14 winners were selected for the category, which recognises newly released or prototypical designs and initiatives that prioritise people and planet alongside profit.

Since 1962, D&AD has stimulated, celebrated and enabled creative excellence and will continue to support the creative community through this period of unprecedented uncertainty. The 2020 Awards recognise creative excellence from the past year in the belief that great work is always worthwhile, often producing better outcomes for all.

The 2020 Future Impact Pencil winners

Existing to elevate creativity for social good, Future Impact awards prototypes, MVPs, products and services in alpha or beta testing, or projects seeking funds. This year, D&AD awarded 14 Future Impact Pencils: 9 to Design and 5 to Initiatives.

From a social housing management system designed to prevent another Grenfell Tower disaster, to a material made of fish scales that are taking on plastic; this year's cohort is tackling some of the world’s biggest problems, from the personal to the preservation of our planet. The 2020 Future Impact Pencil winners include:

Gabriel Corbett for Oikos, a social housing management system which reveals lost and ignored claims by residents regarding their own safety, pressuring government administrations to better protect the wellbeing of their communities.

Lucy Hughes for developing MarinaTex, a home-compostable material made out of biological waste from the fishing industry and red algae, designed as an alternative to single-use plastics.

Yoshihiro Kozuka, ADK Advertising Agency for his Avatar Robot Cafe, a space where people with disabilities could remotely control robot avatars to wait on tables via eye tracker, creating more employment opportunities for people with different abilities.

An additional 5 entries were shortlisted for the award. For more information on the Shortlisted and Pencil winning entries, please see the D&AD website.

D&AD Impact Programme

Known as ‘Future Impacters’, the winning cohort will also be enrolled on the D&AD Impact programme, a 12-month support package of mentoring, training and visibility. The programme includes support from the D&AD Impact Council, an esteemed group of business and thought leaders spanning the creative, investment, technology, sustainability, social impact and NGO space.

In light of the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s programme will take place in a digital fashion. This change will allow for D&AD to create a more accessible learning environment for the global Future Impact cohort, especially as this year’s winners hail from the United Kingdom, India, Russian Federation, Canada, Japan and Spain.

Jessica Lauretti, founder and principal, Laurels, and jury president of D&AD Future Impact:

We are proud to announce this year's Future Impact Shortlist & Pencil Awardees. This year's work showcases a range of complex and diverse challenges that the world is grappling with, and how the power of design, creativity and innovation to make a lasting impact on people's lives and society at large. From public health to education and environmentalism, to quality of life and inclusion issues, this year's Pencil Awards go to some of the most promising products and initiatives that met our jury's strong qualification as well as exemplify rigour around their subject matter. Congratulations to all of the Shortlist and Pencil Awardees!