MDS AdSchool students win one Yellow Pencil, one Wood Pencil and a Top Portfolio Pick at the 2024 D&AD New Blood Awards held in London

New Zealand has picked up one Yellow Pencil, one Wood Pencil and a Top Portfolio Pick at the 2024 D&AD New Blood Awards, the annual programme that recognises up-and-coming creative talent and offers chances to tackle briefs set by top brands, which were held last night in London. All the NZ winners hail from Media Design School’s AdSchool.

179 D&AD New Blood Awards Pencils were awarded including 22 Yellow Pencils, 45 Graphite Pencils, 107 Wood Pencils, 3 White Pencils and 3 Black Pencils.

Says Kate Humphries, programme leader, MDS AdSchool: “Congratulations to our 2024 team Willow Whitham and Stasia Edmeades who picked up a D&AD Yellow Pencil award at last night’s New Blood Award Show For Woodstock ReWind. As anyone in the industry can attest D&AD  is one of the toughest global competitions to crack, and being awarded a Yellow Pencil means the judges have regarded your work as outstanding. But to win that Yellow Pencil on your very first advertising brief, after only 4 weeks at AdSchool, against entries from all over the world the majority of whom would’ve been working on the brief since October, is on another level. And for that to be the only Yellow Pencil awarded for that brief is truly outstanding. So a standing ovation team, from everyone at Media Design School because we really couldn’t feel prouder of this achievement. Three big cheers also to our Industry Fellow Andy Blood and our part-time Art Direction tutors Greg Wylie, Lorenz Perry for all their feedback.

“For the team’s dopamine-infused reaction to the announcement of their win (at 4 am this morning!) as well as the D&AD judges’ comments as to why Woodstock Rewind won the Yellow Pencil for the Durex Brief have a watch here.

“Another standing ovation to our alumni team Reece O’Gorman and James Sandham who continued their outstanding 2023 winning streak of awards with a D&AD Wooden Pencil with their appropriately named submission Winning Streak.

“We always start the year with the New Blood Awards, so that at the end of the year when D&AD releases its New Blood briefs, the teams feel more confident to pick up one of those briefs, despite being in the in the midst of creating a brand-new portfolio from scratch in only 7 weeks for industry panel review.  The fact that Reece and James have now won 2 global awards ( D&AD and Young Shits) from that same 7-week run is, again, standing ovation material.

“MDS has also scored another D&AD win with one of last year’s portfolio, with our 2023 Alumni team of Rose Heron and Lucy Lim picking up a D&AD New Blood Top Portfolio Pick for their End of Year Show Portfolio.  

“To have over 50+ industry-leading judges select your portfolio from 40 or so advertising and PR portfolios as their top picks of the year from over 800 global entries is an outstanding and truly deserved achievement.

“So without further ado, massive congratulations to Lucy, Rose, Reece, James, Willow and Stasia from everyone at Media Design School for making us look like we know what we’re doing good.”

The New Blood Awards is among the world’s largest student competitions, showcasing top emerging talent from around the globe. Winners, selected by leading experts in design and advertising, impressed the judges with their innovative thinking and practical skills, earning one of the industry’s most esteemed awards: a New Blood Pencil. The competition had over 6,000 entrants, from over 60 countries and more than 3,000 entries were judged anonymously by over 150 judges. The work was evaluated based on idea, insight, and suggested execution. Although all work is conceptual and the intellectual property belongs to the entrant, any of the brands setting the briefs can choose to move forward with a winning idea by employing the winning creatives and collaborating with them professionally to develop the concept further.

This year, emerging creatives were invited to respond to a series of briefs set by leading global brands including Google, Adobe, Airbnb, Bumble, Coca-Cola, Nandos, Universal Music, HSBC and more. Covering a wide range of disciplines including UX/UI, animation, advertising, typography and experiential, the briefs were designed to provide new talent with the experience of working on client briefs. These 18 briefs tackled varying commercial challenges and social issues, including asking entrants to create a festival event poster (Universal Music), create a banner icon for the fossil fuel free movement (Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty), a design brief to break down barriers to sexual freedom (Durex and Design Bridge), and a brief to create an inclusive future for the connected home (Sky).

Says Paul Drake, foundations director at D&AD: “In a time when creativity is becoming increasingly vital to global economies, it has never been more important to celebrate the next generation of talent. For 44 years, D&AD’s New Blood has showcased the best emerging creatives from various disciplines, who are getting ready to leave education and join the industry. Explore the winning work, meet the creators behind it, give them an opportunity.”

For information on all of the Pencil-winning entries, please see the D&AD website.