Blood Stocks, a Danish proposal to turn menstruation into a medical asset, was the only project at tonight’s ceremony in London to take both a Black Pencil and a White Pencil. Here’s why it struck such a chord.
Here’s a lovely thing. The work that defined this year’s D&AD New Blood Awards wasn’t a glossy product film or a clever brand stunt, but a thoughtful, brave proposal about menstruation – and it earned its makers both of the night’s top honours.
Announced yesterday evening at The Steel Yard in London, Blood Stocks proposes treating menstruation as a medical asset rather than something to be quietly managed and never spoken about. It was the only project in the entire programme to take both a Black Pencil, D&AD’s highest honour, and a White Pencil, the award kept back for creativity that does some good in the world.
Created in response to the Canesten New Blood brief, in collaboration with Design Bridge & Partners, Blood Stocks is the work of Jens Kühnel and Kirstine Vilsen, two students from DMJX, the Danish School of Media and Journalism. The idea is a first-of-its-kind donation model tied to the menstrual cycle, one that turns monthly donors into active stakeholders in women’s health research. It takes a subject long buried under stigma and reframes it as something genuinely valuable. The judges clearly agreed.
As many of us know, Black Pencils are rare things. Only two were handed out this year, and the second went to Kuwait. Young Explorer: Independence with a Snap, created for Wise by Mohammed Al Sane, tackles the tender moment when a child starts to need a little financial independence while parents still want a safety net. At its heart is ‘The Snap’, a physical card that snaps in two to mark a handover of trust, paired with digital touches like an activity map and tap-to-transfer.
Creativity that does good
The three remaining White Pencils all went to work with real heart. Play Aid, by Daniela Santucci and Santiago Cáceres at Miami Ad School Madrid in Spain (for the Affinity and Canva brief), redesigns the inside of humanitarian food-aid packaging as printed play boards, giving children living through conflict something to play with at no extra shipping weight or cost. 2Integrate, by Guus Vercoutere and Mats Mondy at LUCA School of Arts in Belgium (the Duolingo brief), works with UNHCR to turn language learning into a survival tool, helping asylum seekers communicate in urgent, real-world moments as they rebuild their lives. And Launch Pads, by a four-strong team at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore (Affinity and Canva again), designs period products for girls who start their periods young, made to help a first period feel ordinary rather than taboo.
In all, 175 Pencils were handed out across the 2026 programme: two Black, four White, 24 Yellow, 42 Graphite and 103 Wood. Winners came from 29 countries, drawn from more than 7,000 entrants across 78 countries, with 165 judges marking the work against the same standards as the main D&AD Awards. They were responding to 19 briefs from global brands including Twix, HSBC, Duolingo, L’Oréal, Tuborg, Wise, Carrefour and Canesten, which D&AD says makes it the most global group of partners in its history.
Denmark was the real standout among the smaller nations, taking a Pencil in all five tiers: Wood, Graphite, Yellow, White and Black. The UK led the table overall with 51 Pencils, followed by Spain with 19, France with 16, Denmark with 15, and the United States with 11.
It all adds up to something, too. For 46 years, New Blood has set live briefs from real brands, and this year’s were downloaded 227,000 times in over 90 countries. With 65% of last year’s winners already in creative employment, a New Blood Pencil has become one of the clearest early signals of who the industry should be watching. This year also marked another milestone for Design Bridge & Partners, whose practice of bringing the brief-sponsorship opportunity to its clients has now helped generate 111 Pencils.
“What strikes me most this year is how global New Blood has become,” says David Patton, D&AD CEO. “We had our highest ever number of international briefs this year, and the only two Black Pencils awarded went to work made in Denmark and Kuwait. New Blood is the world’s largest programme for students and emerging talent, but scale and reach are only part of the story. By setting students real briefs from leading brands, we give them the skills to progress and help bridge the gap between education and industry, wherever in the world they’re starting out. None of it would be possible without our partners, university tutors and the wider creative community, 1,000 of whom came to support the students at our private view to kick off the New Blood Festival last night.”
If you want to see the work for yourself, the D&AD New Blood Festival, the free annual showcase of the UK’s best graduating talent, is running this week at Protein Studios in London. It features work from more than 40 university courses alongside exhibitions of the Award winners, plus talks from the likes of Anthony Burrill, Josh Akapo, Seen Studios and Mother.
You can see all the winning entries over at dandad.org. Not a bad year, then, for the work that dares to talk about the things we usually keep quiet.
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