Festival closed the edition with lectures, jury sessions and judgment of the Black Pencils this Wednesday (10)
The 2023 D&AD Awards set a record for submissions. There were 12,243 in total, a record for the last ten years. This was the most successful enrollment year in D&AD history. There were almost 13 thousand. Another interesting thing was seeing which categories grew. The most popular categories were Film, Branding and Graphic Design, said Jo Jackson, the first female CEO of D&AD.
The English festival, recognized for the rigor of the jury and for valuing craft, had two days of lectures and sessions with insights from the juries, in addition to a lot of networking in the corridors of The Old Truman Brewery, the former brewery where the festival is held in London. The Pencils winners will be revealed at the awards ceremony on May 24th and 25th.
This Wednesday (10), the second and last day of the festival, one of the most thought-provoking lectures was given by Fura Johannesdottir, Huge’s global CCO. Under the impactful theme Machines will make us more creative than ever before, the publicist showed why she thinks that artificial intelligence will free creativity that, in her opinion, has been suffering a crisis due to the internet, at least in the last ten years.
For the creative, AI will force us to think harder and usher in a new era of inspiration. It is a total disruption to the world, including our industry. I think this is fantastic because it will make us rethink what and how we are doing, he reinforced.
As a digital company, Fura said that Huge is embracing AI and presented a Pantone case that used Midjourney. At the launch of Pantone’s Color of the Year, Viva Magenta, we wanted to make a splash, show everyone the color. And we had an exhibition in Miami of images created by Midjourney for people to experience the color. It was a success, we had 50 billion impressions on social networks, he said.
What can I say, AI is a very inspiring partner and challenges us to go beyond the campaign. I truly believe that artificial intelligence will unleash our creativity. We have no idea of the possibilities it will bring and that is very exciting.
Fura recalled that this is not the first time in history that a new technology has emerged and caused a disruption. With the Industrial Revolution, science, architecture and transportation changed completely. We also have the example of the camera and the internet itself, she recalled.
For the creative, artificial intelligence will be a revolution for everyone and will make us more creative, productive and faster. A lot of manual work is going to be done by machines and I don’t think that’s scary. I think it’s brilliant that AI is going to help us get faster and better insights, she exemplified.
Huge’s global CCO also highlighted that it’s important to remember that we have legal issues to consider and that AI has no emotional intelligence, we need balance. It’s not all about the machine, it’s about how people should use technology. Another important thing to make clear to customers when we are using AI.
Finally, she concluded her presentation by emphasizing that artificial intelligence should be used to make us better. I’m not saying we don’t have wonderful jobs these days, but I think we need more. I think this is one of the most fascinating times to be creative, because this is an opportunity to reinvent ourselves and transform the world, concluded Fura.
