Raw Materials on winning D&AD’s Design Studio of the Year by being unusual

How do you win one of the design industry’s biggest awards within only a year of being founded? We chatted with John Roescher, Pablo Marques, and Jennifer Allen to learn the secrets of their distinctive approach.

Each year, D&AD, the global association of creative advertising and design communities, publishes its official table of the most successful design agencies. These rankings are based on the results of the D&AD Awards, with companies allocated points for each win.

This year, the overall winner is Raw Materials, which is unusual for two reasons. Firstly, because the American agency – a team of digital product designers, brand designers, strategists and technologists – was only founded in 2023. And secondly, because, well, that’s what they call themselves. The tagline on their homepage is literally: “An unusual design company”.

Working with early start-ups and established brands such as Meta, Peacock, JP Morgan Chase, and 7-Eleven, Raw Materials aims to break the mould of repetitive, cookie-cutter digital products, instead opting for work that embraces difference as a competitive advantage.

As their mission statement says, “We believe that when everything is the same, different is the greatest of opportunities. Unusual wins. We bring together bold and ambitious company leaders and the best creative talent in the world to design and build products founded on the power of difference.”

So, what does that philosophy look like in practice? And how did this approach catapult Raw Materials to become the D&AD Design Studio of the Year within just a year of operation? We caught up with CEO John Roescher, CCO Pablo Marques and COO Jennifer Allen to delve deeper into what makes Raw Materials so… well, unusual.

Origin story

We start with the agency’s origin story. As John puts it, the core idea behind its launch was simple but compelling: “When everything is the same, different is the greatest opportunity.”

Where was the most “sameness” and, as a consequence, the most opportunity? This question led them to the digital space, which they believed had become an environment of monotony, particularly in the area of product design.

In other words, digital experiences – the touchpoints between businesses and consumers – were becoming too similar across industries. “We found a lot of reasons for that,” John says. “And those reasons led to how we decided to build an agency, build a team, build a practice that would solve that problem.”

Addressing sameness

From day one, then, the philosophy that drives Raw Materials has been a desire to break from convention and find new solutions. “It’s finding the thing that’s better than what exists already, or that’s better than any obvious idea, the easiest path or the most optimised path,” explains John.

“If you can find that and you can pull that off, it’s always going to be more successful just by definition. It’s that it is hard work to get there. It’s hard work to figure that thing out. But if we can find that thing and pull it off, everyone’s going to see results that are much better than what they’ve experienced before.”

This might all sound like common sense, but Jennifer argues that even supposedly creative agencies typically tend in the opposite direction.

“The temptation in business is always to follow what appears to be working for others,” she says. “But for us, the goal is to do things differently: not for the sake of being different, but to achieve something more impactful.”

Collaborative culture

So, how have they taken this philosophy and actually put it into practice? Ultimately, it’s in how they work with clients and collaborators, and collaboration with other agencies is key.

“We’re not competing with other agencies,” Pablo explains. “I’ve been in this industry so long. Everyone who’s doing this thing is usually a friend, you know? Instead, we’re competing with the problem itself. The problem of making something new, something good that actually makes a difference.”

Instead, they think of everyone in the space as colleagues, not competition. “We are all competing with the same problem: creating things that matter,” says Pablo. “So we’re not trying to be the agency that beats everyone else. We’re trying to inspire others to push boundaries too.”

And this is why the agency places such an emphasis on creativity – not just as a buzzword but as a vital force that can drive meaningful change. That’s necessary, Jennifer believes, because creativity has become devalued in some circles, particularly in industries that are more risk-averse.

“There’s a misconception that creativity is just fluff,” she noted. “But creativity is essential. It’s what helps businesses innovate. When we talk about creativity, we’re not talking about making things more colourful; we’re talking about solving problems in new ways.”

Standout projects

So, what does all this look like in practice? One standout project has been Raw Materials’ work with Peacock, NBC Universal’s streaming service. “The client came to us at a time when the streaming space was already saturated,” Pablo explains. “The challenge wasn’t just to build another platform, but to create something that felt different, something that gave users an experience they weren’t getting anywhere else.”

The team approached the project by reintroducing elements of serendipity that traditional TV once offered. “A lot of our design work for Peacock focused on making it easier for users to find something to watch without all the friction,” says Pablo. “When you used to turn on the TV, you didn’t have to think; you just let it play in the background. We wanted to bring that ease back.”

Another key client, convenience store chain 7-Eleven, offered a different kind of challenge but one that similarly called for a creative solution. “They had multiple apps, each serving different functions,” Roescher recalled. “It was confusing for users, and the apps didn’t really reflect the essence of the brand.”

The team streamlined the experience by consolidating all the functionality into a single, user-friendly app, which now has over 100 million downloads and a 4.8-star rating across app stores. “But we didn’t just want to create another app; we wanted to create something that felt uniquely 7-Eleven,” adds John. “It wasn’t just about making it functional; it was about connecting it to the brand’s essence.”

Future challenges

So what of the future? John re-emphasises that for Raw Materials, chasing trends is the antithesis of creativity. “If everyone’s doing the same thing, what value does it hold after the hundredth time it’s been replicated?” he argues.

So, while he acknowledges the temptation to follow design trends, whether they’re as small as a UI pattern or as significant as a branding strategy, he stresses that Raw Materials has built its reputation on resisting that temptation.

“We don’t want to be part of the trend,” he explains. “We want to find the right solution, and sometimes the right solution doesn’t look like what everyone else is doing.”

As for the current discussion around integrating AI and machine learning into creative work, he believes the real challenge is figuring out how to use these tools without falling into a new kind of sameness. “The future of design isn’t in AI taking over the creative process,” he said. “It’s in how we as designers use these tools to solve problems in new and innovative ways.”

Willingness to be different

As they reflect on their rapid rise to success, all three leaders of Raw Materials agree that the secret lies not just in their willingness to be different but also in their deep commitment to collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving.

“At the end of the day, we’re a business,” says Jennifer. “But we’re a creative business. And those two things don’t have to be at odds with each other. When you focus on values – on really understanding the problems that need solving – creativity isn’t just a nice-to-have; it becomes essential.”

In a world where designs often seem to blend together, Raw Materials has proven that being unusual truly wins.