Art Directors Club reinvents ADC Young Guns program

Cristina Blanaru Creativity, Education, Marketing

The Art Directors Club, one of the world’s first non-profit organizations to champion commercial creativity and the artists who create it, today announced a significant reinvention of its international ADC Young Guns program honoring the body of work from creatives 30 years of age and under.

In a bold departure from the traditional awards show model, the organization has transformed the program, now in its 14th iteration, into a curated invitation competition where nominees will be handpicked by an esteemed cultural influencer committee made up of 40 leading thinkers, makers and visionaries from 11 countries representing a range of creative fields.

The influencer committee, which is highly diverse in terms of gender and ethnicity, includes ADC Hall of Fame laureates Paula Scher – partner, Pentagram and John Maeda – design partner, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, as well as creative luminaries such as Apple creative director Arem Duplessis, The New York Times Magazine deputy art director Gail Bichler, PAPER Magazine co-founder and editor Kim Hastreiter, OK Go bassist Timothy Nordwind, R/GA vice chairman Nick Law and others.

Each member of the influencer committee will nominate five individuals from around the world who they feel are the most talented and forward-shaping creatives 30 and under in any creative field, including design, motion, photography, advertising, new media and product design.  The 200 influencer committee nominees will be notified and asked to submit their portfolios free of charge.

In addition to the influencer committee nominations, ADC members are eligible to submit their portfolios online free of charge to be considered for a select group of additional nominations chosen by ADC staff.

ADC YG 2016 winners will be announced and celebrated in September 2016, and a selection of their work shown in the ADC Young Guns 2016 global traveling exhibition.

A prestigious final judging panel of 12 who will make the ultimate selection for the next generation of honorees is split between past ADC Young Guns and ADC Board members, including a few who are both.  The panel includes past ADC YGs Rei Inamoto, Inamoto & Co. (formerly of AKQA); Natasha Jen, Pentagram; Tracy Ma, Bloomberg Businessweek and Stefan Sagmeister, Sagmeister & Walsh, as well as ADC Board members Keira Alexander, Work-Order, Day for Night Festival (also a past YG winner); David Charles, David Charles Creative and Sundance fellow; Kim Hastreiter, PAPER Magazine; Nicole Jacek, NJ(L.A.) (past YG); Masashi Kawamura, PARTY (past YG); Dany Lennon, Creative Register; Noreen Morioka, M+ and Philippe Meunier, Sid Lee.

Our goal with the new ADC Young Guns is to curate talent and build a invigorating club for the creative community (…) Rather than an award program, ADC YG is now a creative incubator and ongoing platform built to cultivate the winners’ talents and help them make big, beautiful things in their careers.

Philippe Meunier,

ADC Board president and creative chief/co-founder, Sid Lee

With guidance from a global panel of top-tier influencers who have helped shape and evolve our culture in so many ways, ADC Young Guns has been transformed from a traditional industry competition into a whole new curated program that will identify, celebrate and nurture the most interesting, innovative and future-shaping young creatives from around the world.

Nicole Jacek,

founder/director, NJ(L.A.), ADC Young Guns chair and ADC Board member

Starting this year, ADC Young Guns now goes beyond an award and back to ADC’s roots of being a real club (…) It will now be an inspiring, safe space for the best young talent in the world to further develop their craft and talents with mentorship, special events and fellowships that help them become the people steering the ship towards a more creative and kinder future for our industry.

David Charles,

head of David Charles Creative and a Sundance New Frontier and Documentary Lab fellow

The complete ADC Young Guns 2016 influencer committee includes:

