D&AD Announces 2025 New Blood Awards Pencil Winners

D&AD has announced the Pencil levels for the 2025 New Blood Awards, the annual programme that recognises up-and-coming creative talent and offers chances to tackle briefs set by top brands.

The New Blood Awards is among the world's largest student competitions, showcasing top emerging talent from around the globe. Winners, selected by leading experts in design and advertising, impressed the judges with their innovative thinking and practical skills, earning one of the industry’s most esteemed awards for emerging creatives: a New Blood Pencil. The briefs were downloaded over a quarter of a million times to students, tutors and emerging talent in 128 countries. The competition had nearly 6,000 entrants, from 65 countries and more than 3,000 entries were judged anonymously by over 150 judges. The work was evaluated based on idea, insight, and suggested execution. Although all work is conceptual and the intellectual property belongs to the entrant, any of the brands setting the briefs can choose to move forward with a winning idea by employing the winning creatives and collaborating with them professionally to develop the concept further.

Image credit: D&AD/Scott Little

This year, emerging creatives were invited to respond to a series of briefs set by leading global brands including Google Cloud, Depop, HSBC, Xbox, On, giffgaff, Christopher Ward and more. Covering a wide range of disciplines including UX/UI, animation, advertising, typography and experiential, the briefs were designed to provide new talent with the experience of working on client briefs. These 18 briefs tackled varying commercial challenges and social issues, including asking entrants to create a guerilla marketing campaign (giffgaff), a campaign to get developers to recognise Google Cloud as an AI leader (Google), develop an experience for gamers (Kraft Mac and Cheese) and reimagine the role of typography (Monotype).

Paul Drake, foundations director at D&AD, commented,“D&AD's New Blood Awards brings a burst of creativity, a powerful reminder that new talent is the lifeblood of our industry. At a time when graduating students are navigating uncertain first steps, the showcase of New Blood winners provides a chance to celebrate the creatives behind the work and for our industry to support their rise with opportunities and jobs.”

Image credit: D&AD/Scott Little

In recognition of the exceptional creative responses to these briefs, 184 Pencils were awarded, including three Black Pencils (the highest D&AD New Blood accolade), 24 Yellow, 52 Graphite and 101 Wood Pencils. Four White Pencils were also awarded for outstanding work that uses the power of creativity to do good.

For information on all of the Pencil-winning entries, please see the D&AD website.

Hear from the emerging creatives behind work awarded a 2025 New Blood Awards Pencil:

• Consent Soap - brief set by 21 Grams (White Pencil) – “We often overlook the bathroom as a learning space, but for individuals with Down syndrome and Fragile X syndrome, routine and repetition make it ideal. Inspired by 21 Grams’ impactful storytelling and formulated with Cetaphil’s gentle care, Consent Soap uses colour coding to teach body boundaries: Red for private areas, Orange for trusted help only, and Green for open to touch (with consent). By integrating these lessons into bath time, it fosters autonomy and body rights, empowering individuals while addressing the alarming rates of sexual assault in these communities.”

• Up to Our Necks - brief set by Monotype (White Pencil) – “By 2050, 1 in 7 Bangladeshis will be displaced by flooding, yet international law does not recognise climate-displaced individuals as refugees. Denying them the freedom of choosing where to live. Typography becomes an active voice in the conversation through The Displaced Font, which transforms LinoType Bengali into a typeface made entirely of squares - each representing a life. The 'Matra' in Bengali script ensures proper pronunciation and meaning of words and acts as a metaphor for people being 'up to their necks'. Falling squares visualise real-time displacement. The campaign targets COP 30 to spark urgent discussions and push for refugee recognition. A small square, a bigger impact.”
• Ads for Rats - brief set by D&AD (Black Pencil) — “We turned NYC's rat problem into a rat opportunity for brands. Both the world and the ad industry took notice, establishing our brand as professionals who can make a big impact with the smallest of opportunities.”
• Silent Shake - brief set by Montotype (Black Pencil) — “Parkinson’s Disease is the fastest-growing neurological disorder, yet it remains severely overlooked by the government and the NHS. While often linked to tremors, early signs can appear subtly in handwriting, such as changes that might go unnoticed. The harsh reality? Those with Parkinson’s lose their freedom, and they lose it fast. One place we still see our loved ones' handwriting is birthday cards. So, by collecting cards written by those with Parkinson’s, SilentShake.ttf was created. A typeface-led campaign highlighting the subtle handwriting changes that signal early Parkinson’s Disease. The goal? To make awareness and early detection the norm, not the exception, by giving Parkinson’s Disease a voice before it’s too late.”

• Second Serve - brief set by Depop (Black Pencil) — ”Sport sponsorships shape athletes’ careers, providing gear, recognition, and financial support, often with nothing more than a logo. Yet at the 2025 Australian Open, rising star Destanee Aiava stepped onto the court without a sponsor, an unusual scenario at her level. This moment marked a turning point, with Aiava becoming the first player ever to be sponsored by a second-hand brand: Depop. Competing in vintage tennis dresses sourced from Depop’s community, she made the brand a sensation while proving that second-hand fashion has a place in professional sports.”

The Pencils were awarded at the New Blood Awards Ceremony, closing off this year’s New Blood Festival sponsored by Adobe, taking place on 30th June - 2nd July at Protein Studios in Shoreditch, London. The winning work has been on display in a graduate showcase of more than 40 exhibiting universities, with exclusive exhibitions of the winners of New Blood Awards and New Blood: The Portfolios winners. The festival also offered aspiring creatives a number of opportunities ranging from talks and insights by industry leaders which provided inspiration and practical tools, as well as boosting the year's top talent with portfolio reviews from leading agencies and activations by Adobe and LBB.

Image credit: D&AD/Scott Little

New Blood Festival with Adobe

Over the two days of the festival, leading industry professionals shared their advice and experiences through a series of portfolio reviews, and talks aimed at helping emerging creatives navigate the constantly shifting industry as they launch their careers. This included a conversation on the rise of the in-house creative with Debbie Dillon, head of creative (audio) at BBC Creative, Emma Sexton, founder Inside Out® Community and Nitya Thawani, UX designer at Google among others, a session on the evolution of phone photography conducted by multidisciplinary creator and creative director Balwinder Bhatla aka Mr Whisper, plus a live panel discussion on how design and technology are inextricably linked led by: D&AD president, Kwame Taylor-Hayford; Kladi Vergine, senior creative cloud evangelist at Adobe and Tom Foley, ECD at Monotype, among others.

New Blood Festival Partners

Adobe returns as Headline Partner and is set to bring a vibrant playground of AI-fuelled creativity, including cutting-edge tools like Photoshop for mobile and future-facing inspiration. BBH returned to its roots, continuing the legacy Sir John Hegarty began when he helped launch the D&AD Student Awards in 1979. Executive creative director Felipe Serradourada Guimaraes will share his journey from creative placement to ECD, while BBH creatives host portfolio surgeries to support and inspire the next generation. Little Black Book (LBB) will also partner with D&AD to offer free student memberships to all emerging talent taking part.