BWM Dentsu, Sydney wins coveted Black Pencil for ALS ‘Project Revoice’ at 57th D&AD Awards Ceremony ~ Australia ranks #7 with 23 Pencils

BWM Dentsu Sydney, FINCH/Nakatomi and Haystac have scored one of six coveted Black Pencils for ALS Association ‘Project Revoice‘ at the 57th D&AD Professional Awards Ceremony tonight in London. A Black Pencil is the highest accolade in the creative industry.

Project Revoice, which also won a Yellow Pencil, three Graphite Pencils and three Wood Pencils, is a digital voice clone that integrates with text-to-speech devices, giving people with ALS (Motor Neurone Disease) the ability to speak in their own voice, even after they physically can’t.

Australia has ranked #7 in the world with 23 Pencils including one Black Pencil, three Yellow Pencils, four Graphite Pencils and 14 Wood Pencils. Yellow Pencils went to The Brand Agency Perth for Foodbank WA ‘Hungry Puffs’ and VMLY&R, Sydney for Alexa ‘Lifeline”.

For The People has picked up one Graphite and two Wood Pencils. Special Group and Naked Sydney has picked up a Graphite Pencil each.

CHE Proximity has nabbed two Wood Pencils and The Monkeys, Leo Burnett Melbourne, TBWA\Sydney, whiteGREY, Garbett Design, Denomination and Landor all have one Wood Pencil apiece.

This year also saw an additional 17 Pencils awarded to “Next” winners. Next is a new D&AD Award subcategory for 2019, introduced in order to recognise individual creatives, designers and crafts practitioners who have worked for no more than three years in the creative industries. Next Pencil winners from Australia include Nic Molyneux and Benjamin Mann from whiteGREY for MPAN ‘Invisible Friends’ and Jason Leigh from M&C Saatchi for Steggles Turkey ‘Turkey – Ugly, But Good for You’.

Says Rob Belgiovane, group chief creative officer, BWM Dentsu Australia: “We’re grateful to the ALS Association for supporting this initiative and the difference it has and will continue to make for Patt Quinn and all people with this debilitating disease. I’m proud of the BWM Group team and our many collaborators who worked so hard to bring this idea to life.”

Australian production company Revolver/Will O’ Rourke was involved in multiple campaigns, which scored Pencils on the night including one Yellow Pencil, three Graphite Pencils and three Wood Pencils for Tourism Australia’s ‘Dundee’ via Droga5 New York. The company also scored a Graphite for Uber Eats (via Special Group, Sydney) and AT&T, plus two Wood Pencils for AT&T.

Droga5 was awarded a Black Pencil in TV Commercial Campaigns and Furlined was also awarded a Black Pencil in Writing for Film for the New York Times campaign “The Truth is Worth It”. A campaign, which looks to shed light on the rigor behind the journalism, unveils the lengths reporters go to find the truth.

Wieden + Kennedy claimed one Black Pencil in Integrated for its Dream Crazy campaign for Nike, led by the controversial NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, which, on the 30th anniversary of “Just Do It”, celebrated athletes who dreamed crazy, featuring household names like Serena Williams to a girl on a high-school football team.

Other Black Pencil awarded work included:

Xbox Adaptive Controller by Microsoft won one Black Pencil in Product Design for a unified hub for devices that helps make gaming more accessible, that was designed primarily to meet the needs of gamers with limited mobility.

Viva La Vulva by Somesuch and AMVBBDO for Libresse won one Black Pencil for Direction with their campaign designed to foster an open, positive culture to enable women to feel proud and comfortable about talking and caring about their genitals.

In total, 720 Pencils were awarded during D&AD Judging 2019. The number of Pencils awarded by level are as follows:

Black Pencil – 6 Pencils (2 Advertising, 2 Design, 2 Craft)
Yellow Pencil – 58 Pencils
Graphite Pencil – 196 Pencils
Wood Pencil – 460 Pencils
Shortlisted – 889 entrieS

Although not awarded with a Pencil at the D&AD Awards Ceremony, an additional 889 entries made the shortlist this year. Announced live throughout judging (18 – 20 May), the D&AD Awards Shortlist was introduced in order to acknowledge the volume of high calibre submissions that, even if they didn’t win a Pencil, were in close consideration.

Says Tim Lindsay, CEO, D&AD: “It has been another outstanding year for global creativity, with entries received from 73 countries. The theme for this year’s festival has been “Shaping the Future” and that’s very much been reflected in the campaigns we’ve had the privilege of seeing, many of which attests to the power of creativity to help build a better future. The work I have seen has been fantastic and everyone on the jury and everyone who has seen the final list of Pencil-winning work has been knocked out by the quality. It is a hugely encouraging sign for the buoyant and vibrant direction of our industry.”

Companies of the Year

Top 3 Advertising Agencies of the Year are:
1) Droga5 – D&AD Advertising Agency of the Year 2019
2) adam&eveDDB
3) McCann New York

Top 3 Design Agencies of the Year are:
1)Jones Knowles Ritchie – D&AD Design Agency of the Year 2019
2) SERVICEPLAN
3) Apple

Top 3 Production Companies of the Year are:
1) Academy Films – D&AD Production Company of the Year 2019
2) Furlined
3) Somesuch

Top 3 Clients of the Year are:
1) Apple – D&AD Client of the Year 2019
2) The New York Times
3) Mars

Collaborative award
The two winners of this year’s Collaborative Award were adam&eveDDB and John Lewis & Partners (Advertising) and Design Bridge and Fortnum & Mason (Design). The D&AD Collaborative Award, launched this year, is a special award for client collaborations to applaud brave and innovative collaborations between clients and agencies alike. The award is designed to celebrate collaborations which have produced a successive body of work achieving outstanding creative excellence and success over a number of years.

President’s Award
This year the President’s Award, the highest D&AD accolade reserved for a chosen few from the creative world, goes to artist and stage designer Es Devlin.

Says Harriet Devoy, president, D&AD: “I am delighted to present this year’s D&AD President’s Award to the unique talent that is Es Devlin. For over two decades she’s designed sets for the world’s leading theatre and opera companies. And her creations for the biggest artists in music mean her work has shaped the Instagram memories of millions. Her craft is incredible. Its scale, awe-inspiring. She turns spaces into spectacles and makes magic happen in front of our eyes. She doesn’t just break the fourth wall, she shatters it in ways no designer has before.”

D&AD will announce Network of the Year and regional rankings in early June 2019.

DandAD-2019-FINAL-LIST-WINNERS

Pictured above: Corey Esse – Managing Director & Executive Producer – FINCH and Benjamin Bray – Interactive Team Lead – Nakatomi at D&AD tonight