Did you worship d&AD? Do you now?
When I was a nipper and all round here were fields, I used to have an unhealthy obsession with my D&AD annuals.
I had a pretty good collection, only missing one of the last thirty, and was nerdy enough to know them inside out.
Now I don’t really give a toss about them. I read my last one once then gave it away to a young creative who I thought might have more use for it than me (having said that, I do use the online annual a bit. It’s much more convenient and you can view the films).
I think I’ve written about this before so I’m not going to go on about it again, but what I wonder is whether or not there are junior creatives out there who regard the annual in the same way as I (and Chris Palmer, Mark Denton, Dave Dye, Peter Souter and many, many others) used to?
Are you a junior creative who has pored over and memorised the annuals?
Do you wait for each new collection of in-books and nominations with bated breath?
Are you dying to get your first entry?
Did you get your first entry this year and do a little wee of excitement?
I do understand that D&AD has suffered, through no fault of its own, from the fact that much of the work in it has already been seen in Archive or any one of a dozen other shows around the world, each trying to hoover up the entry cash from agencies and networks desperate for those Gunn Report points. But then D&AD might also have to blame itself as its awards have become homogenised with the others through the mandatory inclusion of foreign jurors who like the same kind of ads that win at Cannes.
Is there now a generation of up-and-coming ‘talent’ who don’t have much respect for what has gone before, condemning us to repeat the past through ignorance of it?
Is the fact that this is the third mediocre year in a row in UK creative advertising point to an onward downward trend that is bound up to a degree with the lessening of D&AD’s status?
And can anyone under 30 complete this headline: ‘If you can’t tell if it’s a Bechstein or a Steinway then it isn’t a…’?
I’d be really keen to find out because the mystique D&AD used to have must have been bloody hard-won. If it goes, how and when will it ever be regained?
No. No.
It’s not just D&AD. I don’t think any advertising (awards) will ever be held in as high esteem as it once was.
Last year’s annual is still in it’s cellophane wrapping on the shelf behind me. People used to steal annuals. Now you can barely give them away
Awards for advertising? What will they think of next.
I’m under 30. And have read most of the annuals.
I’ve just lost interest in the advertising sections. Everything else is more appealing.
I don’t know why. I haven’t lost respect for work of the past, just don’t like the current UK work.
We can blame on the clients, we can blame on the recession.
D&AD should do a section in which the public judge the ideas. Why? It would be interesting and different.
it’s a bit like the FA cup I suppose
I agree with Paul.
Although I still have the last four in their boxes on my shelf.
My partner is so in love with his they’re still in a box with old grubby pencils in the basement of our last agency. He can’t even be bothered to sort a bike out.
What value our membership is.
On top of that, they’ve moved the date of the Workshops and now I’m on holiday. Will it never end?
And Ben, good work on putting yourself in the same category as Mr Dye, Palmer, Denton & Souter. I liked D&AD once too. Can I join in?
This is a weird development. I never even hear about people even talking about awards these days.
I’m not sure it’s that bad thing although it’s probably a symptom of the marginalization of creativity which is.
@Me: I think that was ironic juxtaposition. Or something.
…Wharfdale
Congratulations Mr. Turner. One D&AD 1983 on its way to you.
@fred – I wish that were true but I doubt it.
I think their will be more awards and more categories then ever before, because that is the trend. Ad awards, digital awards, dm awards, social media awards, best use of a vegetable awards.
It’s the way the industry will try and inject some life and some cred back into itself. Look, look at us, we win awards for creativity…etc. Many new agencies feel insecure and worry about credibility, so they will try and gain it via getting awards so they can put it on their website, so prospects will like them more.
They’ll soon be enough awards to go around.
Besides Dave Knockles likes going to the awards and he’s the client, right.
