Yoto’s latest audio player scooped a Wood Pencil at this year’s Design & Art Direction Awards, representing the best of the year in design.

Yoto has announced that its audio player Yoto Mini has earned a Wood Pencil – representing the best of the year in design – at the 2022 D&AD Awards in the Product Design ‘Everyday Consumer Products’ category.

The D&AD Award website states: “Yoto Mini was designed from the ground up for children but is deliberately not too toy-like, appealing to kids of all ages. The use of physical cards for audio playback lets children as young as two explore their favourite stories and music independently, while also promoting tactile play and helping with fine motor control development.”

D&AD has been celebrating the finest in design and advertising since 1962. Famously tough to win and highly sought-after, there are no quotas for D&AD Awards, meaning the number of awarded entries fluctuates each year. The D&AD Awards are recognised globally as the ultimate creative accolade, entered and attended by the best from around the world.

Ben Drury, CEO of Yoto, said: “Being awarded a D&AD Pencil is one of the highest accolades in the design and creative industry and we are incredibly proud. Winning the Wood Pencil means our Yoto Mini will be featured in the digital D&AD Annual and online archive and will be a source of inspiration for creatives around the world forevermore. We thank our valued design partners at Pentagram for their incredible vision and we celebrate this win with them.”

Jon Marshall, partner at  design consultancy Pentagram, said: “To win D&AD Pencil is a huge privilege for any design team but great design work is only possible with great clients – we are proud to celebrate this recognition together with the team at Yoto who made this project possible.”