LONDON, UK – I was humbled to be back as a judge for D&AD, a beacon of inspiration for creative excellence in a world that seems to be settling for good enough. I say this with as much empathy for those in the creative industry who are often being asked to do more and better with less time and money. With more pressures than ever, it feels practical to relegate, automate, and prompt our way into a seemingly sufficient answer to a brief. And while I believe creative professionals should learn any tool that improves their work, I also observe that the thing that makes a piece of work truly special does not come from a robot.
Wit. Empathy. Nuance. Story. A relatable human experience expressed in the most novel ways. Those things draw the line between a perfectly generated image of sunflowers and how Van Gogh would do it, and the effect is worlds apart. In press and outdoor, the necessity for human creativity is particularly evident. With such limited space, and the shortest chance to ever get someone’s attention, the job of the creative is to stop people in their tracks with bold clarity and impact. Some may feel this is a stifling medium to create that connection, but I think this is where its beauty lies. The printed page forces you to distill what you want to say, and say it in the most resonant way. There’s no room for fat, no time for muddle. In celebrating print and outdoor, we are really celebrating the rigor and discipline required in making sure an idea is as powerful as it could be.
“Good business is the best art,” Andy Warhol famously said. Looking at the work, I’d twist the saying to “the best art is good business.” Some may scoff and say, how dare we compare ads to art. But the Oxford dictionary defines art as “the expression of human creative skill and imagination, appreciated primarily for its beauty and emotional power.” When any image is crafted so skillfully and imaginatively, it does come close. It draws you in, takes over precious real estate in your head, and signals that out of all that mental clutter, this is the thing that requires your attention. To have that kind of power in a world too distracted to remember anything is reason alone to strive for better. Because the risk of mediocre work is that it gets lost, or worse, just contributes to the bland advert pollution that does nothing to move people.
Universal truths through rare characters
In his book, Oscar-winning screenwriter and lecturer Robert McKee says that a great story is about archetypes, unpacking a universal truth wrapped in a unique culture-specific expression. Within our selection, Adidas’s and NBA’s work stood out for their ability to bring in fresh, culture-specific characters reflecting the broad reasons why we play sport. Breaking the sports world full of models doing yoga and famous basketball stars, these feature elderly village residents and kids jumping into ponds, enriching the meaning of what both brands stand for. Like a great story, it becomes much harder to take your eyes off and makes you want to dig deeper.
Humanity in objects
Some may think that a product brief does not have the possibility to move people and therefore, isn’t seen as the most riveting thing to land on your desk. But a few campaigns this year remind us that objects are linked to real human experience. And when we’re able to capture that and express it imaginatively, there lies its power. Stella Artois, Cadbury, and Burger King had their product front and center, but each of them related to moments we all recognize. The teams behind these campaigns found a gem of an observation and lined up all preceding creative decisions to bring this into the limelight. So now, if you ever find yourself annoyed in a crowded bar, resentful after doing all the pre-holiday admin, or exhausted after an 18-hour labor, it’s quite likely that these brands will be top of mind.
The truth expressed thoughtfully
Some may question whether print is still relevant in the modern age. Quite frankly, I’ve heard that print is dead since I started working twenty years ago. But so far, it’s still alive, and perhaps with an even more important role to play today. With digital fatigue, huge distrust with online misinformation, and blurred lines between what’s real and not, print all of a sudden feels like a place where truth, thought, and integrity still exists. If you look around during your commute, people are always reading, and perhaps there’s an opportunity for print to reaffirm its place as a source of considered, crafted creativity. This observation is also driven by a recurring theme amongst the print work to protect the truth, whether it’s free press, democracy, or those kept as secrets in the beauty industry. All of which signal the times we live in, and our agency as humans and creatives to uphold what’s true.
Celebrating the humans that make the work brilliant
With a recognition that any work awarded at D&AD would be upheld as a new benchmark worldwide, our jury discussions deliberated every detail — brief objectives, insight, the context, the category, the end line, the font used, its impact, and why one image was stronger than another in a campaign. We judged the work not only as creative professionals, but as regular people too — imagining ourselves having just woken up with no duvet, having just bought an expensive Berghaus jacket, or having lost someone to cardiac arrest. The best work strikes the delicate balance between skill and heart, and it takes thought, craft, and a team of dedicated people to get there. It feels safe to say that beautiful, powerful work still cannot be achieved without the human touch. Perhaps one day, robots will catch up. But as of now, humans still have a job to do, and we can do it better by leaning into our humanity.
About The Writer
Katrina is a creative director at Pablo, an agency that drives brand growth and connection through talked about ideas, and Campaign’s UK Independent Agency of the Year. She has 20 years of experience building global brands from the UK, the Netherlands, Thailand, Italy, and the Philippines, winning over 75 awards along the way. This is her fourth time judging at D&AD.
adobo Magazine is an official media partner of the 2025 D&AD Festival and the 2025 D&AD Awards.
