Winning a D&AD award for creative excellence is the aspiration of nearly every creative agency in the world. It is the ‘benchmark’ to which all designers, young and old look to for justification, reward and recognition – it defines who they are, what they do and why they do it.
The association was founded in 1962 by a group of London-based designers & art directors that included David Bailey, Terence Donovan, Alan Fletcher and Colin Forbes (who designed the original D&AD logo).
In 1962 Marcello Minale Snr and Brian Tattersfield (our founding partners) met at Y&R (Young and Rubicam). In 1963 they joined D&AD after winning their first D&AD award (a certificate). The following year Marcello Minale Snr and Brain Tattersfield decided to leave Y&K and start their own agency, appropriately called Minale Tattersfield.
Their first commission was to create an identity for themselves (the Scribble) and shortly afterwards they volunteered to design a more prestigious award for D&AD. What they created was a beautiful ebony pencil box, which contained a pencil with silver lettering. It was a thing of beauty but too delicate, so in 1966 Lou Klein designed the more durable yellow pencil we have today.
Today, D&AD has grown in membership and reaches out across the world. Although the day to day running of the association is handled by a dedicated team, they take their leadership from an appointed executive of leading design and advertising practitioners. The executive is elected by the association’s members every 3 or so years.
This year, in 2010, Marcello Minale’s son, also called Marcello Minale has stood for this year’s election. It’s a bit like history doing full circle and perhaps if appointed, we will finally know if it was the pencil that inspired the scribble or the other way round.
Thanks for reading!