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D&AD Awards Special Section

Richard Turley brings his visually-arresting design to the 57th D&AD Annual

Richard Turley - known for his visually-arresting work as the former creative director of Bloomberg BusinessWeek and the former senior vice president of visual storytelling and deputy editorial director of MTV - has designed the 2019 D&AD Annual.
The 2019 D&AD Annual cover. Image supplied.
The 2019 D&AD Annual cover. Image supplied.

Selected by D&AD president Harriet Devoy, Turley was given creative licence to develop a design that would stand out on a shelf of D&AD Annuals of previous years.

Doubt and vulnerability

He commented: “Previous iterations of the Annual have excelled in graphic design as precision engineering. I wanted this one to feel warm and human. Vulnerable maybe. And a bit dumb.

“I spoke to Harriet. We had a chat about the awards, the industry and what we do. I don't remember all that much about that talk other than bonding over a few of the themes that I guess we developed in the book. The neediness. The doubt and vulnerability associated not just with the awards but with working within the creative industries as a whole.

Image supplied.
Image supplied.
Image supplied.
Image supplied.

“The craving for reassurance and validation all the time. The need for likes on your Instagram post. For views on your video. For a website to write about your work. And if none of those things happen...then what does that mean? Does what I do have value? Is what we do actually important? A lot of that bubbled around. That and the paradox of a lot of socially-minded left of centre creatives providing the (often rather successful) communications for multi-national corporations whose motives they are entirely at odds with.

“I don't mean to imply all of that exists in the design of the book but – without sounding too pretentious – for me, the scrawl is trying to find an equivalence for that; the ghost in the corporate marketing machine.”

Every year, The D&AD Annual curates the best creative work across the design and advertising industry – showcasing all D&AD Pencil winners from that year’s awards. The 2019 Annual shines a light on work with real conviction that shifts culture and shapes global narratives.

Image supplied.
Image supplied.
Image supplied.
Image supplied.

Devoy says: “Richard is an obvious choice for the cover. He’s a prodigiously talented designer, who comes armed with a phenomenal portfolio of challenging editorial covers for magazines and periodicals. He’s the guy that made Bloomberg Businessweek a must-read and revived MTV. The D&AD Annual feels like where his work belongs.”

Reflecting on what she hopes creatives take away from the 2019 Annual, Devoy continued: “Take risks. It’s our job.”

The Annual is available at www.dandad.org.

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