JKR Crafts Strategy, Identity, and Experience for D&AD Awards and Festival 2025

Jun. 10, 2025

For over 60 years, D&AD has set the benchmark for creative excellence. Now, as the organization looks ahead to the next era of influence, it is joining forces with global brand agency JKR to evolve how that excellence is experienced, expressed, and celebrated.

JKR has developed a bold new campaign and experience for the 2025 Awards and Festival. Built around the magnetic idea of Drawn to Create, the work repositions D&AD not just as a judge of the industry’s best work, but as a creative force that pulls people in and brings them together. It’s the start of a broader effort to unify D&AD’s brand ecosystem and future-proof its presence across digital and physical platforms.

Lisa Smith, Global Executive Creative Director at JKR said:

"This isn’t just about the award anymore. It’s about the joy of creating and sharing. D&AD has always celebrated the best in creativity, but now more than ever, it’s a place where people come together to connect, exchange ideas, and celebrate the creative journey as a community. To us, it was important to highlight the distinctiveness of D&AD and bring attendees along on the creative journey."

 

The Creative Campaign: Drawn to Create 

At the heart of the campaign is a simple, unifying idea: Drawn to. It captures what fuels creativity—not just talent, but the pull toward craft, challenge, community, and ultimately, D&AD itself.

Central to this is the iconic Pencil. Since 1962, it has stood as a symbol of creative excellence: sharp, iconic, instantly recognizable. This year, that legacy is brought to life through a bold, holistic system that unites type, tone of voice, motion, and experience.

Developed with Studio DRAMA, Pencil Gothic is a custom typeface that anchors the campaign identity. Inspired by the geometry of the D&AD Pencil—with hexagonal forms, 30° terminals, and chiseled details—it is both rooted in heritage and built for what’s next.

Chris Nott, Creative Director at Studio DRAMA said:

“We wanted a typeface that felt like it had always belonged to the brand and Pencil Gothic gives the Pencil its voice. With extended Latin support and optical refinements for multilingual use,  Pencil Gothic gives D&AD a unified, ownable voice—scalable across every touchpoint, but always unmistakably theirs.” 

 

But the campaign doesn’t stop at type. Pencil Gothic sets the foundation for a dynamic design system that comes alive through motion, sound, and space. Animated titles sharpen into place. Messaging strikes a balance between boldness and inclusivity. 

This identity runs through the entire festival experience: backdrops, signage, broadcast graphics, social content, and the awards ceremony. The result is a cohesive, immersive world where the Pencil doesn’t just represent excellence—it expresses it.

The Festival Experience 

The event brought the concept of "Drawn to Create" to life with a full takeover of London’s Southbank Centre—complete with immersive graphics, inspiring talks, interactive installations, and of course, the awards ceremony itself.

Highlights included a two-day exhibition showcasing winning work, an interactive embroidery station where guests could bring their own garments to customize, a large-scale 3D pencil that transformed over the course of the event as guests and performers drew on it, a robotic poster experience churning out personalized prints on the spot, plus limited-edition merchandise.

Margarita Ianev, Form and Space Director at JKR said:

“We wanted to quite literally draw people into the event and create moments of real interaction with D&AD. Design played a huge role, of course—but more than that, it was about building experiences that helped people connect with D&AD in a meaningful way, and leave feeling inspired to be part of that community.”

 

The campaign launched in April to generate buzz around the Festival and Awards and encourage entries from the global creative community. The goal was to build excitement, boost participation, and position D&AD as the place where creativity is happening right now.

And it paid off. This year’s event drew a record number of award entries and the highest-ever participation from countries around the world, making it the most globally diverse submission pool in the event’s history.

Donal Keenan, Awards & Festival Director at D&AD said:

“We were delighted to work with JKR on the creative campaign and event branding for the Awards and Festival this year. As a multiple award-winning agency, they not only brought the creative idea but also campaign design expertise. We love the creative. It was engaging and uplifting throughout the campaign, bringing a sense of warmth and creative flair to the judging, festival, and ceremony events, all while perfectly complementing the D&AD brand.”

 

It doesn’t stop there. The campaign continues across D&AD’s digital platforms, speaker content, rankings, and the Awards Annual, building an identity that engages year-round and reinforces D&AD as the most magnetic force in the creative industry.