Last week, I was lucky enough to attend my first ever D&AD Festival - a three day event celebrating craft and creativity. First off, The Truman Brewery is one hell of a venue (especially if industrial chic is your thing). The main exhibition space boasts gorgeous natural light, illuminating every embossed cover, stitched spine and foiled detail. Here are just a few of my favourite projects.
Tesco Finest fish packaging by Jones Knowles Ritchie
When thinking about illustrative packaging, tins of fish don’t immediately spring to mind, but these intricate textures and vibrant colours will catch even the most devout vegetarian’s eye.
Nothing brings a typeface to life quite like the colour pink, especially when said typeface is as weighty and well-crafted as these are.
Coffee packaging by SIMPLo
This beautiful example of type and hierarchy proves that the most swoon-worthy design is often the simplest. No bells and whistles needed on this coffee packaging; just a matte finish, well balanced text and a pop of colour.
As well as browsing the winners exhibition, we attended a number of inspiring talks by trailblazing creatives from around the world. We saw the team behind The Palau Pledge - a campaign to protect a pacific nation’s culture and environment - discuss the importance of their passion-driven work. We heard about the benefits of diversity from design agency 72andSunny, who celebrate conflicting perspectives within their creative process. And lastly, we delved into the fascinating project “Everything We Touch” by photographer Paula Zuccotti, which analyses what the objects we encounter on a daily basis reveal about our values and interests. All of these insights show that thinking beyond design is key - as emerging designers, we cannot afford to create in a vacuum, and my festival experience has affirmed that conscious, inclusive, kind design is not only favourable, but essential.
