How Evil Ray became Australia + New Zealand’s sole Yellow Pencil winner at the D&AD Awards

June 12 2026, 10:48 am | BY Ricki Green | No Comments
How Evil Ray became Australia + New Zealand’s sole Yellow Pencil winner at the D&AD Awards

Last month Australian independent creative agency Pembleton and New Zealand brand agency Seachange took home a Yellow Pencil at this year’s D&AD Awards for their work on Evil Ray – the irreverent sunscreen brand built on the premise that the sun is trying to kill us. It was the only Yellow Pencil awarded across both Australia and New Zealand this year. Evil Ray launched in December last year, and here’s a closer look at the design and brand work behind it.

 

The award, in the New Brand Identity category, was accompanied by a Graphite Pencil for Packaging Design.

Pembleton led the Evil Ray project from end to end – overseeing everything from product development and packaging to manufacturing, operations, sales strategy and marketing with branding and packaging designed by Seachange in New Zealand.

How Evil Ray became Australia + New Zealand’s sole Yellow Pencil winner at the D&AD Awards How Evil Ray became Australia + New Zealand’s sole Yellow Pencil winner at the D&AD Awards

Evil Ray’s goal was to break consumer apathy around sun exposure, reframing the sun not as something to worship, but an evil entity intent on maximum harm – a concept born from a confronting local reality: close to 70% of Australians will get skin cancer due to sun exposure, yet only 38% use sunscreen regularly.

The execution didn’t stop at aesthetics. The packaging, made from recycled plastics, includes a number of manufacturing firsts – innovations in tooling and blow moulds created and made in Melbourne. The label itself is UV-reactive, giving people a simple way to know, regardless of cloud cover, when they should be applying sun protection.

The evil sun logo at the heart of the identity was created by iconic Australian artist Reg Mombassa, adding another distinctive layer to a brand that was clearly built to stand out on shelf and in culture.

How Evil Ray became Australia + New Zealand’s sole Yellow Pencil winner at the D&AD Awards How Evil Ray became Australia + New Zealand’s sole Yellow Pencil winner at the D&AD Awards

Says Matilda Hobba, Co-founder, Director of Projects and Member Liaison, Pembleton: “Evil Ray was a true passion project that took years to bring to market. And, hand on heart, the best part about that journey was seeing what every partner brought to the final product. Seachange is a good example of this – their packaging design broke many of the conventional manufacturing standards. Realising and staying true to that original design was a job in itself. Now, seeing Evil Ray on shelves across Australia, combined with the D&AD Yellow Pencil, makes all the hard work worth it.”

Says Tim Donaldson, Creative Director at Seachange: “We’re absolutely thrilled to receive such a high accolade from D&AD in such a tough and competitive category. Our client, Pembleton, was truly epic from the start, helping drive the creative vision and challenging us to do something completely unconventional in the category… all in the hope of getting more people to be smarter about sun protection. As it turns out, the sun is a real jerk, and we’re delighted that D&AD saw the value in helping us call it out.”

How Evil Ray became Australia + New Zealand’s sole Yellow Pencil winner at the D&AD Awards How Evil Ray became Australia + New Zealand’s sole Yellow Pencil winner at the D&AD Awards How Evil Ray became Australia + New Zealand’s sole Yellow Pencil winner at the D&AD Awards How Evil Ray became Australia + New Zealand’s sole Yellow Pencil winner at the D&AD Awards

PEMBLETON
Alex Speakman: Business and brand strategy
Simon Bagnasco and Mac Wright: Concept development and creative direction
Matilda Hobba: Project Management
Sheridan Wadelton: Agency Producer

BRANDING & PACKAGING DESIGN
Seachange – Design Agency
Amanda Gaskin – Creative Partner
Nicole McClure – General Manager
Tim Donaldson – Creative Director

DESIGN
Matt Alpass: Design
Ed Croll: Finished Art

LOGO DESIGN
Reg Mombassa

ANIMATION
Julian Frost: Director
Hugo Jackson: Animation and 3D modelling

DIRECTION
Julian Frost – Director

EDITING
Ollie Knocker – Editor

SOUND
Squeak E – Sound Studio
Paul Le Couteur – Head of Sound
Ceri Davies – Executive Producer
Richard Piper – VO artist

MUSIC
Gusto Music

PHOTOGRAPHY
Cory White

PUBLIC RELATIONS / PRESS OFFICE
Alt Shift: Agency
Sophie Truter – Head of Integrated
Paula Cardamone – Senior Account Director
Shanay Sylvester – Account Coordinator

WEBSITE PRODUCTION
Morkan Paki – PS Design Studio

SOCIAL LEAD
Glen Bonetti

SEO
Sonar Group
Angus Gawn – Performance Lead

LOGISTICS AND OPERATIONS
Nick Bernard

SALES
Sarah Jensen

PACKAGING PRODUCTION
Australian Blowmoulding Corporation
Project lead: Greg Ditton

 

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