Last week I was judging the D&AD awards. I was foreman of the jury for “Writing for design”. It’s the fourth time I’ve served on that jury, the second time as foreman. I’m pretty sure that makes me the most experienced writer/judge in this D&AD category.
A few thoughts. Every so often I wonder about D&AD. Is it really the best, as most people assume? Sometimes, particularly when I’ve entered work of my own (not in judging years) I curse the difficulties of the entry system, the limitations of the category, the cost. Yet, despite these barriers, the number of entries is staggering across all the categories and these are now truly international awards.
As a judge, you’re aware of the scale of the awards when you arrive at Olympia on your appointed judging day. There you are in a vast hall that looks a bit like a major railway station without the trains. The hall is filled with rows and rows of tables and panels on which entered work is displayed. Then you realise that your bit of this – the one category you’ve been asked to judge – is just a tiny part of what you see. The other work is ‘book design’, ‘radio advertising’, ‘direct mail’ and much more.
And this is just one day. The other realisation is that the judging continues through the week. From Monday till Friday, work from different categories is brought in to replace that already judged. It’s almost an industrial operation and impressively well-organised by D&AD.
So, yes, I am convinced by my judging day that the D&AD awards are the best. I say that, though, not because of size but because of quality. It’s a long day sifting through the entries, giving each one enough time and attention to form a respectful opinion. I was fortunate this year to be foreman of a particularly good jury: Stuart Delves, Nick Asbury, Jayne Workman, Roger Horberry, Rob Ball and Ruth Gavin. We had great debates about our subject – writing for design – and about the individual pieces.
There were disagreements, but democracy worked here rather better than in politics. Jurors argued passionately and constructively. There was a difficult question about judging work in other languages. We voted one work written in Spanish into the D&AD book. We couldn’t really judge the quality of the Spanish, but we had a good translation, and we decided that the quality of the idea should be recognised.
That’s the real measure for D&AD. These awards are about craft, but they’re primarily about the quality of ideas. I believe that’s what makes them the best, and the rigour of the judging process helps to ensure that year upon year.
So we voted 14 pieces of work into the book. http://www.dandad.org/?page_id=3201 Four of these were then nominated which means we voted (anonymously as throughout) to decide if any of those four should receive Yellow Pencils. The chances are that only one, or perhaps none, might win that coveted award. I don’t know, and I won’t know until the night the awards are announced at the beginning of June.
But I do know that, if there is a Yellow Pencil winner, it will be a worthy one.
