South Africa's D&AD 2021 winners: Massif wins a pencil

11 Jun 2021

The D&AD Award Winners for 2021 revealed that South Africa had some pencil winners and shortlisted candidates. I spoke to director at Massif, Marc Sidelsky, on winning a wood pencil for their video featuring sneaker boutique Shelflife and the 'Stussy x Nike'.

Marc Sidelsky, director at Massif

With international awards season underway, as well as The One Club’s Creative Week underway from 7-11 June, South Africa has been making impressive strides. For D&AD, three South African companies have won multiple pencils and seven were shortlisted for awards.

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Here, Sidelsky speaks about their win and how they plan on continuing the good work they have been doing…

Congratulations on your win! Could you take us through this year's wins for the agency?

Massif is a production company and the winning piece, ‘Weird’, for sneaker boutique Shelflife and the ‘Stussy x Nike’ collaboration was done direct-to-client. I wrote and directed the film. It is a two and half minute online film that refreshes the notion and tone of traditional fashion advertising. I believe we achieved our goal of creating an engaging, stylish and darkly amusing tale where the clothes are integrated seamlessly, being key to the plot. The film is a complex balancing act; aesthetically striking, funny – in a smart, off beat way… hypnotic and dreamy.

What was your previous D&AD "pencil box" record?

This was my first win personally and the first for the company, which is nearly four years old.

Share your strategy to keep those international accolades coming.

From a personal perspective, it’s to keep pushing clients, pushing my personal craft – using a win like this as a reminder of what is possible when the stars align.