D&AD celebrates 50 years with awards date change

D&AD is celebrating its 50th birthday with a series of events this year including a change in dates for Yellow and Black pencil awards.

D&AD – Design & Art Direction, the British charity that promotes excellence in design and advertising – will be marking its milestone with a birthday dinner, a special D&AD Annual, the brand new White Pencil awards and a documentary on the history of British advertising.

There will also be changes to the annual Black and Yellow Pencil awards usually held in June. For this 50th anniversary year only, the Yellow Pencil awards will take place on April 19 and the Black Pencils will be awarded at the birthday dinner in London in September.

The D&AD 50th Birthday Dinner will feature a ceremony highlighting the lives and talents that have shaped the creative industry and celebrating the brands and businesses behind the most iconic design and advertising of the past five decades. The 50th Black Pencils will also be awarded and the Yellow Pencil winners will be honoured.

The Yellow Pencil announcements, at London's Imax theatre, will be different from normal. Press, nominees and judges will be invited to a theatre-style presentation that will be led by jury foremen including John Hegarty, David Droga, John O'Keefe, Graham Fink and Bob Gill. For the first time, the jury foremen will discuss highlights from the nominated work before announcing the winners.

The White Pencil is the first new award D&AD has introduced, and is for a creative idea that changes the world for the better. It will go to an idea that promotes the United Nations' International Day of Peace, on September 21, and will be presented to the best work in November.

D&AD's festival of new talent, New Blood, will take place at Old Spitalfields Market in London on June 26-28. For the first time, the exhibition will feature virtually on the D&AD website.

Sky Atlantic's new one-hour documentary, Ad Men, is inspired by D&AD's 50th. Produced by the RSA and featuring interviews with Dick Powell, Bob Brooks, John Hegarty and Ridley Scott, it documents the impact of D&AD on British culture and the influence design and advertising has had on our lives. It will screen on Sky Atlantic on March 26.

Visit D&AD's website for more information about this year's events.