Topping the 51st D&AD Awards this evening were four Black Pencil recipients and one White Pencil winner, with 51 Yellow Pencils awarded to the best of the world’s design, advertising and communications work.
Black Pencils are bestowed upon work that is not just considered the best in the world in its category, but for pieces of design or advertising that have fundamentally changed the rules of the category. The four Black Pencils this year were awarded to:
o McCann Erickson Melbourne’s “Dumb Ways to Die” for Metro Trains (Integrated & Earned Campaigns) scooped up one of the top accolades
o 4creative’s “Meet the Superhumans” for Channel 4 (TV & Cinema Communications);
o Heatherwick Studio’s “Olympic Cauldron” for the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Spatial Design/Installations)
o And GOV.UK’s website for Her Majesty’s Government (Writing for Websites & Digital Design).
Incorporated into this year’s awards for the first time was a coveted White Pencil, established to recognize work that can affect real and positive change in the world. The White Pencil went to Droga5, New York for it Help Remedies “Help! I Want to Save a Life” campaign.
This year’s 51 Yellow Pencils acknowledged work that is judged to be the best in the world, selected from projects that receive a nomination during judging.
Receiving the highest number of Yellow Pencils this year was McCann Erickson Melbourne’s “Dumb Ways to Die” (Australia), which scooped Yellow Pencils across five categories (Art Direction, Earned Media Campaigns, Digital Advertising, TV & Cinema Advertising and Writing for Film Advertising) as well as taking a Black Pencil.
Another significant winner was 4creative, for its “Meet the Superhumans” campaign (UK), which was awarded Yellow Pencils across four categories for Editing for Film Advertising, TV & Cinema Communications, Direction for Film Advertising and Use of Music for Film Advertising as well as a Black Pencil.
Other campaigns taking multiple awards were R/GA’s “Nike+ FuelBand” (US), taking three Yellow Pencils, while Leica Store S�o Paulo’s “Soul” (Brazil) and 20th Century Fox’s “Prometheus Viral ‘David'” (UK) each won two Yellow Pencils.
In total, 618 awards were given by 2013 D&AD juries across In-Book, Nominations and Yellow, Black & White Pencils, with work from over 35 countries recognized.
Film Advertising Crafts was the category awarded the greatest number of Yellow Pencils–12.
The most awarded categories overall (across In-Book, Nominated & Yellow Pencil work) were:
The Graphic Design category, taking 100 gongs, including two Yellow Pencils
TV & Cinema Advertising with 46 pieces of creative work awarded, including three Yellow Pencils
Digital Advertising with 40 awards, including three Yellow Pencils
Conversely, juries in the Book Design, Magazine & Newspaper Design and Press Advertising categories did not award any pencils this year.
Countdown by country
The UK led a strong showing, scooping up 202 awards overall, including three Black Pencils and 17 Yellow Pencils. Work from the US also did well, with entries gaining 113 awards in total (of which 13 were Yellow Pencils).
In 2013, European nations performed well, with Sweden and France leading the way in the region with 16 Awards each, of which two were Yellow Pencils. German work picked up 13 awards overall, including two Yellow Pencils.
Australia had a particularly strong year, achieving 50 awards overall, including a Black Pencil and seven Yellow Pencils, whilst work from New Zealand scooped 15 awards overall including 2 Yellow Pencils. The region put in a record performance taking 65 awards overall.
Meanwhile, work from Asia was also well recognized, with Japan leading the region with 26 awards, including two Yellow Pencils, followed by Singapore, who took 16 awards overall (with one Yellow Pencil). China scooped up 7 awards overall (of which one Yellow Pencil) whilst Thailand gained five In-Books.
Brazil topped the Latin American league table of awards, with 29 pieces of work recognized by the juries, including four Yellow Pencils, a record 37 percent increase in awards from 2012.
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More