Ravensbourne students are the ‘ones to watch’ at this year’s D&AD’s New Blood Awards

July 12th 2019

Ravensbourne University London enjoyed a highly successful night at this year’s D&AD New Blood Awards, with two student projects recognised with D&AD Pencils and six named as among this year’s ‘ones to watch’.

This year, the annual competition intended to recognise the talent of young creatives saw an amazing 5,000 entries from across 48 countries.

Third year BA (Hons) Advertising and Brand Design students Tayo Onabule, Charlie-George Baker and Michael Bailey were awarded the Yellow Pencil for their project addressing Workplace by Facebook’s brief. Entrants were challenged to create an integrated campaign to celebrate and inform people about the benefits of Workplace by Facebook.

Responding to the idea that job titles can have a negative impact by reinforcing workplace hierarchies, their entry, ‘Life Titles’, is a platform where people can create a personalised phrase to describe themselves in a more meaningful way than their job title. These phrases can then be added to email signatures helping to stimulate conversation, additionally feeding into an integrated marketing campaign. Check out Life Titles on their website.

Commenting, Michael said, “To show the advantages of Workplace by Facebook in the modern workplace we created Life Titles — a platform where people can replace their job title with unique and personal phrases which describes them better than a job title ever could. D&AD is an amazing hub of creativity and I am thrilled our project has been selected. I can graduate with a D&AD New Blood Pencil in the bank and the confidence to take on the industry.”

James Pang, also from the BA (Hons) Advertising and Brand Design course was awarded a Wooden Pencil for his response to Bacardi’s call for entrants to ‘create an activation or experience for the summer to position them as the synonymous brand in creating unforgettable moments’, showcasing the power of music, dance and art.

James submitted ‘The Bacardi Boom’ — an immersive festival experience aiming to resolve tensions between different dance music scenes, ‘uniting genres through the power of music and Bacardi’. His pitch included plans for a four stage arena, each stage housing a different genre, strategically placed to encourage partygoers to mix. You can find out more about his project at D&AD.

Commenting on his success, James said, “Before joining Ravensbourne, I had gone to America as I secured a football scholarship. I made a gut decision to return home which prompted my uncle, who lives out there, and I to clash as he thought there would be no opportunities for me back home. Three years later, I have secured an A grade for my final major project, a full time creative and design associate role at Lagarde Sports and Entertainment Global, and to top it all off I have won a D&AD Pencil. This whole week I have been in shock at the fact that I have won a globally recognised award. It feels surreal, and it goes to show that your gut feeling is always right.”

Further to this, Ravensbourne saw a total of six students named ‘ones to watch’ as D&AD invite industry heavyweights to ‘handpick the individuals that really stand apart’ at the festival. Megan Wright, Adila Nasrin, Tayo Onabule, Charlie Baker and Michael Bailey from the BA (Hons) Advertising and Brand Design course were all selected for the projects. Rebekah Skinner from Ravensbourne’s BA (Hons) Digital Photography course was also selected and invited to attend the D&AD New Blood Academy, a creative bootcamp for promising graduates.

Derek Yates, Course Leader for BA (Hons) Advertising and Brand Design said, “These successes are the result of a great deal of hard work and persistence. Both our pencil winners 'The Bacardi Boom' and 'Life Titles' have evolved through iteration after iteration and the students have gradually refined them into award-winning pieces of work. We feel very proud that the course has taught them to keep improving what they produce and I am in no doubt that this approach will bring them great rewards in the future.”

Visit D&AD New Blood Awards to find out more.