The annual D&AD Awards honor the very best creative communications, awarding iconic D&AD Pencils to the best of the best in the design and advertising industries. This celebration of the awards’ 50th anniversary includes insider anecdotes and top entries from each year, selected by both former judges and key industry players.

The annual D&AD Awards honor outstanding creativity, originality, technical excellence, and innovation in design and advertising. Every year, thousands of entrants submit a host of crazy, beautiful, thought-provoking, sublime and, occasionally, winning entries. Panels of rigorous judges debate, sometimes for days on end, to decide on the best work, which all appear in the annual book; the best of the best get nominations, favorites receive a Yellow Pencil, and sometimes but not always, there are entries that are so incredible that they receive the highest accolade: a Black Pencil.

For this special anniversary volume, each of the last 50 years is represented by a D&AD president or other key figure who shares his or her favorites from the year. Interspersed stories, biographies, and a timeline document the history of D&AD and the development of the industry, through the experiences of creative individuals who have been most involved with its evolution. From the birth of TV advertising in the ’60s to the digital revolution of the 2000s, D&AD has lived through it all and helped to shape what it is today. This is a chance to explore the best from the world of creative communications over the past five decades.