D&AD Names Design Leader Lisa Smith as President, Announces Annual & Trend Report 2025

Sep. 19, 2025

D&AD, the global non-profit driving creative excellence, education, and impact, is excited to announce the release of its Annual & Trend Report 2025, marked by the appointment of internationally-acclaimed design leader Lisa Smith as its new President for the 2025/2026 term, succeeding Kwame Taylor-Hayford.

Lisa Smith steps into role as D&AD President

Based in New York, Lisa represents both the organisation’s growing reach in the US and steadfast commitment to celebrating world-class creative work and nurturing future talent, unencumbered by background, geography or disruptive emerging technologies.

Lisa is one the world’s most renowned creative leaders, with deep roots at D&AD as an award winner, program leader, Advisory Board Member and Trustee. Like Kwame, Lisa’s boundless expertise and mentorship is also vital to the Shift program – D&AD’s award-winning free night school for self-made creatives – helping to cultivate new career pathways for a growing field of emerging talent.

As Global Chief Design Officer at Uncommon Creative Studio, she continues to lead the studio’s vision to embed design at the core of everything it creates – from the biggest rebrand in entertainment history for EA Sports, to the most influential campaign in Instagram’s 15 year history with ANYWAY, to evolving The Ordinary’s in-store retail experience worldwide. Before that, Lisa was Global Executive Creative Director at Jones Knowles Ritchie, where she played a pivotal role in global rebrands for Walmart, Burger King, Mozilla, Paramount, Uber, Impossible Foods, Nordstrom Rack, Fanta, and Manischewitz. For her creative excellence, she’s earned countless awards and was named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in 2021.

Now as D&AD President, Lisa will help lead the organisation as the entire industry faces an urgent need to adapt to a rapidly evolving business and creative landscape.

She Explained:

"There’s a fundamental transformation happening – driven by emerging technologies, shifting cultural dynamics, and a redefinition of what ‘creativity’ even means. The lines between disciplines are dissolving. To meet these challenges, the industry must embrace adaptability over tradition, investing in continuous learning, championing non-linear talent pathways, and fostering more inclusive, cross-functional collaboration – qualities that have been central to D&AD’s mission and offering from the beginning. As President, I'm honoured that I can play an even bigger role in strengthening that legacy.”

 

Tim Lindsay, Chairman, D&AD added:

"Lisa brings an exceptional blend of experience, creativity, and leadership to D&AD. She bridges the often-divided worlds of design, advertising and brand, aligning perfectly with D&AD’s mission to celebrate, stimulate and enable commercial creativity. Lisa’s long-standing connection with D&AD, both as a participant and advocate, makes her uniquely positioned to guide the organisation as it navigates the challenges and opportunities of today’s ever-changing creative landscape."

 

D&AD launches 63rd D&AD Annual & Trend Report

Lisa’s new role comes on the heels of both the launch of the 63rd D&AD Annual and its complementary Trend Report.

Designed in partnership with Jones Knowles Ritchie – who also created D&AD's Awards and Festival campaigns – the Annual is D&AD’s renowned free digital resource showcasing all of its shortlisted and Pencil-winning work of 2025. The platform has become renowned for its wealth of creative knowledge, via interviews with winners and industry leaders unpacking trends, as well as unparalleled deep dives into the most creative work across advertising and design.

For example, this year’s Behind the Work videos offer inside stories on groundbreaking projects, including Spreadbeats, Nike Run, A Tale as Old as Websites, and Macao Design Awards 2023 Exhibition - Tokyo, among others. Invaluable written interviews and analysis are also provided by creator Cole Walliser, photographer Jack Davision, podcaster Debbie Millman, Black Girl Gamers founder Jay-Ann Lopez, SevenSix Agency founder Charlotte Stavrou, author Rama Gheerawo and model/author Naomi Shimada.

The D&AD Annual serves as the ultimate educational and inspirational resource for both emerging and established creatives, reaching over 200,000 users.

The Annual 2025 is free to access and is available here.

Meanwhile, the Trend Report 2025 captures insights and trends across 30,000 pieces of work, submitted to the D&AD Awards from 86 countries around the world. Co-produced with The Thought Partnership, the report contains work profiles and wisdom from D&AD judges, divided across six emerging themes representing the year’s most consequential trends:

• Sea-Change Design: Design delivering business growth, transformation and behavioural change
• The Emotive Screen: Gaming's growth as an effective platform for changing perceptions, challenging biases, and increasing inclusion
• Full-Service Creator:  The rise of creators as architects of entire brand campaigns
• Unmistakably Human: Ideas that embrace irrational, absurd, weird, wacky, and handmade qualities
• Brand DNA: Connecting brand heritage and modernity to create distinctive branding that resonates
• Radical Candour: Turning honesty into a brand strategy for earning trust

The report also addresses the growing impact of AI on the creativity industry, with insights on how AI can be better deployed and where creative leaders think it's headed next.