Give it the youngsters Ben, I haven’t ordered a D&AD for 2 years now. Just doesn’t excite me anymore. The design bits are pretty good and the editorial bits ok, but the ads are all a bit scammy (like at Cannes) and our telly stuff just isn’t all that these days. Most of my books are in 2 dusty boxes in my attic, the rest are with a young art director just starting out. And to think, me and my partner used to ‘borrow’ them from our local library using a screwdriver to ping out the metal bar that set off the alarms. The design of the last one was also crap, which didn’t help. And as for that one with the suckers…
As a junior, every year the annual does the rounds of the creative dept, I read it faster. The problem being that any of the decent award winnings ads I’ve already seen on email, twitter, facebook, blogs etc.
Apart from a few east asian scam ad’s, it’s not really new news. Shame really.
So…
Do you wait for each new collection of in-books and nominations with bated breath? – No
Are you dying to get your first entry?
– Yes
‘If you can’t tell if it’s a Bechstein or a Steinway then it isn’t a…’ РNot a chance.
It’s the annuals from ten years ago now that I pour through and take the most from. The ideas seem to be stronger, everything’s simpler, the writing’s better even if the visuals and technology has moved on.
But I thought you said we lived in a post ironic age, Ben?
The thing that used to strike me was that you were paying a small fortune for one or two campaigns that won pencils in multiple sections (press, copy, photography and typography). Then I discovered One Show annuals in publishing clearance shops and then Comm Arts which were better value for money and showed me a bunch of stuff I hadn’t seen before (possibly because it was scambient etc).
Two years ago I felt awards still really mattered. Now I’m not so sure. Why? I think the creatives advertising idea now can become famous from getting talked about online.
You still need to be known for ‘that’ idea, it’s just you don’t need an award anymore for people to notice it.
If we gave people pay rises, promotions and better computers on whether their ads worked better we wouldn’t need awards.
Unfortunately no one really knows what’s good any more.
I also have some still cellophane wrapped annuals on my book shelf.
I’ll stick to my RSS reader thanks.
I think it’s all about the work contained in the pages. If the annual contains the kind and quality of work that you aspire to do, then it will be essential reading for you, and a goal to be in it. I haven’t felt that about the annuals for a lot of years.
i only care about a Pencil if i get more money because of it.
I prefer to win a lion, at least then you’re in sunny Cannes getting shit faced.
I know one creative at work that obsesses over every fucking page. But then again he’s a bit weird and only ever talks about ads.
this year’s annual means absolutely nothing to me. i’ve not yet seen a copy nor would feel a rush of excitement if I did. nowadays i get more excited at my free copy of shortlist magazine rather than the worthless, bound cash machine that d&ad has become.
Leicester Square library has them all available to look at. Which means over a weekend you can pour through them all and, using the photocopier, make your own personal “best-of” annual.
I think that the older D&ADs are still really interesting, as you can see how press/poster/tv ads have evolved with the advent of digital advertising.
Personally, for me, my favourites are from the 90s (but that’s only because they’re the ones I grew up with).
Good comment.
But, and you are far from the only person who does this, can you please look up ‘pore’ and ‘pour’ in the dictionary?
And for others of you, ‘they’re’, ‘their’ and ‘there’ are also different words with different meanings.
Sorry to be pedantic/intolerant, but I’m a bit of a cunt at the best of times.
Don’t you mean, your an cutn?
Maybe you could lose the lower case b in your name header for comments?
It makes you seem wishy washy, unlike the aforementioned pedant you are.
How do I do that? I would like to change.
Yaeh, laeve me aloan ben, Im a art-dircktor.
Problem is, it’s boring by the time it’s out. We’ve all already seen 98% of what’s in there on countless websites. No fault of theirs. We just aren’t the captive audience we once were.
I’m sorry, Guy.
I shouldn’t have singled you out.
Can we all please tighten up our spelling and grammar, though? I don’t want clever passers-by to think this blog is read by a bunch of divs.
[…] To me, that seems to confirm that¬†D&AD is now a dim, dribbly irrelevance that went from being an organisation of great power and r… […]