Bruce Duckworth, current President of D&AD, arrived to ADFEST late Friday night and we had the pleasure of interrupting his morning yesterday for some ADFEST-style interrogation… I mean, interview questions.

 
When asked about how he progressed from being a creative to entrepreneur to D&AD President, Duckworth opened with a bit of his life story.

“When I was at university, I did the student workshops at D&AD and then began to work at different agencies with the goal always to get something in the book. D&AD is one of the most difficult awards to win in the world and it has been for around 55 years. The money made by D&AD feeds into an educational program that helps generate new creative talent in the industry, which I myself am a product of,” he says.

 
So how did Duckworth go about winning his first award?
 
“Well, when I started working for agencies in London, my ambition was winning a ‘Pencil’. After five or six years into my career, I won my first ‘Pencil’. Since then, D&AD has been a sort of conscience sitting on my shoulder, constantly asking me if each piece of work is Pencil-worthy. That’s not to say it’s the focus of the piece, the client brief is always the focus, but this sort of conscience works as a sound benchmark for creative excellence.”

D&AD, much like ADFEST, is a registered nonprofit and has a board of trustees coming from all parts of the industry.

“As people who participate in D&AD training programs gain more experience, and win one or two awards, they start to teach the people coming up in the industry – it’s a very virtuous circle,” says Duckworth, who started Turner Duckworth 25 years ago.
 
“I think one of the best qualities you can have, as a creative director, is generosity. You have to encourage people and give them all of the benefits of your experience as well as ideas to help them improve.”

He believes the importance of design is growing enormously. Big brands used to be protected by beautiful creative advertising, but now those brands don’t have that same protection as a result of media fragmentation.
 
“I think it’s design’s job to be as good as that advertising. Design is very intrinsic; it gets right to the core purpose of the product. If you think of the current day successful brands, design is in the boardroom. Design is right at the top, driving the business,” he says.
 
For instance, Turner Duckworth designed the Amazon logo 18 years ago. Since then, it has been printed, on packaging alone, over 100 billion times.

“The fame of that piece of work has come through the fame of the company. Jeff Bezos wanted to communicate that Amazon was no longer just a bookseller, that they were selling everything on the internet. The logo’s A to Z says everything and the smile shows Amazon is consumer centric. It has proven to be timeless over the years.”
 
Duckworth would like to see more diversity in the creative industries.
 
“We need different races, genders and every part of culture represented. Unfortunately, it tends to be a middle-class white, and often male, profession and we need to change that. We need to be representative of the people we’re designing for. Creative education needs to be much more accessible. I also think what we’re doing with D&AD is that we’re making social purpose the key to marketing brands that we love.”

 
How does ADFEST differ from other festivals?

“The people are different, there’s a different perspective from another part of the world. It provides a new feeling and aesthetic, which is pleasing,” says Duckworth.

 
* Bruce Duckworth spoke on Day Four of ADFEST 2017. His session was titled, ‘Design At the Centre’.  

 
- Kyle Towb