D&AD Annual Trend Report 2023

The D&AD Awards celebrate the very best creative work across advertising and design. This year, 300+ world-leading designers, advertising thought-leaders and skilled creatives cast their eye over a record number of over 12,000 entries, from over 70 countries.

This report, created with Thought Partnership, delves into nascent trends that dominated the D&AD Pencil winners in 2023. It distils the catalogue of insights gathered from the jury rooms, as well as the impact of wider cultural and societal shifts in the world at large.

Shaped by shifts in the wider world and pointing towards what’s coming next, six trends are unpacked in the report: Joyful Surrealism, Open-Source Casting, Ownable Iconicity, Augmentation For All, Prescient Preservation, Pay It Forward. Plus a look at how AI is developing a presence at the awards, and how we predict it will develop in the creative industry.