The One Club Opens Call for Entries For Global Young Guns 18

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 18, 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 of 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 30th, 2020 and final deadline of July 10th, 2020. 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); artist/filmmaker Calmatic (YG16); film 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 recreated each year by a past Young Gun winner. This year’s YG18 branding and award are designed by CONTINO, New York, founded by creative director and YG9 winner Jon Contino.   

“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.”

Young Guns 18 and other One Club activities are made possible in part through the generous support of sponsors including Levine/Leavitt and Shutterstock. 

The One Club for Creativity, producer of The One Show, ADC Annual Awards and Creative Week, is the world's foremost non-profit organization whose mission is to support and celebrate the success of the global creative community.  The One Show is a top global awards show for advertising, design and digital marketing, focusing on the creativity of ideas and quality of execution. The global ADC Annual Awards honors creative excellence in craft, design and innovation across all disciplines. Creative Week takes place in New York every May, and is the preeminent festival celebrating the intersection of advertising and the arts.