Hasta La Ideas

David Hillman, Apple, Tony Kaye and legendary ad agency CDP are among the recipients of D&AD’s Lifetime Achievement awards for winning more pencils than anyone else.

At last night’s D&AD 50th birthday celebrations, prizes were handed out to the people and companies who have won more awards than anyone else in the organisation’s history. Delving into 50 years of its annuals and totting up the number of pencils won, D&AD worked out the top tens for most awarded ad agency, design studio, production company, art director, designer, director, copywriter and brand (which we posted about here). From these lists it worked out an overall winner for each category, announced last night.

And the winners are:

Advertising agency: Collett Dickenson Pearce (Parker Pens Finishing School ad from 1976 shown above)

Design studio: Apple (2003 iMac G4 shown)

Production company: Gorgeous Enterprises (PlayStation Double Life, 1999, shown)

Art director: Neil Godfrey (Bird’s Eye ad from 1974 for CDP shown)

Designer: David Hillman (Guardian redesign, 1988, shown)

Director: Frank Budgen/Tony Kaye (joint winners, Levi’s Twist, 2006, by Budgen and Dunlop Unexpected, 1994, by Kaye shown)

Copywriter: Tony Brignull (Parker Pens ad, 1977, shown)

Brand: Apple (original iMac, a Black Pencil winner from 1999, shown)

But what does it all mean? Can we take these lists as a guide to the great and the good of half a century in visual communications? Do they represent the best of the best?

Check out our post from when the top tens were originally announced.

Michael Johnson has also written a well-argued overview on his Thought For The Week blog here

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.