LONDON – New Blood Awards gives budding young creatives and students an opportunity to have their work seen and judged by some of the world’s leading companies and top thinkers and doers, and to win a highly coveted Pencil.
D&AD’s partners this year include returning favourites BBC, John Lewis, Nationwide and Pearson, as well as new partners including adidas, Bacardi, JCDecaux and Microsoft. Hasbro, who ran its first brief in 2017 is also returning with a brief to redesign a traditional board game to appeal to iGens and Millennials.
The New Blood Awards briefs are written with leading creatives to reflect industry trends, and challenge the next creative generation to hone and apply their skills to tackle a wide range of business challenges and societal issues. Challenges include putting paper at the heart of a tactile experience to inspire creatives to rethink the medium; shaking up the in-store experience for future shoppers; using graphic design to champion a cause; empowering older generations through informal learning; bringing the #LondonIsOpen message to life on Oxford Street.
D&AD is also pleased to announce the first ever New Blood Side Hustle, run in partnership with Adobe. More than just a creative brief, the New Blood Side Hustle looks for creatives with an entrepreneurial spirit. Entrants will provide details on their project – an innovation, a product, a start-up, an app, a zine, a podcast, a brand, an event. Winners stand to win a share of prize money, as well as D&AD training courses relevant to their field, a D&AD judge to serve as their mentor and their work promoted on the D&AD website and in the 2018 Annual.
Open to young people aged between 18 and 24, and to students and recent graduates of any age, the New Blood Awards briefs are a great way for emerging new talent to experience the reality of the creative industry, to understand the pitch process, the competition, the demands from clients and to develop executions that are both engaging and elegantly delivered.
D&AD Foundation Director Paul Drake comments: “The New Blood Awards are a unique opportunity for emerging creatives to cut their teeth on real projects with some of the world’s leading brands. They challenge entrants to work on complex themes and develop them into great ideas, beautifully executed. And winning gets you noticed. Plenty of those shaping the industry now got their break thanks to bagging a New Blood Pencil.”
What some of this year’s New Blood Awards Brief Partners said about the experience:
“We’re really looking forward to see our new partnership with D&AD come to life. Creativity is important for adidas from our culture to our products, so partnering with the next generation of creators is close to our heart. The brief is simple – how can we collaborate in cities across the world to help change lives using sport as the catalyst?” says Emily Maxey, VP Global Newsrooms
“The quality of the D&AD ideas were great and most importantly unique! Your designers’ creativity was young, hip and fresh which caused many concepts to make it to our R&D department with the real possibility of becoming a genuine Hasbro product. More of the same please!” says Tanya Thompson, Global Product Acquisition, Hasbro.
“We are delighted to be supporting the awards once again, and excited to see how the participants interpret our brief and what fresh, new creativity awaits us.” says George Paphitis, Senior Creative, John Lewis.
New Blood Awards 2018 partners:
Adobe
adidas
Antalis in collaboration with Conqueror
Bacardi
BBC
Beano
Burger King
Digital McKinsey
Dropbox Paper
giffgaff
Hasbro
Hellmann’s in collaboration with WPP
Hotel Indigo
JCDecaux
John Lewis
Mayor of London
Microsoft
Nationwide in collaboration with Shelter
Pearson
Visit www.dandad.org/newbloodawards to find out more and view all 2018 briefs.
Entrants have until 5pm GMT, 20 March 2018 to submit their work. Winning work will be selected by a panel of judges and awarded a Wood, Graphite, Yellow, White or Black Pencil. Winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony in early July 2018 in London.
