4DESIGN

Rebecca Wright is Dean of Academic Programmes at Central St. Martins, and D&AD President throughout 2021/22. Here she discusses her role as the first president from the world of education.

Learning has been D&AD’s focus this last year: in many ways, it’s the substantive core of everything D&AD does: celebrating excellence and setting industry standards through the awards; providing insight and commentary in the annual, and sharing inspiring content from across our community on our website; to the showcases and ground-breaking programmes for emerging talent including Shift and New Blood. And the incubators, masterclasses, and workshops that support creative practitioners at every stage in our career. It’s not just that learning is at the heart of D&AD’s business, it’s that learning is integral to creative practice and commercial success – it’s how we innovate, maintain currency and continue to progress.

We have also continued this work this year, foregrounding learning through the awards: the annual, events, thought pieces, talks with the industry, educators, and young talent. The emphasis throughout has been on how we are all still learning, that wherever we are in our career journey, learning is a continual and continuing process. Along the way, I’ve learned from and with established and emerging creatives and a board of formidable trustees, alongside the D&AD team and community, all of whom have been unfailingly generous, supportive and wise.

So much has changed, though, and not just in the last sixty years, but also in the last twelve months. Ongoing pandemic(s), the war in Europe, and global economic and ecological crises have challenged convention and complacency, and the need for learning has taken on a different dimension. And so, based on learnings from the year that has passed and the generosity, support, and wisdom I’ve encountered, here are my unashamedly idealistic observations on our future:

At a time of grave challenge for art and design education, D&AD has a unique position and opportunity to demonstrate and advocate for what creative education, creative practice, and the creative industries can add to our world, and to be both bridge and broker in partnerships that celebrate our interdependency.

In an uncertain future, D&AD has the wisdom and wealth of experience and history, and the energy and urgency of the next generation to be a beacon that can help illuminate and guide us through obstacles ahead, and to be a bastion of strength and resilience where the community comes together to learn from each other.

In the face of increasingly boundaried responses to global crises, D&AD is proof that creativity is borderless and that we can dare to use it to imagine different and better futures that are more equitable, sustainable, and shared – we need to be un-siloed and unafraid.

As D&AD looks to its next sixty years, we need to build on our past if we’re to flourish in the future and step up to be bridge and broker, beacon and bastion, borderless and brave. I’m unwaveringly optimistic. Presidents come and go, but D&AD is still going, and still learning.