D&AD CONTENT RESEARCH

D&AD – home of the talented and skilled, the imaginative and the curious, the restless and the bloody-minded. Commercially savvy, sometimes romantic, often cynical and occasionally rather weird. A source of information and ideas: of professional development, support and inspiration, interesting people to talk and nice things to look at. All creative life is here.

1962. A group of designers and art directors come together to celebrate creative communication and raise standards within their industry.

Amongst the group are David Bailey, Terence Donovan and Alan Fletcher (yes, it was that cool).  They call themselves British Design & Art Direction and the following year they organise their first Awards event. And they are picky. From 2500 entries they select just 16 pieces of work to receive the soon to be coveted Yellow Pencil.

2011 and British Design & Art Direction has grown mightily, but slimmed down its name. Now D&AD, its members represent the creative, design and advertising communities, not just in Britain, but worldwide.

Shaped by numerous talented, idiosyncratic professionals with wildly varying approaches but a shared commitment to excellence, D&AD is headed by an executive committee and President, all elected from the membership.

Individual and company membership of D&AD is open to all professionals and students working in or around the creative industries. Awarded membership, however, retains the pickiness of the founding fathers and is only available those whose work has been recognised at the annual D&AD Awards.