On April 25-27 the second D&AD Festival and this years Award ceremony took place in London. There were a ton of standouts amongst the awards, but we must admit our personal highlight was actually receiving one!
Streamtime are absolutely honoured to receive a Wood Pencil for our branding scheme at the 2017 D&AD Awards. To be recognised amongst mammoths of the creative world (Apple, Nike, Samsung) has left us in an incredibly proud state of shock. A massive thanks to the brains at For The People for developing our branding scheme – this one’s for you guys!
D&AD are a global community of creative thinkers who recognise the finest work in design and advertising. They’ve been awarding the best in the industry for over 50 years now and do this to celebrate creative communication and raise standards within the industry. You can check them out here.
Check out a few of our favourite Pencil winners.
20th Biennale of Sydney Display Typeface – For The People
We might be slightly biased, but we’re huge fans of the work that For The People do. The BOS Embassy – the name of the collection of typefaces they created for the 20th Biennale of Sydney – is nothing short of awesome.
Comprised of seven individual typefaces all related by their consistent tone, meaning that the seven typefaces can be seamlessly used together. BOS Embassy is the product of intelligent design and is ultimately unique. For The People took home a Graphite Pencil for the typeface – yep, these guys are killing it.
For The People – 20th Biennale of Sydney
All That We Share – &Co./NoA
&Co. and NoA’s collaborative effort on All That We Share, the name of the Graphite Pencil-winning TV ad, achieves much due to the simplicity of its nature. An engaging 3-minute advertisement delivers a powerful and heartfelt message, all in the name of promoting Danish TV channel, TV2.
Not until the final seconds of the ad is there any mention of the channel, or television itself for that matter (although the ad does play out on what might be a studio-set). Does this matter? Not at all.
All That We Share spreads a positive message, a message that is too easily forgotten. The technique of generating an emotional response, by delivering a message in line with a prevalent current affairs issue, has been seen more often this past year in a variety of successes. We think &CO. and NoA have done it right. Take notes, future creatives.
Gosh – Jamie xx – Iconoclast
Honestly, we’re not surprised that the video for Jamie xx’s track ‘Gosh’ directed by Romain Gavras at Iconoclast took home a Yellow Pencil. A great track requires an equally as great video, and that’s exactly what Gavras has delivered.
The striking video follows the protagonist through what seems to be a dystopian Paris (à la Chinoise). Building suspense as the music builds and as an army of identical followers assemble around him under a rustic Eiffel Tower. Originality? Check.
A blue Subaru shatters the bleakness of the rundown city, and the unique features of the characters have our eyes fixed to the screen. Aesthetically pleasing and engaging? Check.
Cinematography and production are at a high throughout the video, with long tracking shots being used to develop scale and despite a supposed complete absence of CGI (according to Pitchfork). The video takes you to another world – except this world does exist. It was shot on location in Hangzhou, Zhejiang in China, where you’ll find a replica of the Eiffel Tower. Check out the Behind the Scenes video below if you don’t believe us.
No CGI? No 3D effects? Eiffel Tower replica in China? Incredible.
IKEA: Cook This Page – Leo Burnett, Toronto
IKEA just reinvented the wheel.
Well, not really. They reinvented the cook book, but it still won them a Graphite Pencil.
In classic IKEA fashion, Cook This Page provides you with all of the instructions to build your own dinner using ingredients you can get from their stores.
Easy to read and hard to get wrong, the recipes leave you with little room for error (although you could probably get them wrong if you tried… really, really hard). The use of to-scale diagrams help you get your quantities perfect and makes missing a step almost impossible. Once you’re ready, fold the page over your ingredients and pop it straight into the oven – too easy. The meals don’t look too bad either.
Spectacle of the Real – Buck
American magician and illusionist, David Blaine, approached Buck, a design-driven creative agency, to create a promotional short for his new show. What resulted was a Yellow Pencil-worthy piece of psychedelic animation accompanied by narration from Christopher Walken.
Alright, we’re huge fans of Christopher Walken – so what? We’re also huge fans of great animation and magic! Let this piece take you on a journey.
The World’s Biggest Asshole – The Martin Agency
“Even an asshole can save a life” is the slogan to the hilariously light-hearted and bizarrely inspiring ad for Donate Life, an organ donation body.
The ad is clever – it tells a dark story in such a way that you can’t help but love it. We come to know the lead character, Coleman Sweeney, fairly well quite quickly – he’s an asshole, this much is clear. However, we come to see Coleman’s redemption in the eyes of the community after he is victim to a fatal brain aneurysm. In the midst of Coleman’s death, it is revealed that he is a registered organ donor and this is the day that he becomes a hero.
It’s a feel-good ad and succeeds because it leaves you wanting to register as an organ donor, whether that be because you were touched by the montage of those who received Coleman’s organs, or simply because you want to avoid being remembered as an asshole. All bases are covered – not an easy feat to master – and the ad resonates widely. I would love to know the number of people who registered after watching due to this. Hat’s off to The Martin Agency, definitely worth a Graphite Pencil by our books.
