Five years into running his own independent agency, Kin, alongside Sophie Ozoux, this year Kwame Taylor-Hayford is also D&AD President, the first time a US creative has taken on the role. During his tenure at the organisation, he is keen to emphasise its educational role within the creative industries.

“I think our community is first and foremost an educational charity,” he says of D&AD. “I think our people don’t know that, because the awards are so well known. So from my standpoint, it’s really, how do we help with the learning programmes? How do we help with the professional development?” While D&AD’s programmes for young creatives, including New Blood and Shift, are widely renowned, Taylor-Hayford feels the industry as a whole needs to also address those in the middle of their careers.

“There’s been a massive retreat when it comes to mentorship and really nurturing creatives who I describe often as in the middle of their journey,” he says. “I feel with now mostly remote work, a bit of a retraction of budgets and a streamlining of spend, agencies have tightened their structures and so I think the talent in the middle really is suffering from a lack of investment and focus. I think D&AD provides a platform where we can at least start to talk about this and help expose that there is this opportunity, really, for agencies and other organisations in the industry to come in to try to support.”