Art Directors Club reinvents ADC Young Guns Program

NEW YORK — 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 (http://adcglobal.org/awards/adc-young-guns-2016/) 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.

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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 (see below for complete list).

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”, said Philippe Meunier, ADC Board president and creative chief/co-founder, Sid Lee. “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.”

Nicole Jacek, founder/director, NJ(L.A.), ADC Young Guns chair and ADC Board member, added: “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.”

“Starting this year, ADC Young Guns now goes beyond an award and back to ADC’s roots of being a real club,” said David Charles, head of David Charles Creative and a Sundance New Frontier and Documentary Lab fellow. “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.”

The complete ADC Young Guns 2016 influencer committee includes: