Since 1962, D&AD has stimulated, celebrated and enabled creative excellence and will continue to support the creative community as we move out of one of the toughest periods in recent memory. The 2021 Awards again recognise creative excellence from the past year and commend the industry for creating exceptional work during unprecedented times reiterating the awards manifesto that ‘work that matters must be seen’.

Alongside the Craft, Next, Advertising and Side Hustle categories, D&AD announced the Pencil winners for this year's Collaborative category at the ceremony. These awards celebrate long-lasting relationships between clients and their design, advertising and/or production companies that have led to the creation of noteworthy work in recent years. The first for advertising agency was awarded to Brazil’s AlmapBBDO for their continued work with Alpargatas and the second for design agency was awarded to UK-based Superunion for their work alongside The London Symphony Orchestra.

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The Side Hustle category reflects the increasing number of creatives applying their skills and personal passions to side projects, something that has become even more apparent during the pandemic. From creating new businesses to developing initiatives to address social and environmental issues, this category aims to spotlight world class creativity beyond people’s day jobs.

The Next categories award emerging creatives, designers, directors, illustrators and photographers to recognise the next generation of creative talent. The awards seek to recognise their work and showcase their ideas to creative influencers, mentors and agencies.

Across these categories, the top ranking countries by number of Pencils are:

• United States - 147 Pencils
  
• United Kingdom - 77 Pencils
  
• Brazil - 28 Pencils
  
• France - 24 Pencils
  
• Australia - 16 Pencils

The top ranking companies for these categories, by number of Pencils are:

• Africa and AMV BBDO -12 Pencils each
  
• Droga 5 New York - 9 Pencils
  
• AKQA Sao Paulo, Publicis Italia and Saatchi and Saatchi New York - 7 Pencils each

The total number of Pencils in each category are:

Craft: 171 Pencil Winners

• Animation: 3 Yellow, 7 Graphite, 8 Wood
  
• Art Direction: 2 Yellow, 8 Graphite, 12 Wood
  
• Casting: 1 Yellow, 3 Graphite, 9 Wood
  
• Cinematography: 1 Yellow, 1 Graphite, 3 Wood
  
• Direction: 3 Yellow, 7 Graphite, 6 Wood
  
• Editing: 1 Yellow, 4 Graphite, 4 Wood
  
• Illustration: 2 Yellow, 5 Graphite, 10 Wood
  
• Photography: 3 Graphite, 5 Wood
  
• Production Design: 1 Yellow, 1 Graphite, 3 Wood
  
• Sound Design & Use of Music: 4 Graphite, 15 Wood
  
• Typography: 1 Yellow, 3 Wood
  
• Visual Effects: 4 Yellow, 3 Graphite, 3 Wood
  
• Writing for Advertising: 2 Yellow, 3 Graphite, 3 Wood
  
• Writing for Design: 1 Yellow, 6 Graphite, 10 Wood

Advertising: 246 Pencil Winners

• Digital: 3 Yellow, 11 Graphite, 19 Wood
  
• Direct: 2 Yellow, 9 Graphite, 20 Wood
  
• E-Commerce: 1 Yellow, 3 Graphite, 8 Wood
  
• Experiential: 3 Yellow, 5 Graphite, 11 Wood
  
• Film: 5 Yellow, 6 Graphite, 14 Wood
  
• Integrated: 1 Yellow, 4 Graphite, 4 Wood
  
• Media: 2 Yellow, 8 Graphite, 23 Wood
  
• PR: 2 Yellow, 15 Graphite, 25 Wood
  
• Press & Outdoor: 3 Yellow, 12 Graphite, 17 Wood
  
• Radio & Audio: 4 Graphite, 6 Wood

#D&AD21: Tseliso Rangaka, D&AD Radio & Audio jury president

Jessica Tennant  25 May 2021

Collaborative: 2 Pencil Winners

Side Hustle: 2 Pencil Winners

Next: 9 Pencil Winners

• Next Creative: 2 Next Pencil
  
• Next Designer: 2 Next Pencil
  
• Next Director: 2 Next Pencil
  
• Next Illustrator: 2 Next Pencil
  
• Next Photographer: 1 Next Pencil

All 430 Pencil winning and shortlisted entries are showcased on the D&AD website.

Dara Lynch, CCO at D&AD, said, “While the pandemic has kept our peers physically distant from each other, the power of creative excellence has remained as strong as ever. We hope the first of our two virtual ceremonies has provided an opportunity for the industry to come together to view, be inspired by and celebrate the immense talent across the creative community. We have taken many of the learnings from last year's digital awards and implemented them this year to create an experience that holds true to the value of our awards and celebrates every single pencil winner as they truly deserve to be. We are looking forward to our second ceremony to once again reveal more outstanding work as well as the winners of our highly coveted Black Pencils, the President’s Award and Companies of the Year.”

D&AD this year continues to platform the most exceptional work from the past 12 months, following the same rigorous judging process that holds creativity to the highest standards. Famously tough to win, there are no quotas for D&AD Awards, meaning that the number of awarded entries fluctuates each year. In some years, no Black Pencils - the highest creative accolade - are awarded. The highest ever awarded in one year currently stands at eight.

Winning work will not only receive an esteemed D&AD Pencil, it will also be featured in the digital D&AD Annual and online archive – a definitive guide for creatives all around the world.

The Pencil winners for the Design, Impact and Culture categories alongside the presentation of Black Pencils, The President's Award and Companies of the Year will be announced in the second virtual ceremony tomorrow night, on 27 May at 7pm. For more information, visit the D&AD website, or watch the ceremony here.

And that's a wrap on night one of D&AD Awards Ceremony. Huge congratulations to everyone who was shortlisted and who won a Pencil tonight ������ Tune in now for a DJ set by @pentagram's very own Yuri Suzuki: https://t.co/wzmREAgNGT #dandad21 pic.twitter.com/rFRbltVKkn

— D&AD (@dandad) May 26, 2021