SCAD students win prestigious D&AD New Blood Awards

The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is pleased to announce that two of its student teams received recognition for their entries in this year’s D&AD New Blood Awards. These annual industry awards allow participants to tackle real-world challenges from today’s leading brands by designing creative and innovative solutions.

Out of 5,000 entries, eight SCAD students were awarded exemplary distinctions for their briefs – a first in SCAD history.

“The D&AD New Blood Awards always offer great briefs from top brands,” advisor to the student teams Professor Clark DeLashmet said. “We’re proud of our students’ ability to quickly define an opportunity point, identify the audience and extend the brand’s personality while solving a real-world problem.”

Gergő Zachár (B.F.A., advertising and branding, 2022), Derek Tucker (B.F.A., advertising and branding, 2020), Sanke Yunge Devillaine (B.A., equestrian studies, 2020), Hoi Man Mak (B.F.A., graphic design, 2019) and Senada Kustura (B.F.A., advertising and branding, 2020) were awarded a Yellow Pencil, which recognizes outstanding work, for their entry with Rexona anti-perspirant (marketed as “Degree” in the U.S.).

The brand challenged participants to bring the Rexona Dance Studio to life, a digital hub that would inspire young people all around the globe to get moving. The team’s winning solution utilized dance video content from social media influencers. Influencers would create partial dance routines and invite fans to respond with their own moves.

Gianna Orecchio (B.F.A., advertising and branding, 2021), Rachel Zukerman (B.F.A. advertising and branding, 2020) and Jayne Goodall (B.F.A., advertising and branding, 2020) received a Graphite Pencil, which recognizes good ideas that are well executed and relevant to the brief, for their work for Microsoft.

Tasked with showcasing Microsoft’s educational capabilities and creativity of its users, the team concepted a virtual reality (VR) experience to educate and empower students and their parents on the viability of creative careers. In conjunction, the team concepted Microsoft Portfolio, an online platform that streamlines the portfolio creation and the higher education application process for creative-minded high school students.

The student teams developed their entries through a brand innovation course, housed in SCAD’s preeminent advertising and branding degree program. SCAD’s collaborative, cross-disciplinary curriculum provides the ideal environment for perfecting the highly developed craft of innovative advertising. For example, as the first university with a degree-granting VR program, students from the award-winning Microsoft team were uniquely qualified to ideate solutions using that platform.

SCAD students are expertly prepared for careers in advertising in and outside the classroom through its unmatched access to real-world projects, like the D&AD New Blood Awards, as well as through SCADpro, the university’s innovation studio which similarly allows its students to generate solutions for the world’s most influential brands.

This career preparation has allowed the university to achieve a 99-percent job placement rate for their graduates.