by
D&AD Awards 2026
Considered by many the world’s most prestigious benchmark for commercial creativity. The D&AD Pencil stands for rigour and integrity.
D&AD is an education charity that promotes and enables excellence in design and advertising. Each year, D&AD Awards gather the world’s best creative work from across the commercial design, advertising, production and craft disciplines to be judged by more than 300 global creative leaders, practitioners and innovators.
Winning a D&AD Pencil will earn your work exposure to an audience of millions in the creative industries around the world through international press coverage, exhibitions, promotion on the D&AD website, social platforms, and newsletters, and the opportunity to be featured in D&AD content unpacking creative excellence within the D&AD Annual.
Website
Eligibility
Categories are as follows:
Animation | Art Direction | Book Design | Brand Identity Refresh | Casting | Cinematography | Commerce | Creator Content | Digital Design | Digital Marketing | Direct | Direction | Editing | Entertainment | Experiential Activation & Participation | Film | Future Impact | Gaming & Virtual Worlds | Graphic Design | Health & Wellbeing | Illustration | Impact | Integrated | Luxury | Magazine & Newspaper Design | Media | Music Videos | New Brand Identity | Packaging Design | Pharma | Photography | PR | Press & Outdoor | Product Design | Production Design | Radio & Audio | Sound Design & Use of Music | Spatial Design | Sustained Impact | Type Design & Lettering | Typography | Visual Effects | Writing for Advertising | Writing for Design
To be eligible, work must have been:
- Commercially released between 1 January 2024 and 16 April 2025
- Produced in response to a genuine brief from a client or approved by a client
- Made available to the public through legal mediums
- Approved and paid for by the client
Animation | Art Direction | Book Design | Brand Identity Refresh | Casting | Cinematography | Commerce | Creator Content | Digital Design | Digital Marketing | Direct | Direction | Editing | Entertainment | Experiential Activation & Participation | Film | Future Impact | Gaming & Virtual Worlds | Graphic Design | Health & Wellbeing | Illustration | Impact | Integrated | Luxury | Magazine & Newspaper Design | Media | Music Videos | New Brand Identity | Packaging Design | Pharma | Photography | PR | Press & Outdoor | Product Design | Production Design | Radio & Audio | Sound Design & Use of Music | Spatial Design | Sustained Impact | Type Design & Lettering | Typography | Visual Effects | Writing for Advertising | Writing for Design
To be eligible, work must have been:
- Commercially released between 1 January 2024 and 16 April 2025
- Produced in response to a genuine brief from a client or approved by a client
- Made available to the public through legal mediums
- Approved and paid for by the client
Entry cost
30% off (Super Early Bird)
20% off (Early Bird)
Regular Fee
20% off (Early Bird)
Regular Fee
Entry deadline
21 January 2026 (Super Early Bird)
18 February 2026 (Early Bird)
26 March 2026 (Final)
18 February 2026 (Early Bird)
26 March 2026 (Final)