Falmouth students and alumni win four Wood Pencils at D&AD Awards 2025
16 July 2025
The prestigious D&AD Awards, held in early July, is judged by creative leaders and innovators to celebrate and recognise the world’s best creative work in design and advertising.
This year, four projects created by Falmouth’s students and alumni have been awarded the coveted Wood Pencils, allowing the recipients to showcase their work to an audience of millions in the creative industry.
Pencil colours are awarded in order of merit, from Wood representing the best of the year, through Graphite for stand-out work, then Yellow for outstanding work, and finally Black for rare projects deemed groundbreaking. More information about the awards can be found here, and read more about last year's winners here. This year, each of Falmouth’s winners took home the top award, representing their courses with honour: Creative Advertising BA and MA, Marketing Communications BA, Communication Design MA and Graphic Design BA.
Read on to see the winning projects!
Meet Falmouth's D&AD 2024 New Blood Pencil winners
Ellianna Braddick, Aditya Rane, Mayank Rajai, Rex Hayes
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Pencil award level: Wood - Best of the Year
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Brief: giffgaff
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Project: Giffup Doomscrolling
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Course: BA Creative Advertising, MA Communication Design, BA Marketing Communications, MA Creative Advertising
The project began with a question – “Why do my thumbs feel more tired than my brain?” The idea inspired the students to reflect on doomscrolling, creating a reminder to alternatively stop and recharge. They came up with the concept of a “thumb spa” to put a fun spin on the idea that through scrolling overuses our thumbs. The campaign ends with giffgaff’s refurbished phone packaging, which includes all the thumb care essentials needed after a day of doomscrolling.
Reflecting on the experience, Mayank said: “The award may have been the destination, but the true reward was the beautiful, creative people we met along the way. We became a family!”
Aditya added: “It’s been such an honour to be recognised with a D&AD Pencil, it's something we only dreamed of when we first saw those pencils online. The whole experience has been a mix of laughter, overthinking, and a lot of learning.”
Sam Shackleton, Tara Brewster
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Pencil award level: Wood - Best of the Year
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Brief: Hellmann’s
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Project: The Mayonose Strip
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Course: BA Creative Advertising
The campaign focuses on elevating plain food – like the kind you might find on a plane – by creating a Hellmann’s Mayonose Strip. This conceptual product is a scent and moisture enhancing nose patch that improves the taste of bland food, drawing on the idea that 80% of taste comes from scent. It positions Hellmann’s as “the hero of in-flight dining”.
Reflecting on the experience, Sam said: “Tara and I created ‘The Mayonose Strip’ just a couple of days before the final D&AD submission, so the pressure was on! We had a lot of fun working on the Hellmann’s brief — and went through a lot of mayonnaise in the process. This win was an awesome way to end our time at Falmouth.”
Dylan Preston, Pamela Tait, Ben Dunn
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Pencil award level: Wood - Best of the Year
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Brief: Morris & Co.
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Project: A Handcrafted Legacy
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Course: Graphic Design BA
The team of alumni created a campaign that celebrates the legacy of William Morris and his beliefs and values: craftsmanship, honesty, and respect for heritage. Drawing on analogue processes, raw textures and a nostalgic visual language, the team brought those principles to life in a way that’s relevant to modern audiences.
Dylan said: “We owe a huge thanks for all the advice and mentorship we received from the Graphic Design lecturers. We were proud to represent the university on award night.”
Pamela added: “Winning has been such a surreal and proud moment for us. As recent graduates, it’s been a huge boost – both in terms of confidence and opening doors as we step into the industry.
“The support, belief, and passion of the Graphic Design BA teaching team has made a lasting impact on us. Falmouth isn’t just where we studied; it’s where we found our voices as designers, built lasting creative relationships, and gained the confidence to take risks. We’ll always be grateful for that.”
Nikki Bosier, Cerys Inkpen, Eleanor Roberts
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Pencil award level: Wood - Best of the Year
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Brief: Morris & Co.
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Project: Art Over All
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Course: MA Creative Advertising
The campaign weaves William Morris into the fabric of everyday life, encouraging millennials to buy direct while keeping the heritage of the founder William Morris alive. Acknowledging that millennials are an experience-oriented generation, they introduced the idea of art being integrated into unexpected aspects of daily life – from being printed across garden furniture and the tube to being projected across historic buildings.
Eleanor said: “We’re super excited to have received a D&AD New Blood Pencil - it was a huge challenge for us as it was very different to our usual style, with the campaign being animated, so a lot of effort went into the project. We want to say a huge thanks to our lecturers: Anthony Swede, Joel Ferguson and Cui Su.”
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