LONDON, U.K. – D&AD launches its 57th Annual today, with President Harriet Devoy having chosen Richard Turley as the 2019 designer. Renowned for the reimagination of Bloomberg BusinessWeek and the reinvention of MTV’s visual identity, Richard Turley was given creative license to develop a design that would stand out on a shelf of D&AD Annuals of previous years.
Richard Turley commented: “Previous iterations of the Annual have excelled in graphic design as precision engineering. I wanted this one to feel warm and human. Vulnerable maybe. And a bit dumb.
I spoke to Harriet. We had a chat about the awards, the industry and what we do. I don’t remember all that much about that talk other than bonding over a few of the themes that I guess we developed in the book. The neediness. The doubt and vulnerability associated not just with the awards but with working within the creative industries as a whole. The craving for reassurance and validation all the time. The need for likes on your instagram post. For views on your video. For a website to write about your work. And if none of those things happen… then what does that mean… Does what I do have value. Is what we do actually important? A lot of that bubbled around. That and the paradox of a lot of socially-minded left of centre creatives providing the (often rather successful) communications for multi-national corporations whose motives they are entirely at odds with.
I don’t mean to imply all of that exists in the design of the book but – without sounding too pretentious – for me, the scrawl is trying to find an equivalence for that – the ghost in the corporate marketing machine. Digitized, stupefied. Compliant. Powerless. A bit frantic. With a sense of humour. Will be in at work at 9.30 just like I promised. Deck looks great btw. Here are 15 ideas for that banner ad. Do you like them? Do I even like them? What am I doing? Ice age coming. Ice age coming.”
Each year, The D&AD Annual curates the best creative work across the design and advertising industry – showcasing all D&AD Pencil winners from that year’s awards. A benchmark for the best in creative work across the design and advertising industry, the 2019 Annual shines a light on work with real conviction that shifts culture and shapes global narratives.
Harriet Devoy, D&AD President says: “Richard is an obvious choice for the cover. He’s a prodigiously talented designer, who comes armed with a phenomenal portfolio of challenging editorial covers for magazines and periodicals. He’s the guy that made Bloomberg Businessweek a must-read and revived MTV. The D&AD Annual feels like where his work belongs”
Reflecting on what she hopes creatives take away from the 2019 Annual, Harriet continued, “Take risks. It’s our job.”
For the sixth year running, D&AD’s partners at Hogarth have provided the retouching, colour management and general reprographics for the Book.
The Annual is available from 3rd October 2019 at www.dandad.org
