Apple Wins Prestigious Black Pencil Awards

Posted by Eric March on May 17, 2008 at 1:13 pm

Every year the D&AD hold awards ceremonies for the year’s best designs in advertising, products, packaging, websites, and more. Awards are given in two tiers: Yellow Pencil, which is the equivalent of a silver, and Black Pencil, the equivalent of gold. The awards are not easy to obtain; they are not simply a measure of what’s best for that year. They are an absolute standard which must meet the D&AD’s strict criteria for excellence in design or they don’t award it at all. This is reflected in the fact that 6 out of the last 46 years they have been around have seen no awards for product design doled out at their annual ceremonies, the last such dry year occurring in 2003. This makes the Black Pencil one of the hardest and most prestigious design award to obtain.

It is telling then that the D&AD have awarded Apple not one, but two Black Pencils in 2008, one for the design of the aluminum all-in-one iMac, and the other for the iPhone. What’s more, these mark the 5th and 6th Black Pencils that Apple have won since 1999, making Apple the most successful firm in the history of the D&AD, thanks in no small part to Apple’s famed chief designer Johnathan Ive. Additionally, the iPod Touch took the Yellow Pencil award, giving them a total of three products in the winner’s circle this year.

Congratulations to Johnathan and Apple for the wins. They were certainly well-deserved.

(Source: iPhone Alley)

Posted in Apple Corporate, News Related