D&AD 50 Years

Excellence in visual thinking. Celebrating 50 years of outstanding creativity in design and art direction. The annual D&AD Awards honor outstanding creativity, originality, technical excellence, and innovation in design and advertising. Every year, thousands of entrants submit a host of crazy, beautiful, thought-provoking, sublime and, occasionally, winning entries. Panels of rigorous judges debate, sometimes for days on end, to decide on the best work, which all appears in the annual book; the best of the best get nominations, favorites receive a Yellow Pencil, and sometimes but not always, there is an entry that is so incredible that it receives the highest accolade: a Black Pencil. For this special anniversary volume, each of the last 50 years is represented by a D&AD president, board member, or judge - including Terence Conran (1966), David Abbott (1975), Lord Snowdon (1980), Tim Delaney (1992), and Paul Brazier (2009) - who shares his or her favorites from the year. Interviews and essays from luminaries such as Neville Brody complete the picture. Often it is the pencil-winners that have been selected, though occasionally it is an outsider or even an entry not even featured in the annual. That each year''s selections are chosen by one individual makes this 50th anniversary book unique; you may agree, you might be surprised, or perhaps you''ll simply marvel at how trends have changed. The highlights of the last 50 years are interspersed with stories, biographies and statistics documenting the history of D&AD and the development of the industry, through the experiences of creative individuals who have been most involved with its evolution. From the birth of TV advertising in the sixties to the digital revolution of the 2000s, D&AD has lived through it all and helped to shape what it is today. This is the chance to explore the best from the world of creative communications over the past five decades.