Nominees announced for the D&AD Student Awards 2010

Eighty-three student teams have been nominated for a Pencil at the D&AD Student Awards in a year that saw juries being more exacting than ever. Just over 3,000 teams entered the Student Awards this year from almost 300 colleges – up 20 per cent on 2009.

Two hundred teams made it In-Book, representing the best work of the year, marking a significant drop from last year’s results, when 310 entries made it into the Student Annual.  Nominated work will be online by the end of this week at http://studentawards.dandad.org/2010/

“Judges have proven to be tougher than ever,’ says D&AD education chairman Greg Quinton.  “Entries to the Student Awards continue to grow and our juries have raised the bar to ensure D&AD’s high standards remain second to none.”

Kingston University leads the nominations, with five spread across design, advertising and open briefs.  A brief challenging students to create a direct response communication for MINI sponsored by direct agency LIDA, leads the categories with seven nominations for student teams in colleges from the US, UK, Sweden and Italy.

Fifty percent of winners already find a job within a month of picking up a Student Yellow Pencil and many of this year’s winners will get an additional chance at a job through work placements in agencies or in-house creative teams.

“It’s been a tough year for graduates and professionals alike,’ adds Quinton.  “It’s clear there’s great talent out there and we all have to work that bit harder to stand out.  That can often lead to groundbreaking creative thinking and I look forward to seeing these names crop up at the professional Awards in a few years.”

Final results will be announced on 29 June at a public ceremony at Spitalfields Market in London.  Visit www.dandad.org for results, interviews with judges, and interviews from the ceremony in June.