D&AD is now open for entries for its 55th Professional Awards, which will take place on 25-27 April 2017.
There will be a few new changes taking place at next year’s show, including modifications to some of the sub-categories. New work – which arrives as Beta or prototype format – will also be considered for a chance to win the Wood Pencil (pictured, far left).
Other adjusted categories include the Established Campaigns sub-category, which will now also honour integrated campaigns, as well as the Collaborative – part of the Integrated & Collaborative category – which will recognise long-standing relationships between agencies and clients.
The Creativity For Good category has also added Product and Service Design as a sub-category, while Branded Film Content has been shortened to just Branded Content, so that user-generated content can also be entered and judged under this category.
The Logos sub-category – previously part of Graphic Design – has been moved to Branding, while Campaign Branding & Identity sub-category has also been added to the category.
“2017 will be the year of awarding the established and the very new,” says D&AD’s CEO Tim Lindsay. “Innovation is at the heart of every great creative idea, it is how we measure creative excellence every year. With this in mind, awarding work that has nailed that initial concept but hasn’t necessarily gone into full production was a natural next move for us. At the same time, it isn’t all about the new, there is much to be learned from rewarding successful creative relationships and ideas that have survived the test of time which is why we will be looking at both ends of the spectrum this year.”
The White Pencil is no longer up for grabs, due to the launch of the D&AD Impact earlier this year and the Mobile Marketing category has been dropped entirely.
This year’s jury also boasts an equal split of men and women, in a bid to encourage greater gender equality within the industry. Click here to see the full list of changes and to find out who the jury is made up of.
