Mark Ashley-Wilson’s D&AD Diary: Day 1
Australia’sjury representative on the D&AD Cyber Jury is Mark Ashley-Wilson,digital director at Three Drunk Monkeys, Sydney, who reports daily fromLondon, exclusively for the CB Blog. For more D&AD insight Follow him on Twitter.
Judges Diary – Day 1
Today was fast and furious, jet-lagged and scary.
Weall met in the hotel reception at 8am and introduced ourselves. Thejuries are made up of the best people in our industry from all over theworld (you know like the people you have watched and admired from afarfor years) and I quickly made my way to a small dark corner until thetaxis arrived. Luckily I had 5 people in my taxi who were all very bigin their fields from Crispin’s, R/GA, Weiden’s etc who also happened tobe very nice – no egos here which was so great! Everyone is just asintrigued in what I do as I am in them. Phew! So we are headed toOlympia, a major exhibition center in the heart of London. Just thescale of the outside of the place and the street posters (like thestreet flags on Macquarie St when something’s on) all around it yelled”this thing is big”.
Once inside I realised just how damnbig… We all signed-in, got our name tags and headed for the judgeslounge area which is an area set aside with comfy seats, coffee, wi-fiaccess etc so you can gather/meet/chill when you are not on duty. It’sa cool space to hang in as the inside of Olympia is so bloody MASSIVEand imposing. All sub-areas are sectioned off with blow-up whiteballoon walls that are kinda cool. The D&AD staff are all so niceand helpful so no dramas asking silly questions which suits me justfine.
We then had the speech on what to do/look out for. We weretold that judges are asked to consider three things. Firstly, the workmust be a highly original and inspiring idea. Secondly, it must beexceptionally well executed. Thirdly, it must be relevant to itscontext.
After that we found our D&AD jury foreman and wentour own ways to begin the judging. There is over 20,000 pieces of workto get through so we knew that we had a long first day ahead of us. Sowhat’s happening in the judging? During each round the judges voteprivately as a YES or NO (all done on ipod Touch this year). Aftereach round the jury have the chance to discuss the work before thefinal selections are made. The categories are:
In-Book – Best of the year
Duringthe first round, judges vote for the work that will feature in theD&AD Annual. This selection provides an historical record of greatcreativity for the year. 50% or more of the judges need to vote yes fora piece of work to be included.
Nomination – Shortlisted
Inthis round, the jury selects work that rises above In-Book standard;this work fulfils the judging criteria and has pencil-winningpotential. Over 50% of judges must vote yes for an entry to beNominated.
Yellow Pencil – Creative Excellence
In this round,judges select work that is outstanding from the Nominations. YellowPencils are awarded for exceptional creative excellence in theirdiscipline within the creative industries. Over 50% of judges must voteyes for an entry to receive a Yellow Pencil.
Black Pencil – Groundbreaking
Workthat receives a Yellow Pencil progresses to Black Pencil Judging. ThreeBlack Pencil juries are made up of the Foreman and one other member ofeach original jury. Black Pencils are extremely rare; they exist toaward those pieces of truly groundbreaking work that redefine theirmedium. In some years no Black Pencils are awarded. Over 50% of therelevant jury need to vote yes for work to receive a Black Pencil.
Todaywe viewed over 110 sites in the Websites and Microsites area some ofwhich was goose-bump material, tomorrow is another full day of judgingand on Wednesday we will have our shortlist to debate over who isworthy of a pencil. So there you go. We have several more days ofviewing and debating the best work in the world. Pretty fun stuff andnot so scary anymore. Can’t wait for tomorrow!