’re graduating. D&AD’s mission is to ensure that the creative industry continues to enjoy rude health, both in the UK and around the world, and the New Blood programme is a vital pillar in our efforts to support talent at a grassroots level.”

All Pencil winners were eligible to apply for the New Blood Academy, a two-week creative boot camp supported by WPP. The Academy provides an opportunity to learn from the best in the business, with grads working alongside a WPP agency on a live brief in order to secure a foot-in-the-door with a series of paid placements up for grabs.

To see the winners please visit D&AD New Blood Awards.