Imagine the initial deafening stunned silence, from the envious population of pencil seekers that rocked the room at the D&AD awards last night when previously unknown 26 year old designer Matthew Dent took to the stage to collect a Black Pencil for his outstanding coin design for The Royal Mint. However the envy quickly faded as he drew the biggest cheer of the evening, and rightly so.
It’s rare for any designer in their lifetime to get awarded with the highly coveted Black Pencil so for Matthew to achieve it at such an early point in his career is testament to some undeniable immense natural talent that’s bubbling beneath his surface. We can’t wait to see more from this guy.
We know just what a struggle it is to get your mitts on a D&AD black pencil (‘for goodness sake’ as Michael Johnson exclaims on his blog), we are lucky to have a row of Yellow Pencils adorning our shelves, but the Black Pencil, had until last year, eluded The Partners for 26 years. Greg was one of the judges this year and he was passionate about ensuring the coins did well, because “not only was it was a great idea, beautifully crafted, but also because they were for a client that until very recently has not been known for its creativity that needed recognition” We want to be one of the first to congratulate Matthew.
Keep up the exceptional work Matthew!
