Says new nomenclature, effective 2015, is designed to bring clarity to award levels.
D&AD has announced that it will replace the ‘In Book’ and ‘Nomination’ honours at its awards with ‘Wood’ and ‘Graphite’ Pencils, effective 2015. The new nomenclature will come into effect at the 2015 Professional Awards competition.
The ‘In Book’ has been regarded as the equivalent of a Bronze award, while ‘Nomination’ represented Silver. The move, according to the UK-headquartered charity, is to bring ‘better clarity and coherence to the existing levels’.
The Wood and Graphite Pencils will sit alongside the existing Yellow (equivalent of Gold), White and Black (Grand Prix) Pencils awarded at the competition.
Tim Lindsay, chief executive, D&AD, explained in a statement: “The D&AD Pencil is a universal icon that resonates across our industry as the pinnacle of creative achievement. D&AD is renowned for being the toughest, most rigorous show around, yet In Book and Nomination, as awards, are often undervalued or simply misunderstood. So we set out to rectify this, but without handing out more awards and without compromising our existing Pencils.
“We wanted to make things clearer, but stubbornly, not by adopting the same system as everyone else, for the very good reason that we’re D&AD. We like to be a bit different. It wouldn’t feel right to revert to convention, with our twin icons, Yellow and Black, already sitting outside of it.
“Admittedly, finding a satisfactory solution hasn’t been easy. But our new Wood and Graphite Pencils strike the perfect balance of being instantly recognisable and achieving that degree of clarity, but with a D&AD twist.”
