If you pay attention to Creative Bloq, then you'll notice we feature D&AD (opens in new tab) quite a lot – for good reason. Founded in 1962 by a group of London-based designers and art directors, it's evolved into a major global organisation that exists to promote excellence in design and advertising everywhere.
And today we have not one but two bits of important news from this centre of worldwide design excellence...
New President
Firstly, D&AD has formally announced Mark Bonner, Founder and co-creative director of GBH (opens in new tab), as its new President for the upcoming year. Mark's had a long involvement with D&AD: he originally came through the D&AD New Blood Awards programme, winning a New Blood Yellow Pencil as a Graduate – and now 23 years later, he's been appointed its chief.
With Bonner replacing outgoing President Laura Jordan Bambach (opens in new tab), D&AD has also elected seven new trustees elected to its board from across the creative industries. They are:
- Rosie Bardales, Executive Creative Director and Partner, BETC London
- Harriet Devoy, Creative Director of Design, Marketing Communications, Apple EMEA
- Thomas Fitzmaurice, Junior Designer, Interbrand [New Blood Trustee]
- Dan Germain, Global Head of Brand and Creative, Innocent
- Andrew Lawrence, Creative Director, Elmwood
- Nils Leonard, Chief Creative Officer, Grey London
- Steve Vranakis, Executive Creative Director, Google Creative Lab
New annual
The 2014 D&AD Annual (opens in new tab) – the yearly guide to the best in design and advertising – has also been released. Launched yesterday at the London Design Festival, the book comes packed full of inspiration from all walks of design. Considered to be the authoritative archive of advertising and design, it features all the winners from this year's event.
"We wanted to make the D&AD Annual look like a book of spells and allude to the magic and alchemic projects that lie in it," explain front cover designers Técha Noble and Emma Price. "We also wanted to treat the book as an object, so that the image reads differently depending on where you are in relation to the object.
"This strategy of image making, which we’ve used throughout various projects, destabilises the ontological form and extends the physicality of the body using cheap tricks. We like to make images that amuse us." Take a look at some snippets from the annual below.
What are your favourite projects of the year? Let us know in the comments box below!
