D&AD New Blood is a national talent-spotting environment for the best graphic designers of tomorrow.
Established in 1962, a group of designers and art directors including David Bailey, Terence Donovan and Alan Fletcher came together to celebrate creative communication and raise standards within their industry calling themselves the British Design & Art Direction, now known as D&AD.
Out of 60 universities across the UK who entered the 2019 competition, six of the best students have been selected from Bedford College.
The shortlisted six now have a chance to go forward to The New Blood Academy with WPP, a creative transformation company, for a four-week creative Bootcamp that catapults emerging talent into the industry.
Held in the heart of East London, the Academy takes raw potential and helps individuals improve their skills. Through a non-stop programme of talks, workshops, hacks and live client briefs, attendees gain priceless experience in the skillsets for a creative career, all while being mentored by WPP’s top agencies.
The boot camp covers various disciplines, working styles and nationalities, each attendee gains a better idea of their own creative practice and leave feeling more prepared for their career goals. All this as well as the opportunity to secure paid internships within the WPP global network.
Academy alumni have scored jobs with Apple, Amazon, Google, Instagram, Nike, 4 Creative, McCann, Saatchi & Saatchi, Warner Music Group, and many more.
Toby Clark, Director of Arts at The Bedford College Group commented:
Another exceptional year for our HE Graphics team. Only 30 ‘ones to watch’ are picked out from circa 1000 student from 60 universities – so to have six shortlisted is outstanding.
An incredible achievement for any institution but for Bedford College, as a further education college taking part, it’s just astounding.
The fact that we have almost come to expect this success is further testament to the consistency and commitment of the team against the difficulties in our sector. This is truly embracing our core value of high performance and the Group’s strategic aim for educational leadership.
A heartfelt congratulations to the team and thank you for giving us even more evidence of the exceptional practice at the college.”
*HE Graphics work was put on show at D&AD New Blood at the Truman Brewery, Shoreditch, London.
