After cleaning up at the recent D&AD awards, it looks like UK based companies in the global design industry are once again taking centre stage. But how long can this last?

Although members of the design, creative and advertising industries aren't exactly hard done by when it comes to award ceremonies, the D&AD bash and coveted award ceremony in London is widely thought of as the top ticket of the year.

The D&AD (Design and Art Direction) organisation - an educational charity established in 1962to work on behalf of the international design and advertising communities - splits its annual awards up into two main categories: Gold and Silver. While Silver Awards are given out to a fair number of entrants, the Gold Awards are reserved only for work that, according to the organisation, "breaks the mould or sets a new standard of creative excellence".

So when this year three of the four top awards were scooped by UK talent - two by advertising agency Wieden and Kennedy and one by Channel 4's 4creative group - beating off entries from across the globe, the UK's current top spot in the global arena seemed to be set in stone.

But that hasn't always been the case. While the UK advertising industry, led by the likes of Saatchi and Saatchi, enjoyed a golden age during the money-driven, consumer frenzy o the eighties, the recession of the early nineties saw many large global accounts fall into the laps of UK-based agencies and creative teams. The UK licked its wounds and waited for the tide of favour and the economy to turn...

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