Hasta La Ideas

At its 50th anniversary celebrations last night, D&AD honoured Wieden + Kennedy co-founder Dan Wieden and designer and founding member of D&AD, Derek Birdsall, with President’s Awards

Each year the reigning president of D&AD bestows a President’s Award on someone who, in their opinion, has made a major contribution to the creative world. At D&AD’s 50th birthday celebrations last night, current president Rosie Arnold gave that honour to Wieden + Kennedy co-founder Dan Wieden (above left).

“Dan Wieden is one of the most inspirational advertising brains of our age,” Arnold says. “His spirit remains restless and free, and he continues to champion independent thinking and behaviour. His work and that of his now numerous agencies lead the way across all disciplines. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen a piece of work that has surprised and delighted me, and made me run up and down the corridors at work showing it to other creatives, only to discover it came from Wieden+ Kennedy. So when I asked myself if I should give Dan my President’s Award, I told myself, ‘Just Do It’.”

For the first time, D&AD also gave a second President’s Award this year. Derek Birdsall (pictured above in 1965) was one of the founding fathers of D&AD, a group of young designers and art directors who got together to give their burgeoning profession a platform to celebrate the best work and showcase it to potential clients. BIrdsall’s President’s Award recognises his key role in setting up D&AD but also the fact that he has been producing consistently outstanding work throughout all five decades of the organisation’s existence.

CR subscribers will receive a special supplement (shown below) on the D&AD 50th birthday awards with their October issue, out this week. It contains appreciations of both Dan Wieden and Derek Birdsall as well as details on the D&AD Lifetime Achievement awards and more. The October issue also includes a piece on the story of the founding of D&AD by GBH’s Mark Bonner.