Asia scores an impressive 99 Pencils at D&AD: Japan ranked #3 in the world with 49 Pencils and Singapore ranked #9 with 15 Pencils

The 56th D&AD Judging Week in London has come to a close, resulting in Asia receiving 99 Pencils and Japan ranked #3 in the world with 49 Pencils and Singapore ranked #9 with 15 Pencils.

For Japan, Dentsu leads the agency pack with 18 Pencils followed by Ogilvy & Mather with 9. In Singapore Ogilvy & Mather is the best performer with 6 Pencils all for “Pitching French Films To Hollywood” for Alliance Française de Singapour.

China has 9 Pencils as does India, of which 4 are for McCann Worldgroup’s “The Immunity Charm” for the Ministry of Public Health Afghanistan.

Thailand has 5 Pencils and Hong Kong has 4. Malaysia, Republic of Korea, and Taiwan all have 2 Pencils each, and Indonesia has one Pencil.

527 Pencils were awarded on the final day, bringing the total for this year to 721 Pencils, decided by juries made up of over 250 of the world’s top creatives.

VIEW RESULTS BY COUNTRY: D&AD 2018 all results_country.xlsx

Pencil winners will have to wait until the Awards Ceremony at the Truman Brewery London this Thursday 26 April to see what kind – Wood, Graphite, Yellow or Black.

The results are announced as the D&AD Festival opens its doors to the public today, with an exhibition of all winning entries. Highlights from the opening day of the festival include talks by Leila Fataar from Platform 13, Debbie Millman on her popular podcast Design Matters, and jury insight sessions where visitors can hear about some of the judges views on this year’s entries and what it takes to make Pencil-winning work.

# of winners by category:

Film Advertising Crafts (85); Branded Content and Entertainment (46); Branding (42); Media (41); Direct (37); Graphic Design (37); Digital Marketing (34); Film Advertising (32); PR (30); Crafts for Advertising (30); Crafts for Design (28); Experiential (22); Press Advertising (22); Book design (22); Integrated (21); Art Direction (21);  Spatial Design (20); Product Design (19); Magazine and Newspaper design (18); Digital Design (17); Creativity for Good (16); Packaging Design (16); Music videos (16); Writing for Advertising (14); Outdoor Advertising (14); Radio and Audio (9); Writing for Design (7); Collaborative (5)

All 721 Pencils will appear in the 56th D&AD Annual published later this year.

There are no quotas for awards at D&AD. Therefore the number of awarded entries fluctuates year to year. Some years no Black Pencils are awarded: the record currently stands at seven. Traditionally the toughest of the awards shows, the judging process is famously rigorous, with the juries only selecting work they believe is truly exceptional.

Says D&AD CEO Tim Lindsay: “The last few days of judging have been incredibly inspiring, and we’re excited to open our doors today for this year’s Festival. All Pencil winning work is on show throughout the Truman Brewery, and will give visitors insight into what creative excellence means today.

It’s great to see the range of work that creative people all over the globe are producing. Long gone are the days when design and advertising operated in silos. The work being produced today touches many industries, and is testament to the value of creativity to business.”

Country ranking by number of Pencils won: