D&AD
Poster and national newspaper advert to promote a student writing competition
Created at
The Chase
Deliverables
Design / Print / Print management
Project
Student writing competition
Sector
Arts & Culture / Not-for-profit
Project information
Background
D&AD is a global creative community and registered charity, renowned for celebrating and advancing excellence in commercial creativity. Through its iconic awards, learning programmes and industry initiatives, it sets a benchmark for design, advertising and creative communication worldwide. Its work inspires emerging talent while challenging established practitioners and organisations to raise the standard of their creative thinking.
The creative challenge
I was commissioned to create a high-impact poster and Guardian newspaper advertisement promoting a D&AD student writing competition. The campaign needed to appeal to aspiring writers in a crowded media environment, demonstrating that words can be as forceful and persuasive as any visual idea. It required a distinctive campaign identity and print design that could carry a powerful headline with clarity, confidence and unmistakable creative energy.
Creativity with character
The supplied headline “Can you use words powerfully enough to pierce armour?”, gave me the central creative idea. I translated its sense of force and resistance into a typographic-led campaign inspired by military armour and tanks. I built the identity around bold, hand-distressed lettering, an uncompromising layout and a camouflage-like colour palette. The worn type gave the work a weathered, battle-tested quality, while a halftone effect from the print artwork added further texture. Finished with matt metallic inks, the poster had the tactile, industrial feel of armoured steel, an example of creative campaign design where the message shaped every visual decision.