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11.06.09
You couldn’t make it up

This evening D&AD gathered for its annual pencil fest and the stand-out result must be that a previously unknown 26 year old designer has won the most coveted award, a black pencil, for his coin designs. That designer is Matthew Dent.

Anyone only vaguely interested in the communications business will wonder what all the fuss is about - don’t designers and advertisers give each other gongs with unnerving regularity? And it's true that if there was an award for best use of lime green and sans serif type in corporate identity design, they'd give that out every month, quite easily.

But a black pencil is something else. Many designers struggle to win just a single yellow pencil in their lifetime, and there’s no doubt that it’s getting harder and harder every year. So black pencils are, generally, a once in a lifetime event (unless you work for Apple Computers). The Partners only won their first one last year, for goodness sake, after decades in business. Minale Tattersfield have never won one, even at their height. Pentagram haven’t won one for at least 20 years, by our reckoning.

So for young Dent to enter a coin design competition, have his designs shortlisted against none other than David Gentleman, win the day, see his coins come out to unanimous acclaim, then win the highest prize, at his first attempt? It doesn’t get any better.

It just goes to show - a really great idea backed up by a visionary client, followed through to the highest level of detail can still happen. There’s hope for us all.

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