Acid Tango
Dick Powell is the co-founder and director of global design and innovation company Seymourpowell, and was Chairman at D&AD from 2010 to 2019.
I wonder what our famous founders would have made of D&AD 60 years on?
From their small tentative start, this wonderful organisation grew and flourished over the decades, but was too often dogged periodically by this or that crisis. When I first became a Trustee (we weren’t called Trustees back then) in 02 and later it’s President in 05 and 06, one of our Trustees described D&AD as a rickety, but rather charming organisation that had sprawled without a strategic plan, didn’t adequately deliver on its charitable purpose, was still trying to catch up with an emerging digital future and had rather dodgy foundations. We resolved to fix it.
When I stepped down as President, we had (at least so we thought) stemmed some of the losses and the Board had a strategic plan for the future, only to hear, just a few months into the new year, that there was yet another existential crisis bringing D&AD to its knees… again!
When I became Chairman at the end of 2009, D&AD was back on its feet, but it was still fighting the old problems; slightly trapped in its ever repeating cycle of events and in need of cultural change. I was very lucky to ride the wave of change that kept D&AD relevant and put it on solid foundations, helped and guided by brilliant Presidents, eminent and thoughtful Trustees.
Easily the most consequential thing I ever managed to do, appointing Tim Lindsay as CEO. Tim was, and is, the force that wrought great change at D&AD, turning it into a world class responsible organisation that stays relevant, delivers on its charitable purpose and which is based on sensible financial foundations. He couldn’t have done any of that without D&AD’s long serving COO, Dara Lynch – what a pair they have been, complimentary and congruent, and still the beating heart of D&AD, supported as always by a brilliant and passionate senior team!
Over my decade as Chairman, and thereafter, D&AD never compromised the high standards and probity of our Awards and maintained the sanctity of the Yellow Pencil – we even managed to successfully negotiate a minefield of obstacles to introduce the Graphite and Wood pencils to give status and meaning to the runners up. And then we added the White Pencil for work that is purpose driven and evolved that into the New York based Impact Awards, for ethical and sustainable businesses and projects.
And we stayed true to our not-for-profit remit by putting all the money made back into the industry we serve, mainly through the much-expanded New Blood program, the Academy and the brilliant Shift (shortly to be expanded from three to five cities around the world) – a twelve-week night school for creative people without qualifications, to help talented young people into the creative industries.
And for me, the single most brilliant manifestation of everything D&AD does, was the Festival, combining judging, the Awards Night, the President’s Lectures, seminars and workshops over three days, into a coherent world class event. But sadly, on the eve of major sponsorship and ambitious plans it was temporarily scuppered by Covid.
The bravest thing I think we did was to move out of our cramped and horrible offices in Vauxhall and, two moves later, into the heart of Shoreditch. Personally, having witnessed the ups and downs of D&AD’s finances, I always felt my most important role was to carefully husband the money but, despite the large sums involved, it had to be done. I needn’t have worried – for any business, nothing establishes a big change in culture as effectively as a move to lovely premises and this lifted D&AD immensely.
I’d always felt that ten glorious years as Chairman was about enough, and we coupled my departure with finding a new CEO, with Tim taking over as Chairman – I was able to step down in a blaze of (mostly reflected) glory, only to see D&AD within months plunged into a pandemic induced crisis, which threatened income and kiboshed event planning. Phew, I thought, there but for the grace of God etc., as I watched on sympathetically from afar!
Nothing in my time even gets close to the difficulties the incredible management team had to deal with, but I think it accelerated some necessary things that had been hard to change before – expanding digital judging, delivering Awards ceremonies and Masterclasses online and even, deep breath here, making the Annual digital and therefore better environmentally and globally accessible. This had been mooted for many years, but no President, unsurprisingly, had wanted it to happen on their watch.
At the heart of that old 06 strategy to reshape D&AD had been a definitive commitment to all things digital, and with it expanding access for everything we do physically to a global audience – tick that box! D&AD is still the same coruscating, ambitious and vibrant not for profit organisation that it was in my time but, I think, it’s now turned a page and is well into its next, more globally relevant decade of brilliance.
I will always have Yellow blood coursing through my veins, so I wish it well!