A few months ago, we partnered up with D&AD to help them on their mission to champion the best and brightest talent in the creative community.

They asked us to come up with a way of highlighting the work and people behind the world’s most celebrated creative award. Today, we launched the three call for entry films we created in response, in which W+K founder Dan Wieden, Iain Tait of Google Creative Labs and designer Jessica Walsh of Sagmeister and Walsh discuss a piece of work from the past 12 months they wish they’d done.

Dan talks about the Climate Name Change Campaign by 350Action:

Digital guru Iain Tait explains the genius behind the Phillips Hue Lightbulb:

and designer Jessica Walsh talks about her love of the Whitney branding by Experimental Jetset:

In each film, awe-inspiring animations created by Nexus directors Factory Fifteen take viewers inside the iconic D&AD Yellow Pencil to reveal intricate worlds portraying design, advertising and digital. The animated intros highlight the breadth and quality of work awarded at D&AD, with plenty of details for eagle-eyed viewers referencing seminal pencil-winning pieces, including a couple of our very own campaigns (oh hi there, Old Spice guy and Honda 'Grr' engine).

We know we're not supposed to care about awards here at W+K, but we do love it when the people who worked so hard to help us bring moonwalking ponies to life and tell seamless stories of engineering wizardry get a shiny, arrow-shaped high five for their crafty brilliance. 

Last night at the BTAAs (aka British Arrows Craft Awards), a few of the aforementioned arrows had our mucky W+K fingerprints of them.

[our producer James with Nexus legend Tracey Cooper, with quite possibly the shiniest award ever for Honda 'Hands']

Here's the rundown:

• Best Animation – Gold – Nexus for Honda 'Hands'
• Best Cinematography – Gold – John Mathieson for Lurpak 'Weave Your Magic'
• Best CGI Gold + Best VFX – Gold – Jame Mengers + Carsten Keller at MPC for Three 'The Pony'
• Best Recorded Music – Gold – Jack Sedgwick at Wave for Three 'The Pony'
• Best Editing – Silver – Art Jones for Lurpak 'Weave Your Magic'
• Best Sound Design – Silver – Anthony Moore at Factory for Honda 'Hands'

Our pals in Gotham, W+K NYC, bagged the following:

• Best Crafted Commercial – Biscuit for SoCo 'Whatever's Comfortable / Beach'
• Best Director – Silver – Tim Godsall for SoCo 'Whatever's Comfortable / Beach'
• Best Casting – Gold – Maya Kvetny for SoCo 'Whatever's Comfortable / Beach'

Big thank you to all the exceptionally talented people who lent their souls skills to making some truly brilliant work. And as the saying goes, 'when it rains, it pours' – it turns out Honda 'Hands' also won an Epica award for Best Animation yesterday. Lovely.