D&AD launches 17 new creative briefs for New Blood Awards 2018

New Blood Awards gives budding young creatives and students an opportunity to have their work seen and judged by some of the world’s leading companies and top thinkers and doers, and to win a highly coveted Pencil. D&AD’s partners this year include returning favourites BBC, John Lewis, Nationwide and Pearson, as well as new partners including adidas, Bacardi, JCDecaux and Microsoft. Hasbro, who ran its first brief in 2017 is also returning with a brief to redesign a traditional board game to appeal to iGens and Millennials.

The New Blood Awards briefs are written with leading creatives to reflect industry trends, and challenge the next creative generation to hone and apply their skills to tackle a wide range of business challenges and societal issues. Challenges include putting paper at the heart of a tactile experience to inspire creatives to rethink the medium; shaking up the in-store experience for future shoppers; using graphic design to champion a cause; empowering older generations through informal learning; bringing the #LondonIsOpen message to life on Oxford Street.

D&AD is also pleased to announce the first ever New Blood Side Hustle, run in partnership with Adobe. More than just a creative brief, the New Blood Side Hustle looks for creatives with an entrepreneurial spirit. Entrants will provide details on their project – an innovation, a product, a start-up, an app, a zine, a podcast, a brand, an event. Winners stand to win a share of prize money, as well as D&AD training courses relevant to their field, a D&AD judge to serve as their mentor and their work promoted on the D&AD website and in the 2018 Annual.

Open to young people aged between 18 and 24, and to students and recent graduates of any age, the New Blood Awards briefs are a great way for emerging new talent to experience the reality of the creative industry, to understand the pitch process, the competition, the demands from clients and to develop executions that are both engaging and elegantly delivered.

The New Blood Awards are a unique opportunity for emerging creatives to cut their teeth on real projects with some of the world’s leading brands. They challenge entrants to work on complex themes and develop them into great ideas, beautifully executed. And winning gets you noticed. Plenty of those shaping the industry now got their break thanks to bagging a New Blood Pencil.

Paul Drake,

D&AD Foundation Director

New Blood Awards 2018 partners: Adobe, adidas, Antalis in collaboration with Conqueror, Bacardi, BBC, Beano, Burger King, Digital McKinsey, Dropbox Paper, giffgaff, Hasbro, Hellmann’s in collaboration with WPP, Hotel Indigo, JCDecaux, John Lewis, Mayor of London, Microsoft, Nationwide in collaboration with Shelter and Pearson.