Four of our students are reeling with excitement after receiving two D&AD Pencil awards for their respective
group submissions to the competition’s New Blood category. The D&AD New Blood Awards category recognises
young creative talent with the goal of helping them take their first steps into the industry of their choosing.
Pencils were awarded to Jenny Groenewald and Raphael Janan Kuppasamy for their ‘Earn Your Stripes’
campaign for Adidas, and to Bernice Puleng Mosala and Kyle Marais for their ‘Embody Your OS’ campaign
for Microsoft.
“This will be the 2nd consecutive year that students at Vega have brought home a D&AD Pencil
award in this category, which above all else is testament to their own talent, creativity and innovative
problem-solving abilities,” says Christiaan Graaff, 3rd year Navigator at the Vega Johannesburg
Campus. Students formed groups and formulated their own concepts from scratch with the help of
their subject navigators based on a brand brief.
Groenewald and Kuppasamy were tasked with creating a
campaign for Adidas in keeping with the brand’s belief that
sport has the power to change lives. The pair chose to
conduct research into London’s youth and found that, along
with being relatively low on disposable income, millennials
who live in London don’t volunteer much despite having a
fair amount of time on their hands.
“We then created a campaign called Earn Your Stripes,
which will give Adidas consumers (specifically 17-25 year-
olds) the opportunity to earn a reasonable discount off
their next adidas purchase, by volunteering at specific
sports-based and non-sports-based NGOs and NPOs in
London,” said Groenewald and Kuppasamy.
The pair added, “Knowing that we have an international
D&AD New Blood award to our name is still surreal,
because of how big of an accomplishment this is. We
both feel that our work and ideas are good enough for
the industry.”
Mosala and Marais’ Pencil-winning ‘Embody Your OS’ campaign came off the back of a brief that
required the team to create an inspiring, forward-thinking short film featuring the Microsoft Surface.
“We chose to focus on human experiences that are relevant now, which include gay rights as well
as black and female empowerment,” says Mosala. “We then expressed the human truth through
spoken word, which is popular at the moment because poetry is an authentic art form that is
based on human experiences.” When asked how they felt about their D&AD win, the team agreed
that the sleepless nights were all worth it to be acknowledged for award-winning work and prove
that they are industry ready.
“This award will provide the necessary stepping-stones and exposure for my future in film,”
says Marais, adding, “As a creator passionate about film this D&AD award shows I’ve got what
it takes to create enjoyable and motivational content”. “We salute this year’s group of students
for their commendable achievements, particularly for being recognised on a global platform
like the D&AD Awards, which is no small feat, and look forward to seeing where the rest of
their careers take them in the future” says Graaff.