International: The One Club for Creativity, the world’s foremost non-profit organization recognizing creative excellence in advertising and design, has opened the call for entries for Young Guns 19, celebrating international creative professionals age 30 or younger.
Young Guns is the industry’s only global, cross-disciplinary, portfolio-based awards competition that identifies and celebrates today’s vanguard of young creatives.
The renowned competitions regularly attract entries from upwards of 45 countries, with more than half coming from outside the US. Winners will be selected by a jury made up of past Young Guns winners and other creative leaders, to be announced shortly.
The program is open to creatives age 30 and under who have been working for at least two years, full-time or freelance. Eligible entrants can submit a combination of professional and personal work in graphic design; advertising art direction and copywriting; architectural, environmental and interior design; industrial and product design; digital (UX/UI, experiential design, interactive, web design, apps, game development): film and animation (motion design, television, video); fashion; typography and lettering; illustration and photography.
The online entry system is open, with the reduced-fee early deadline of June 30, regular deadline July 12, 2021 and final deadline July 26, 2021. This year’s winners will be announced in the fall.
Past Young Guns include rising stars who went on to become leaders in their chosen fields, including graphic designers James Victore (YG1), Stefan Sagmeister (YG1), Natasha Jen (YG3) and Jessica Walsh (YG8); ad creatives Rei Inamoto (YG4) and Menno Kluin (YG6); illustrators Christoph Niemann (YG2) and Deanne Cheuk (YG4); fashion designer Kerby Jean-Raymond (YG14); director Joseph Kosinski (YG4), artist/filmmaker Calmatic (YG16); director/photographer India Sleem (YG17); photographer Ryan McGuinness (YG2); typographers Alex Trochut (YG6) and Gemma O’Brien (YG13); film and video director Mike Mills, animation artist Todd St. John (YG1) and others.
All Young Guns winners will receive a unique version of the iconic Young Guns Cube, designed exclusively for this year’s incoming class, and have their permanent profile page added to the Young Guns website. Winners also receive a complimentary one-year One Club for Creativity membership, permanent membership in the Young Guns network, a chance to be featured in Young Guns events and an assortment of career-boosting opportunities from Young Guns sponsors.
Program branding and design of the Cube award itself is reimagined each year by a past Young Gun winner. This year’s YG19 branding and award are designed by Simon Chénier-Gauvreau (YG12), head of design at TUX Creative, Montréal. Themed “Bright Days Await”, the branding draws parallels between the bright future that Young Guns brings to a creative’s career, and that of a post-pandemic world. The campaign features vibrant, bucolic visuals to create a lighthearted and reassuring feel.
“Young Guns has a unique place in the creative world for considering a body of both professional and personal work from an individual, not just a single design or ad,” said Kevin Swanepoel, CEO, The One Club. “Winning is special because we’re celebrating a creative person’s individuality, as well as elevating the next generation of creative leaders.”
