Close-Up: These are lean times. But not at D&AD, it seems.(Garrick Hamm)

Garrick Hamm, the D&AD president, says despite the recession, the quality of this year's award entries still shone through.

So, D&AD judging is over. No tears, no toy-throwing and no walkouts. The spirit was uplifting. The awards team is double-checking all the results as I write, but you should have heard by now that we have more nominations than we've had in years. The big question is: will the generosity in nominations translate into a bumper crop of Pencils? You'll have to come to the ceremony on 11 June at the Roundhouse in Camden, London to find out.

It'll be no surprise to anyone to hear that entries were a bit down this year. The results are showing, though, that this hasn't translated into a dip in the quality of the work. Entrants seemed to have considered more carefully where they entered. The same piece of work wasn't carpet-bombed into ten categories - something the juries will have been very grateful for.

I was anxious the week before judging, wondering if juries might take a dim view of the work in tough economic times, but it was clearly quite the opposite. The week was full of optimism, banter and discussion Maybe it was the radiant natural light beaming through the great iron arches of Kensington Olympia's Grand Hall or just the fact that the juries entered judging this year in an upbeat manner. Whatever it was, the event ran on rails.

About 270 leading creatives judged more than 20,000 pieces of work last week. An additional 160 turned up to judge student awards, too - ...