The Campaign

To demonstrate that D&AD New Blood is the award show that everyone is always trying to get an award on, we developed a concept that showcases young creative minds hunting for new ideas every second of their days. The target audience was students from creative universities, those who aspire to work in advertising and design companies. They’re mainly at the end of their studies, are in the their early 20’s and live in Tokyo and the other major cities in Japan.

Creative Execution

Inspired by Japanese street contemporary art, the series of posters showcases 5 different “Hunters” going about their day on the look out for another Pencil. The illustration style merges warrior influences with the most recent character design in Japan, delivering a set of images that feels inherently born out of the new blood roaming on the streets of Tokyo. The pallet of selected tones and the mix of hand-picked styling elements resulted in an international look feel that relates to D&AD New Blood but at the same time insightful enough to connect with the Japanese younger audience. The campaign was published mainly with posters at the creative universities in Tokyo and main cities in Japan.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

The campaign was placed in more locations than any other previous campaign for D&AD New Blood Awards. The competition received more applications than in 2017 but no further results were made available by D&AD Japan.