Widely regarded as among the toughest honours in global creativity, D&AD has championed excellence in design and commercial creativity since 1962. The Wood Pencil honours the best work of the year in advertising, design, craft, culture and impact.
Reframing Women’s Day
Women’s Day marks the 1956 march of 20,000 women on the Union Buildings in protest against apartheid pass laws. For Allan Gray, a long-term investment firm built on recognising overlooked potential, the work set out to celebrate South Africa’s pioneering founders. These are the women who took their seats, often without recognition, and used them to drive change.
It was created in honour of the late Mrs Gill Gray, an influential figure in the Allan Gray story whose own contribution, like those of so many of the women the work celebrates, was so often made behind the spotlight.
The investment firm wanted to mark the day in a way that felt meaningful, memorable, and thought-provoking. It also sought to restore the day’s significance and potential for long-term progress.
“I’m immensely proud of A Seat at the Table and the way we brought it to life,” says Zwelethu Nkosi, group head of marketing at Allan Gray. “At Allan Gray, we strive to do work with purpose and meaning, knowing that a brilliant idea needs equally brilliant execution to be fully realised. The work set out to honour the women who used their seats to drive change, often without recognition, and to inspire others to use the seats they occupy to pay it forward. To see it become the only South African work awarded at this year’s D&AD is an incredible honour, and proof of the talent and creativity that resides in Mzansi. It took a village.”
Seats as storytellers
Presented in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town in the week before Women’s Day 2025, the experience invited guests into the lives of pioneering South African women through the diverse seats they once occupied. From a straight-backed educator’s chair, a curator’s worn stool, and an artist’s seat, each period-accurate and meticulously curated.
Among those honoured was educator, publisher and activist Nokutela Mdima-Dube, whose contribution to South African history was long overshadowed by that of her husband.
A partnership led by Allan Gray
Bringing the idea to life took true partnership, led by Allan Gray. Working alongside Accenture Song South Africa, the teams brought together deep research, spatial design, perspective-led writing, photography, binaural audio and a take-home commemorative book into a single gallery-style experience, one that let each story travel well beyond the room.
More than 200 women, comprising founders, clients, advisers and leaders from across the financial industry, moved through the experience, spending an average of 42 minutes with the installation. The work was also amplified over 140 times online, beyond the physical space. Guests described it as “not just another Women’s Day event” and “world-class”.
“What we loved about the brief from Allan Gray was that it gave us a unique approach to telling South African stories that deserve to be better known,” says Kyra Antrobus, group creative director at Accenture Song. Both agency and client teams were committed to creating a thoughtful, crafted experience that did justice to the incredible women profiled, and to the potential of those still to come. It's very rewarding to see the level of human-made care, commitment and detail that the Song and Allan Gray teams brought to the project recognised by a jury like D&AD."
For Allan Gray, the accolade validates an approach that favours substance over symbolism and creating insightful and meaningful work. Places a distinctly South African story, and the partnership behind it, on one of the world’s most respected creative stages.
