D&AD. Simple.

Domenic Lippa went back to basics with his design of the identity for this year’s D&AD Student Awards, producing the promotional campaign and the annual, which launched on Thursday the 18th of September in the Gulbenkian Gallery at the Royal College of Art in London.

The D&AD Student Awards is one of the largest and most well-known design competitions aimed at students in the world, attracting 3600 entries from students at over 150 colleges in 33 countries.

The rationale behind Lippa’s design rests on the idea that the reputation and prestige of the awards is already well established. His use of no-nonsense typographic slogans and a pared-down graphic approach is aimed at encouraging participation, creating a straight-talking, witty identity that challenges the viewer to get involved. As it says on the card, “Simple’s not stupid. Not entering is stupid.”

“Pentagram’s idea of stripping things back was a great one for the Student Awards” says Fergal Kilroy, the D&AD’s Student Awards Manager, “It’s very rare that you will see a design aimed at our audiences which ‘dares to bare’. It really made all the elements jump out and attract the attention of all who have seen it. 2008 was a tricky year for the Student Awards and the success of Pentagram’s work can be measured by the simple fact that the Student Awards maintained the high number of entries and more importantly attracted the quality of students it needs to survive. Working with Domenic on the project was a delight, I really felt that he and his team understood the impact I was trying to achieve and how these points could be incorporated without compromise into the plans for the 2008 design.”

This is the third year running that Lippa and his team have designed the promotional campaign for the awards. He also regularly designs print and brochures to support the D&AD’s work.