In reply to Joe New blood was good saw a lot of excellent work (it was slightly overwhelming) but left thinking (without getting to political about it) that quite a lot of the work that ended up winning awards and such wasn’t really on brief for what they asked for, in particular the direct mail & typography briefs which I’m intimately familiar with, it seemed to be a common opinion when I got talking to friends from other uni’s (who didn’t win either I might add), don’t get me wrong the work was good i.e. it looked nice this isn’t simply loser complex. But in the type category the overall winner and student of the year no less was a women who blatantly and even wrote that she had intentionally copied apple with very little reference to the rich heritage of film. The only link I can see is that films can be watched on ipods? Is this the innovation of the future? Copying innovators? Is this what D&AD wants from students? Similarly in the direct mail category the overall winner of a converted yellow pencil was a design team of three students who used one of direct mail’s oldest tricks, the postcard, innovate format? I didn’t think so, anyway looks as though I did get a bit political there but as no one reads this blog except you guys I think I’m safe and that’s just my opinion the design world is built on opinions and as such their not always right.