Events
D&AD Awards ‘09 - Brought to you by James Wormald -
It’s that time of year again… This Thursday 11th June, D&AD kicked the Advertising Awards Season off with an earth-shattering explosion. The Awards ceremony is traditionally the Elton John’s Birthday Party of the Advertising & Design industries, and this year’s did absolutely nothing to disappoint.
The venue chosen to host an evening of ‘creative excellence’ and debauchery was Camden’s Roundhouse. Usually an arts and music venue, hosting various theatre and music events including the BBC Electric Proms, the beautiful grade II listed building formed the perfect setting.
As tradition dictates, the evening kicked off with a champagne reception, guests were directed up the stairs towards the balcony overlooking the dining area. Reverting to form, a sit-down dinner before presenting the actual awards was preferred over the theatre style ceremony from 2008’s offering. There was a specialist V.I.P champagne area handily in full view of the ‘normal’ guests as they walked onto the balcony. Frankly, the balcony was nicer, but now seemed like drinking with the horses.
The evening kicked off at 18:00pm sharp. However because the date happened to be smack bang in the centre of the London Tube Strikes, it turned out to be as sharp as a doorknob. After around an hour (plus half for late arrivals), dinner was seated, and served not long after.
The food and service were both fabulous. An indulgent yet light three-course meal set up the start of the ceremony, hosted by the brilliantly charming Richard E Grant. Richard E started off by explaining why he had been chosen as host. Past hosts include Simon Amstell, Graham Norton, and Steven Fry, however Grant assured the audience he was chosen because the organisers didn’t want it to be funny. He did a good job then – the biggest laugh of the night coming for D&AD President Garrick Hamm.
Sadly Richard didn’t stick around for much of the after-party, but did manage to get the Awards’ name wrong, calling it “The D&DA Awards”. But it’s obviously incredibly hard for some reason, The Voice of God calling it “The D&D Awards”.
The party vibe was instantly created with trademark memorable hooks and driving bass lines from the Golden Silvers. I managed to find the rest of the Production Team camping out by the stage on the balcony. Abosede, Emma, Lewis, Marta, Sam, Sanne, Tomoko, and Will were in attendance. However sadly I had more pressing matters to attend to.
These pressing matters included talking to Matt Dent. For anyone with even a slight interest in the Design Industry, who’s been living under a rock for the past year… Matt Dent is the guy who won The Royal Mint’s Competition to design the new UK Coin (tails) range – They call it ‘Coinage’. It’s a true-life Cinderella Story that’s been written under my eyes for the past month. Matt entered the competition with his designs for the coins Penny – 50p in 2005 – He won. He was 22! Since then the coins have been produced, and they even asked him to integrate a £1 coin design into the mix. The range was released in 2008, which means they are eligible into the 2009 D&DA Awards. Matt gets nominated for a Yellow Pencil (The second biggest single achievement a piece of work can receive) – Yellow Pencils are reserved for work representing perfection in every category. On the night of the Awards, Matt (now 26) stumps up the £500 odd to attend the ceremony with his Mrs. Money well spent it seems, as not only does he win the coveted Yellow Pencil, proving his work is perfect in every way… but he also wins a Black Pencil! – Reserved for work, which has pretty much re-calibrated just how good design work can be!
I wanted to talk to (possibly – still to be confirmed) the youngest Black Pencil winner ever! Of course due to the sheer mass of media and press and D&AD Staff surrounding the guy, I could barely even see him never mind speak to him. It took a bit of patience, but I got there in the end. Even got a free drink out of him too! In exchange for a white glove I had in my pocket. (White gloves featured on every table in the place. – You may be a newly crowned design God Matt Dent, but you’re not too bright).
Sadly by the time I got back from Matt (and from chatting quickly to a lovely cockney called Russell whose company created the Everyone Starts Somewhere exhibition in the V.I.P lounge, most people had left. No Sam, no Abosede, no Emma, no Will. I’d also missed almost all the Golden Silvers’ set. Enough time wasted then thought I. Dancing tunes being provided by Metronomy, there was no second to spare, so Marta and I quickly set out to get rid of the creases in our clothes. Turns out every other person had the same idea. The floor was so tight, it was like trying to bust some moves on the rush hour bus during a Tube Strike. I ended up inadvertently re-enacting a scene from Dirty Dancing with D&D’s Events Manager.
Although the actual ceremony went off very well, it was actually a pretty poor evening for British Advertising. Only 3 home nations ended up walking home with their own pencils. I spotted one of these agencies dancing around a pile of pencils like the ad industry’s own Essex Girls, close to the stage. I managed to collar one young gentleman and congratulate him on his impressive work. After a few seconds of hearing about whatever work the awards were for, I had to stop him.
I’m not talking about your Pencil I said. – I couldn’t give a shit about that, I mean the beard! This guy had a full, proud… bushy is really the only way to describe it, beard. At least 1-1.5 inches thick. It looked thatched! Marvellous. After 30 minutes of good quality beard chat, the Nextmen had started their set, and I set about getting on to the dance floor again, now that it had cleared somewhat.
Thankfully there was just enough room for me to bust the full quota of moves, yet still full enough for a quality audience to take in the show. Sadly I didn’t get any challenges for the now annual D&AD Dance-Off (probably learnt their lesson from last year).
All of this spells an absolutely fantastic night… Great props simply must go out to all the Events team, and everyone at D&AD as well as The Roundhouse and the Temporary Events team for putting on a brilliant show… At 2am, the bar was closed… so off I popped into a waiting taxi to run me home on the tab (as it should be). Kudos must also be presented to Sanne – who just missed out on the duration, gifting us with herself until half 1 at which time she screamed ‘I need some fooooood!” in my face, and ran out into the night. But especially Marta and Lewis – whose superior staying power was rewarded by Faye’s generosity in offering a free seat and drop off in the taxi.
Good going guys.