D&AD Jurors on the Music Videos and Fashion Films “Crafted with a Level of Sensitivity That Makes Craft Almost Invisible”

The creative fields may still be fearful that AI is coming for their jobs but for LOBO’s chief creative officer Mateus De Paula, it was barely a consideration when it came to judging the entries for the animation category for this year’s D&AD Awards. He explained to the audience and moderator Angel Guerrero on the Frame by Frame panel, “We never intentionally decided not to merit any AI work, but everyone liked the things that took a lot of time and effort to be made”.

It was reassuring to see there is still a place for handcrafted work, with his pick for the panel showcasing the surprising power of animal balloons. In the campaign for Clash Royale, nominated in the animation category, over 10,000 balloons were fashioned by hand into characters and landscapes from the game to celebrate the new Balloon Epic card. Mateus said, “It was the perfect example of something where the media made the whole piece a lot more interesting.”

For De La Revolución music video director child., who judged the music video category, ROSALÍA’s ‘Berghain’ promo made the cut simply for being “cool as shit... It was immersive, surreal, poetic. I loved the ‘Snow White’ references at the end with all the animals. It gave me a little Disney, but it was dark”. Their second pick was DJ Snake’s video ‘Patience’, which is a ten-minute film exploring the immigrant experience that also formed the first of three long-form pieces spotlighted during the panel, proving there is still plenty of appetite for detailed, considered content.

In the direction category, judges Dinga Haines– partner, producer and director at Fauna – and Giant Films director Karien Cherry respectively picked L’Oreal’s documentary ‘The Final Copy’ and Gucci’s ‘The Tiger’. Dinga said, “[The] filmmaking, sounds, voice, music, imagery, it's crafted with a level of sensitivity that makes the craft almost invisible”. Karien felt similarly about Gucci, “We loved how it was in the fashion category, but it was a storytelling piece and it was performance-driven.”

Although all of these selections showed an ongoing reverence for craft. Karien said, “I wouldn't say we saw anything that's consistently a trend, which I think is great. Every piece of work and every brief had its own challenges and its own opportunities. What's great is seeing people really try to push the bar… The focus on craft and storytelling rose above.”

Dinga concluded, “It was all about the storytelling. How do we make interesting art that pushes through and is emotionally driving at different points?”