2025 D&AD Awards Complete Shortlist announced

LONDON, UK – The 2025 D&AD Awards have announced the final shortlist from all 44 Awards categories across the following disciplines: Design, Advertising, Craft, Engagement and Experience, Health, Luxury, Entertainment and Impact – bringing the total shortlisted works to 1,288, 246 of which came from Asia alone.

The non-profit organization goes to great lengths to ensure a rigorous judging process, focused on integrity, with industry leaders selecting only the most exceptional creative work. Their focus on creativity, originality, and effectiveness ensures that winning entries represent the pinnacle of excellence in advertising and design.

In Asia alone, China commands the region with 69 shortlisted entries. Japan follows with 44, India with 24, while Indonesia and Singapore ties with 14 entries. United Arab Emirates also made a strong showcase with 11 entries, as Hong Kong, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, and Philippines trailed.

Sponsor

Check out the full list of shortlisted works from Asia below:

The Awards incorporates more than 44 categories judged by 330 of the world’s leading creatives from over 45 countries (52% female-identifying), recognizing work that will inspire both seasoned and emerging talent. As a charity, Awards entries enable D&AD to fund educational programs such as D&AD Shift, a free, industry-led night school for self-taught creatives from under-represented backgrounds, currently running in London, New York, Berlin, Hamburg, São Paulo and Sydney with more locations to be announced.

A new Creator Content category reflects the evolving landscape of the creative industries and allows the international awards to stay current and inclusive, while the division of the branding category into two distinct categories: New Brand Identity and Brand Identity Refresh addresses the significant volume of entries received in previous years (over 900+ in 2024), ensuring each submission receives the focused attention it deserves by the jury.

Sponsor

The total number of entries shortlisted in each category are:

Animation (30)
Art Direction (36)
Book Design (25)
Brand Identity Refresh (24)
Casting (30)
Cinematography (22)
Commerce (32)
Creator Content (24)
Digital Marketing (63)
Digital Design (19)
Direct (39)
Direction (51)
Editing (13)
Entertainment (43)
Experiential: Activation & Participation (49)
Film (53)
Future Impact (12)
Gaming & Virtual Worlds (19)
Graphic Design (43)
Health & Wellbeing (49)
Illustration (42)
Impact (35)
Integrated (19)
Luxury (19)
Magazine & Newspaper Design (23)
Media (33)
Music Videos (42)
New Brand Identity (31)
Packaging Design (29)
Pharma (15)
Photography (18)
PR (38)
Press & Outdoor (36)
Product Design (21)
Production Design (16)
Radio & Audio (13)
Sound Design & Use of Music (26)
Spatial Design (19)
Sustained Impact (4)
Type Design & Lettering (30)
Typography (39)
Visual Effects (24)
Writing for Advertising (24)
Writing for Design (20)

While the anticipation builds for the final winners to be revealed, the judges remain impressed by the calibre of entries and the transformative impact they promise to have on the creative landscape.

As the excitement continues to build, we invite you to join us for the culmination of this year’s festivities at the D&AD Festival on Thursday, May 22, 2025. The day will be filled with enlightening talks and engaging workshops, offering invaluable opportunities for industry professionals to connect and exchange ideas. Tickets for the Festival are still available for purchase on site.

The highlight of the day will be the eagerly anticipated Awards Ceremony, where the winners of this year’s competition will be unveiled. Be sure to secure your tickets to attend the Awards.

Announcement and witness the celebration of creativity at its finest. Tickets are available for purchase here.

D&AD will reveal this year’s Pencil winners, closing the Festival at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Center with the D&AD Awards Ceremony from 6pm on May 22.

All 1,288 shortlisted works are showcased here on the D&AD website.

Key Dates

The D&AD Awards judging will took place from May 18 to 21, 2025. The D&AD Festival will be held from May 21 to 22, 2025 at the Southbank Centre, London. Featuring keynote talks, judges’ insight sessions, networking events, and an exhibition celebrating the best in creativity. The awards ceremony will take place on May 22, 2025 where the coveted Pencils will be presented in person, marking the grand finale of this prestigious creative celebration.

About D&AD

D&AD exists to stimulate, enable, and award creative excellence in design and advertising, serving as one of the world’s most prestigious benchmarks for commercial creativity. The D&AD Pencil symbolizes rigor and integrity, embodying everything required to produce the very best creative work.

Since 1962, the D&AD Pencil has represented the very best in design and advertising. Winning a Pencil remains the pinnacle of many careers and the work it celebrates inspires others to study, debate, copy and reference its excellence, as the industry’s finest and most historic of treasures.

The D&AD Awards feature a hierarchy of recognition levels that celebrate varying degrees of creative excellence. The Shortlist acknowledges work that demonstrates merit and is worthy of recognition, placing it among the top entries in all categories. The Wood Pencil honors the best work of the year across advertising, design, craft, culture, and impact. Rising above the Wood Pencil, the Graphite Pencil is awarded to stand-out work considered for the prestigious Yellow Pencil. The Yellow Pencil represents the iconic symbol of true creative excellence, reserved for outstanding work that sets a high standard in the industry. At the pinnacle is the Black Pencil, the ultimate creative accolade, given only to groundbreaking work, with only a handful — if any — awarded each year.

adobo Magazine is an official media partner of the 2025 D&AD Awards.