  • Rebecca Allen, UCLA Media Arts (USA)
  • Héctor Ayuso, OFFF (Spain)
  • Sam Baron, Fabrica (Italy)
  • Alex Bec, It’s Nice That (UK)
  • Gail Bichler, The New York Times Magazine (USA)
  • Tim Brown, IDEO (USA)
  • Alex Czetwertynski, creative/tech director (USA)
  • Liza Defossez Ramalho, R2 (Portugal)
  • Pinar Demirdağ & Viola Renate, Pinar & Viola (France/Turkey)
  • Arem Duplessis, Apple (USA)
  • Justin Gignac, Working Not Working (USA)
  • Kim Hastreiter, PAPER Magazine (USA)
  • Jessica Helfand, Design Observer (USA)
  • Erik Kessels, Kesselskramer (Netherlands)
  • Gary Koepke, SapientNitro (USA)
  • Nick Law, R/GA (USA)
  • Jonathan Levine, Master & Dynamic (USA)
  • Tracy Ma, Bloomberg Businessweek (USA)
  • John Maeda, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (USA)
  • Debbie Millman, Sterling Brands (USA)
  • Timothy Nordwind, OK Go (USA)
  • Eddie Opara, Pentagram (USA)
  • David OReilly, artist (USA)
  • PES (Adam Pesapane), PES Films (USA)
  • Louisa Pillot, Bromance Records (France)
  • Matt Pyke, Universal Everything (UK)
  • Craig Redman, Craig & Karl (UK/USA)
  • Joachim Sauter, ART+COM (Germany)
  • Paula Scher, Pentagram (USA)
  • Bibi Seck, Birsel + Seck (Senegal)
  • Kamal SInclair, Sundance (USA)
  • Louisa St. Pierre, Bernstein & Andriulli (USA)
  • Richard Turley, MTV (USA)
  • Elizabeth Valleau, Grey Group (USA)
  • Alissa Walker, Gizmodo (USA)
  • Jessica Walsh, Sagmeister & Walsh (USA)
  • Kelly Woh, AKQA (China)
  • Robert Wong, Google Creative Lab (USA)
  • Martin Woodtli (Switzerland)

The reinvented ADC Young Guns is a multifaceted member club focused on curating talent.  ADC Young Guns sets itself apart by selecting its members by their entire body of work and their personalities, in a quest to recognize the most creative young, forward-thinking talent in the world in all fields of creativity, from advertising to film and technology to industrial design.

The ADC Young Guns Club has five components:

  • ADC YG Dinners: ADC will host curated ADC YG Dinners at interesting spot around the world, including at a number of NeueHouse The exclusive guests will include a mix of ADC Young Guns, ADC YG Nominators, ADC YG Judges, cultural influencers and members of NeueHouse.  The inaugural dinner will take place on June 15, 2016 in NYC curated by Kim Hastreiter, co- founder and editor, PAPER Magazine.
  • ADC YG Lectures/Screenings: ADC will also hold lectures and screenings at NeueHouses and other locations around the world featuring ADC Young Guns, their work and stories, and will be open exclusively to ADC Young Guns and NeueHouse members.
  • ADC YG Parties: A number of parties and creative stimulating experiences will be held around the world at NeueHouses and elsewhere, exclusively for the ADC Young Guns Club members. The inaugural ADC YG Party will happen this summer, featuring performances by WOLVVES NYC and Xia Xia Technique (Timothy Nordwind and Dan Konopka of OK Go DJ set, featuring Psychoflower MC).
  • ADC YG Awards Show: ADC will announce and celebrate ADC YG Winners each year at NeueHouse in Hollywood, CA. The glamorously cool show will be open exclusively for the ADC Young Guns Club, ADC Members, ADC YG Judges, ADC YG Nominators and selected cultural influencers.  The inaugural ADC YG Awards Show on September 22, 2016 will be an intimate creative experience featuring exclusive music and art.
  • ADC YG Exhibitions: More than just a traveling exhibition, this immersive creative experience will showcase the mind-blowing work of each year’s new ADC YG Winners.
  • Other elements of the the program include an original ADC YG song composed and performed by Xia Xia Technique (Timothy Nordwind and Dan Konopka of OK Go featuring Psychoflower MC) and music video, both in collaboration with NJ(L.A.); partnership with NeueHouse locations worldwide and media partnership with PAPER Magazine; and a new ADC YG Award Cube designed and engineered by Master & Dynamic, in collaboration with NJ(L.A.).

ADC Young Guns and other club activities throughout the year are made possible in part through the generous support of ADC global partner Shutterstock.

Art Directors Club is the first non-profit membership organization to celebrate and award the global creative community, boasting one of the most concentrated groups of creative talent in the world since 1920. ADC’s mission is to connect creative professionals across gender, race and industry, and provide the educational resources they need to inspire successful careers built on world-changing ideas. From its Manhattan Gallery headquarters to its international membership base, ADC provides a neutral forum for creatives of all levels to network, learn and grow.