Fergal Kilroy Talk

Last week, Fergal Kilroy D&AD Student Award Manager, came in to speak to us at the college. D&AD was set up 47 years ago in 1962 to promote creativity in design and advertising.

Fergal began by showing us the call to entries video and there are 20,000 entries from around 60 countries. Judges at D&AD are looking for the idea foremost but also the following features are very important: self expression, that it stands out, that you have thought about the audience, hunger to do something different, extreme ideas better than industry.

As I had been at the Liverpool Design Symposium I had already heard a lot of what Fergal had to say but it was interesting what he said about the portfolio surgeries that occured that day. He said that a lot of people pointed out their portfolio flaws and spent their time apologising. If a piece of work isn't well executed it's not worth putting in unless the idea is outstanding. He said a lot of the portfolios were badly presented also.

Moving back onto the awards he told us that 30% of the judgment is the client and 70% is from creatives in the industry. You can also achieve placements within industry if you win. D&AD have also done a survey which shows that 84% of creatives would choose to interview someone first if they had a D&AD pencil. Winning ideas have to be 1.) A great idea 2.) Superb execution 3.) On brief

They don't have to be realistic or even possible. It is all about freedom of ideas. There are 1500 panels and 500 tables at the judging Olympia hall and student's work is right next to the work from industry so it has to be good. Past years have been voted by a yes/no system but this year the entries have to pass certain criterias. Entries need to be easy to understand and straight to the point. Fergal suggests we should put our work next to fellow students' to see if it conforms to these rules. Boards are viewed first and then backed up by 3d or digital work elsewhere. A tip is to read the brief carefully as it has trigger words which they want to see in the work you produce.

It was an enjoyable talk and I gained a lot from it. Thanks to Fergal for taking the time to come in and talk to us.