This week I have visited the Urbis Gallery in Manchester as there was a few exhibitions I wanted to look at, the first, was the D&AD Pencil exhibition. This was showcasing the best pieces of design work to feature in the 45 years of the competition. All the work shown had either won a black or yellow pencil and was positioned next to the cover of that years annual. Although all the entries on show were fantastic and very inspirational what I found most interesting was the cover designs of all the D&AD annuals from every year dating back to 1963, they are all very interesting and innovative and some are quite 'out of the box' for example the Cover of the 2003 Annual was designed by Nick Crosbie and has big white suckers all over it so that you can stick it to things! and Malcolm Gaskin’s marvellous 1984 ‘blow-up’ cover included a valve that allowed the blind embossed, heat sealed, translucent dust jacket to be inflated, which is very imaginative and fun!
Each year the cover is designed by a different aspiring creative chosen by D&AD and has become an award in its own right to be chosen as thousands of designers will see it and have their own criticisms and judgements. Of recent years the design has tended to stick to the main company colours of yellow and black but back at the beginning of the organization it was alot more open. These were the
first 3 annuals ever brought out (below), The first was by designer Alan Fletcher who simply took a photo of his old portfolio that he used to carry his own work about in, and stuck a D&AD logo on the handle, very simple yet effective whereas 1964's shows a red apple in the middle of lots of green ones, possibly an analogy or a metaphor for standing out from the crowd.
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