Studio East pavilion
(Image credit: press)

The design and advertising industry waits with baited breath each year to hear who has won the D&AD's coveted Pencil awards, marking brilliance across 25 disciplines of design, advertising, digital and creative communication. This year, we're pleased to say we picked up a sought after Yellow Pencil for our 2010 Custom Covers application that enabled readers to design their own cover for our Handmade issue (August 2010). And we were in good company. A number of Wallpaper* collaborators were among the recipients, including Carmody Groarke for its startling Studio East pavilion, Blink Productions for its hilarious video for Temper Track's Love Lost and Dentsu for its nifty iButterfly iPhone app. Meanwhile, fellow contributor Neville Brody scored the illustrious President's Award, given to just one person in honour of an outstanding contribution to creativity.

Full credit, however, must go to advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy who stole the show, picking up no less than nine accolades for their The Man Your Man Could Smell Like campaign that reinvented American male grooming brand Old Spice and became a YouTube sensation. These included two of just six Black Pencils - the most prestigious and elusive prize.

The D&AD awards are more than just a big pat on the back for the winners. They are also a good chance to review the varying directions different media channels have travelled over the last twelve months. There were no surprises, however, when Apple picked up a Black Pencil for the iPad in the Consumer Product Design category. Winning this category has become something of a tradition for the brand. And Samuel Wilkinson and Hulger also picked up a much-deserved Black Pencil for their 'Plumen 001' energy-saving light bulb.

Wallpaper's Pencil is the latest in a series of accolades we've garnered this year for the creative feat that was our Handmade issue, including a Design Week Award, a merit in both the Art Directors Club Annual Awards and the Society of Publication Designers Awards, and nomination for a Brit Insurance Design Award for the Custom Covers application, which also came in at number three of Time magazine's top ten covers of magazines across the globe in 2010. Watch out for Handmade mark two (out 14th July)...

The Surreal House

Project: The Surreal House by Carmody Groarke for the Barbican
Category: Spacial design
Award: nominated
Photograph: Lyndon Douglas

Carmody Groarke's startling installation for the Surreal House exhibition at the Barbican provided the set for a fashion feature in our October 2010 issue. See more of the installation here

(Image credit: Lyndon Douglas)

Plumen 001 light bulb

Project: Plumen 001 light bulb by Samuel Wilkinson and Hulger
Category: Consumer product design
Award: Black Pencil

(Image credit: press)

The Wallpaper* Custom Covers project 2010

Project: The Wallpaper* Custom Covers project 2010
Category: Magazine and newspaper design
Award: Yellow Pencil

Due to the storming success of the 2010 Custom Covers project we brought it back, refreshed, for readers to design their cover of our August 2011 issue. The application is now closed but you can still browse the covers

(Image credit: Stephen Lenthall)

Art Out typeface by Mucho Diseño SL for Fundación Arte y Mecenazgo

Project: Art Out typeface by Mucho Diseño SL for Fundación Arte y Mecenazgo
Category: Typography
Award: Yellow Pencil

(Image credit: press)

Drawings from the Gulag

Project: Drawings from the Gulag by Fuel
Category: Book design
Award: Nominated

(Image credit: press)

Malaika Byng is an editor, writer and consultant covering everything from architecture, design and ecology to art and craft. She was online editor for Wallpaper* magazine for three years and more recently editor of Crafts magazine, until she decided to go freelance in 2022. Based in London, she now writes for the Financial Times, Metropolis, Kinfolk and The Plant, among others.