The 2026 D&AD New Blood Awards produced one clear result: a project on menstruation claimed both of the year's top honours.

That sentence is the only fact on the record so far. Industry coverage flagged the win in its headline summary; the credited school, students, category, and judging notes will follow when D&AD publishes its 2026 New Blood archive.

What are the New Blood Awards?

D&AD — the London-based design and advertising body — runs New Blood as its student and recent-graduate track. Entries compete under a pencil system used for decades: Wood for work that meets the brief, Graphite for work above the bar, Yellow for standout craft, and Black for the rare piece the jury calls definitive.

The Black Pencil is the top tier. D&AD does not award it every cycle. When it does, the entry becomes a reference point for that year's student output.

What does "both top honours" mean?

The headline says the project took the two highest awards in the 2026 New Blood slate. By D&AD's structure, that points to:

• A Black Pencil in the entry's primary category
• A second Black Pencil or a "Best in Show"-equivalent overall award

Jury discussions run in closed sessions during the late-spring judging week. A clean sweep of the top tier tells the industry the panel treated the piece as year-defining, not a category leader.

Why does a menstruation project matter for the race?

Menstrual health has appeared in student work before, but rarely at the top of the New Blood hierarchy. Recent Black Pencil winners in the student track have skewed toward brand redesigns, social-impact campaigns, and identity systems.

A health-and-gender entry sweeping the 2026 top tier signals a clear jury shift. For the 2027 cycle, schools submitting work on under-discussed health, gender, or body topics now have a precedent: such briefs can clear the highest bar.

What changes downstream?

New Blood results feed the professional awards calendar. Yellow and Black Pencil entries from recent cycles have crossed over to the D&AD Professional Awards and to Cannes Lions, The One Show, and the ADC Annual Awards later in the same calendar year.

A double top-honour at New Blood raises the ceiling for what a student entry can carry into those shows in autumn 2026.

What's still unknown?

• Which school and which students are credited
• Which category the entry was filed under
• Whether the work has a life beyond the student brief — a non-profit partner, a planned rollout, or a campaign bid
• Whether the entry will re-enter at the D&AD Professional level later this year

D&AD has not yet posted its full 2026 New Blood winners' page. Watch for that update within the next two weeks.