AgTalk | Promote, stimulate, award the creative excellence: D&AD's Tim Lindsay

Circa 1962: A group of designers and art directors come together to celebrate creative communication and raise standards within their industry. They call themselves British Design & Art Direction and the following year they organise their first Awards event. And they are picky. From 2500 entries they select just 16 pieces of work to receive the soon to be coveted Yellow Pencil.

Circa 2011: The British Design & Art Direction has grown mightily, but slimmed down its name. Now D&AD, its members represent the creative, design and advertising communities, not just in Britain, but worldwide. Shaped by numerous talented, idiosyncratic professionals with wildly varying approaches but a shared commitment to excellence.

D&AD exists to inform, educate and inspire those who work in and around the creative industries. The annual D&AD Awards are recognised throughout the world. They set the absolute reference standard for creative excellence. A yellow pencil on your desk will get gasps of admiration. And a black pencil? Well, they’ll probably erect a statue of you in the town square. 

And these Awards have left a considerable legacy – an archive of five decades of the best and most innovative creative work, available online for access at anytime by anyone in need of ideas, inspiration, or simply something wonderful to look at. 

Then there’s the Education Department, committed to supporting and nurturing creative professionals throughout their careers, be they in agencies or galleries, corporate cathedrals or working on a corner of the kitchen table. D&AD’s Student Programme provides a vital link into industry for emerging talent. The Student Awards same pencil, only smaller launches careers; their pioneering approach to Continuing Professional Development ensures that creative talent will respond imaginatively to whatever the future throws at it. And alongside all that, D&AD runs a year round programme of events and lectures across the UK and internationally. 
D&AD is headed by Tim Lindsay, one of the most academically astute men in advertising. Lindsay is former chairman of Publicis UK and is now CEO of D&AD. Educated at both Cambridge and Harvard University, Tim has occupied a number of senior agency roles during his career as President, TBWA and of Lowe Worldwide besides being managing director of Y&R London.

Adgully caught up with this multi-faceted personality on the eve of his recent short visit to India. Following is the excerpt of the interview.

Adgully: For the benefit of our readers can you briefly tell us about D&AD and its core activities?

Tim Lindsay: D&AD is a membership organisation serving the worldwide advertising and design community.  We promote, stimulate and award creative excellence in business communication and design with a view to generating sufficient funds to provide support to new creatives around the world. D&AD today is a restless, enquiring, agitating organisation, determined to perpetuate brilliance in commercial creativity. It constantly pushes boundaries, initiating debate and encouraging experimentation, nurturing a tradition of craft skills and celebrating excellence within the creative industries and beyond.We turned 50 last year.

AG: How has the prestigious Yellow Pencil awards evolved over time and what is its present status & acceptance?

TL: Since our foundation in 1962 by a group of young, brilliant, iconoclastic designers, photographers and Ad men yes, they were all men the Yellow and Black Pencils have become the most highly prized creative awards in the world - very hard to win, but career changing when/if you do.  In 1976 we added a lifetime achievement award, awarded annually by that year's President, the recipients of which are a roll call of the good and the great in advertising and design.  Last year we added the White Pencil, for the best work with a purpose beyond profit.  Leo Burnett Chicago's 'Recipeace' was the inaugural winner.

AG: Where is the design industry headed internationally? How do you view it as developing in India?

TL: Design is fantastically interesting right now - perhaps even more so than advertising.  Great companies like Apple and Samsung have built their huge businesses on great design; design is being applied in fascinating new areas service design, behavioural economics etc., consumers are becoming more design conscious and design literate.  India's cultural influence reaches far and wide food, film, music, art and from what I've seen of India's vibrant and noticeably young and female design scene, Indian design and designers will be a big influence on the global stage.

AG: D&AD has associated with Kyoorius Awards; can you tell us your reasons for the same and how it will help the design industry in India?

TL: We have got involved with Kyoorius at DesignYatra in the past and enjoyed working with Rajesh and his great team. Kyoorius has a presence in the Indian design community and DesignYatra has a great reputation as a festival.  By formally partnering we can help develop the awards side of the festival - bringing our knowledge, experience and access to world class jurors into play - help promote creative excellence and in doing so also raise D&AD's profile in India.  We hope to see more entries to the D&AD Awards, more Indian winners and more Indian D&AD members.  Over time we want to offer professional development and training, put on events and get involved with creative students in Indian arts universities via a student awards scheme.

AG: What challenges you perceive in the process and how it can be overcome?

TL: Establishing a meaningful D&AD presence in India beyond the big network ad agencies is clearly going to be a challenge.  It's certainly a long term project.  But we feel we've found a great partner in Kyoorius and we're looking forward to the journey.