Ravensbourne students win big at the virtual D&AD New Blood Awards

Four Ravensbourne BA (Hons) Advertising and Brand Design students won the prestigious pencil awards during the D&AD New Blood Awards 2020. BA (Hons) Digital Photography students were also recognised as ‘ones to watch’ at the iconic New Blood digital festival.

The D&AD New Blood Awards celebrate students, graduates and aspiring creatives in advertising, design and marketing. Real briefs are set by real clients, with students judged by a panel of notable industry experts.

The awards were announced on Thursday 9 July during a virtual ceremony on Instagram; this is the first year that the awards have taken place online. This year saw three projects from Durex, Google and Intel awarded at the New Blood Pencil awards. The awards and briefs provide an exciting opportunity for creatives across the globe to work with real clients, have the potential to secure a job in the creative industry and to gain much needed exposure to establish their career.

Four Ravensbourne BA (Hons) Advertising and Brand Design students won virtual iconic pencil awards. Georgia Armstrong, Aaliyah Grant, Pasiri Akkarasawart and Isaac Izekor were all recognised for their outstanding work. Isaac and his project partner Pasiri created a digital advertising campaign for Intel called ‘Passionate about what’s inside’. Of winning a pencil award, Isaac says “the overwhelming feeling is one of triumph. From the beginning we really wanted to win a pencil, like really really wanted to. And now we have.” On how this will positively affect himself and Pasiri moving forward he says “That fact makes all the other things we both want to do in life feel a lot more achievable.” 

Two Ravensbourne BA (Hons) Digital Photography students, Quinn Humphreys and Tiana Lea, have been awarded ‘Ones to watch’ badges at the New Blood Festival. The online festival took place over four days, with events such as webinars, live workshops and exhibitions of students work.

Quinn describes his winning image series which is titled 'Spared from Restless Dreams' as “a project focusing on ideas of identity and place, where we belong in the world and where we might find ourselves when travelling.”

Tiana entered three projects into the awards, all of which focused on people. Speaking of her experience, Tiana says a real benefit has been “connecting with other creatives who like the work that you are producing.” She adds that since the awards, she has “had conversations with some of the judges who have reached out to offer advice on the industry and how best to get my work out there.” 

Matthew Pritchard, Senior Lecturer for BA (Hons) Digital Photography explained, 'We are delighted that Tiana and Quinn have been awarded ‘Ones to watch’ at this year’s D&AD New Blood Digital festival. Exhibiting at this prestigious industry-led event gives our students a unique opportunity to rub shoulders, albeit virtually this year, with the advertising creatives and graphic designers of the future, helping to foster meaningful collaborations with those individuals most likely to be commissioning exciting work in the next 5 or 10 years.

It is a fantastic outcome for so many Ravensbourne students to be recognised at these impressive industry awards. Congratulations to all of our students who took part. Head over to our Instagram stories highlight titled ’New Blood 2020’ to see the winning students react to their virtual pencil awards.