Naresh Ramchandani D&AD President

D&AD has announced the appointment of Naresh Ramchandani as President of D&AD for 2020-21. He has been a member of D&AD since 2014.

Pentagram Partner and a founder of both St Luke’s and Karmarama, Naresh Ramchandani succeeds Kate Stanners, Saatchi and Saatchi Worldwide CCO. Rebecca Wright, Dean, Academic Programmes, Central St Martins/UAL, has been named Deputy President by D&AD.

In the wake of the pandemic, Ramchandani is expected to “address the challenges the creative industries are facing”. As President, he will help drive existing programmes as well as chart new frontiers for “emerging creatives and under-represented voices”.

“I’m looking forward to exploring how creatives and their agencies can engage with their social impact and do so with the highest standards of creativity,” said Ramchandani.

Congratulating Ramchandani, Tim Lindsay, D&AD Chairman, said, “Naresh’s appointment speaks for itself. He is an industry legend, a positive provocateur and a strong believer in making the right ethical choices for our industry. Rebecca’s appointment — which is a break with tradition for D&AD — means she will be our first Deputy President from the academic world, at a time when finding, nurturing, and supporting young talent has never been more important.”

It was in 1990 that Ramchandani started his career as copywriter, then at HHCL, later moving to Chiat/Day where he became the standard-setter by shaping Chiat/Day into St Luke’s, Britain’s first cooperative agency. In 1997, Ramchandani designed a path-breaking campaign called ‘Chuck Out Its Chintz’ for IKEA’s modern furnishings. It was under his leadership that St Luke’s became the Agency of the Year in 1999. In 2000, he found Karmarama, where he designed the famous anti-war poster titled ‘Make Tea, Not War’ to stop the war coalition.

Ramchandani also went on to create the much talked-about “elite designer Van Den Puup” for IKEA. Den Puup believed that “design should be exclusive, for the few and should, therefore, be very, very expensive”, an thinly veiled act of self-deprecation.

With the tagline ‘Please be remembering us’ he came up with a nearly-racist campaign in support of the local Asian corner shop which was being literally “shrouded” by a new Sainsbury. He was also a columnist with The Guardian and wrote 63 thought pieces about how brands need to connect with consumers in a “new media-fragmented marketing-resistant century”.

Ramchandani is the Co-Founder of ‘Do the Green Thing’, a non-profit public service that has inspired as many as 40 million people worldwide to live a greener life. Apart from this he also designed YouTube’s first ever advertising campaign, “YouTube’s got TV”. Ramchandani also created a “What Type Are you” microsite for Pentagram that got 8 million hits and generated 400,000 type diagnoses. His short film on Henry Ponder, one of Britain’s most thoughtful but underrated poets, was screened at Cannes in 2015.

In 1994, Ramchandani was regarded as the ‘Second Youngest Creative Director in London’. He won the ‘Best Ad in The World at Cannes’ for his second TV commercial, made for Maxwell tapes.