Study Overseas

The Design & Art Direction Student award scheme has been operating in the United Kingdom since 1978. This year, the twenty-first, it has come of age. Although other design competitions for students exist, the D&AD has always managed to maintain the right air of professionalism and level of importance attached to its awards. One of its strengths as a competition is that it has attracted all the leading design education establishments in the United Kingdom to participate. This has resulted in a healthy attitude, in which it has been possible for vocationally orientated courses to compete on an equal status with the more academic institutions.

In the early years of the scheme, only four briefs were set annually, two with an advertising bias, the other two of a general graphic design nature, and for many years the Royal Mail provided the main sponsorship. At that time it was a requirement that each brief included design for a promotional graphics item which could be sent through the post.

The current choice is much more diverse, reflecting the emerging technologies associated with the visual communication business, and addressing specific niche markets. Whereas mainstream areas of the design business are well catered for, with subject titles such as graphic design, typography, and corporate identity, the diversity of the briefs on offer to students include photography, illustration, product design, TV and cinema advertising. New technologies, such as the design of interactive Internet sites or CD-ROMs, have been introduced to engage students in quite a different areas of expertise. The judges were ecstatic about entries in this category last year, exclaiming that students had 'demonstrated both creative and intelligent design solutions, complemented by an understanding of how to engage the user's interest through interactivity'. The advertising business is well catered for with copywriting, direct response, art direction and mixed media briefs, all of which encourage teamwork.

To educators, there have been many benefits emanating from this competition. The briefs have consistently been set by leading advertising and graphic design practitioners, and are based on actual design jobs and campaigns. Some of the briefs in recent years have taken the student solution through to print, as was the case of the 48-sheet poster for the Royal National Lifeboat Association designed by a winning student last year. The competition ensures that students are exposed to both national and increasingly international standards; students from both Italy and the United States have submitted entries in recent years.

The deadline for completion, normally towards the end of March, allows lecturers to plan the academic calendar with the options of setting their own deadline in advance of the actual one. Some institutions are finding it difficult to fit competitions into their programmes of study, however beneficial they might be, due to the increasing adoption of modular course structures and the introduction of semesters. However, prior knowledge of how the D&AD scheme operates does allow course teams to plan accordingly. The briefing session takes place in November each year, with the brief-setter explaining the task and answering questions. Comprehensive briefing packs are provided for course tutors to take back to their institutions, including extra reference material, instructions as to how text and images (relating to a specific assignment) can be accessed electronically, and prints of logotypes to be included in final designs.

The team responsible for educational initiatives at D&AD offices have tried to ensure that the winning design receives appropriate design press coverage and printed promotion through the production of a student awards annual. However, it is the award ceremony itself that gives the winning student an air of importance, taking place in late June or early July, a good time for a final year student to receive the plaudits. First and second prize winners receive a coveted Yellow Pencil, a symbol of recognition and success in the business. The cash prizes may act as a carrot to the increasingly debt-ridden student, but the kudos of winning a D&AD award and the printed evidence in the book is more than likely to translate into actual employment, which is normally the ultimate goal for the undergraduate. For many past winners, the D&AD accolade was sufficient to not only get themselves noticed in the marketplace, but to secure employment with leading design consultancies and advertising agencies. Some of these winners from the early years of the scheme are now in a position to write briefs and judge the awards themselves.

The D&AD Student Awards offer a unique opportunity for design students in the UK to place themselves in the central arena. Even if they are not successful, the briefs act as a touchstone in which prospective employers can make up their own minds as to how successful is the solution to the prescribed problem.

Author

Graham Twemlow

University of Luton

Department of Design and Architecture