The Art Directors Club announces the 2016 winners of its newly reinvented international ADC Young Guns program honoring creatives in a range of fields who are 30 years old or younger.

In a bold departure from the traditional awards show model, ADC this year transformed the Young Guns program, now in its 14th iteration, into a curated invitation competition where nominees are 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 awards will be presented at the ADC Young Guns 2016 celebration and party on September 22 at the ADC Gallery in New York.

The ADC Young Guns for 2016, representing eight countries, are:

  • Becky & Joe (Becky Sloan and Joe Pelling), animators, directors, Becky and Joe, London, UK
  • Jack Beveridge, senior creative, multidisciplinary designer, Google Creative Labs, London, UK
  • Florian Born, interactive designer, Berlin, Germany
  • George Michael Brower, interactive artist, Always & Forever Computer Entertainment, Brooklyn, NY, USA
  • Sean Buckelew, animator, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • Santiago Carrasquilla, designer, animator, filmmaker, Brooklyn, NY, USA
  • Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), directors, PRETTYBIRD, Culver City, CA, USA
  • Pablo Delcan, graphic designer, Delcan & Company, New York, NY, USA
  • Vika Eksta, photographer, Graveri, Aglonas novads, Latvia
  • Laila Gohar, food designer, Sunday Supper, New York, NY, USA
  • Coralie Gourguechon, interdisciplinary designer, Fabrica, Treviso, Italy
  • Rachael K. Harvey, executive creative producer, environments, Airbnb, San Francisco, CA, USA
  • Joe Hollier, multidisciplinary designer, Light, Brooklyn, NY, USA
  • Kerby Jean-Raymond, fashion designer, Pyer Moss, Queens, NY, USA
  • Ann-Katrin Krenz, interactive designer, programmer, schnellebuntebilder, Berlin, Germany
  • Raven Kwok, creative programmer, generative designer, visual artist, computational artist, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • John Lisle, illustrator, Brooklyn, NY, USA
  • Lauren McCarthy, multidisciplinary artist, Brooklyn, NY, USA
  • Ezra Miller, interactive artist, Chicago, IL, USA
  • Nonotak (Noemi Schipfer and Takami Nakamoto), digital artists, fine artists, performance artists, Nonotak, Paris, France
  • Clement Pascal, photographer, Brooklyn, NY, USA
  • Danit Peleg, 3D fashion designer, Danit Peleg 3D, Tel Aviv, Israel
  • Nejc Prah, graphic designer, Ansambel, Bloomberg Businessweek, Brooklyn, NY, USA
  • Hassan Rahim, graphic designer, 12:01, Brooklyn, NY, USA
  • Elaine Sheldon, documentary filmmaker, Requisite Media LLC, Elkview, WV, USA
  • Martin Stirling, filmmaker, Stirling Studios, Northampton, UK
  • Toph Tucker, web programmer, front-end engineer, Kensho, Brooklyn, NY, USA
  • Max Weisel, interface designer, developer, creative coder, Normal VR, San Francisco, CA, USA
  • Scott West, art director, artist, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • Merel Witteman, art director, KesselsKramer, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

This newest class of winners will be the first to receive a special redesigned ADC Young Guns Award Cube and headphones, created and engineered by New York-based premium audio company Master & Dynamic (www.masterdynamic.com).

The 2016 ADC Young Guns winners celebration and party takes place on Thursday evening, September 22, at the ADC Gallery (106 West 29th St., NY), with complimentary drinks and hors d’oeuvres, special performances by ADC YG 2016 Winners Nonotak and Ezra Miller, and music by Brooklyn-based DJ Christine Renee.  Tickets are available at (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/adc-young-guns-2016-awards-ceremony-party-t...).

Levine/Leavitt “Artist in Residence” winners
For the third consecutive year, international artists management agency and ADC Young Guns sponsor Levine/Leavitt (http://levineleavitt.com) will announces their Artist In Residence winners, selected from the YG 2016 class, at the September 22 event.  The NY/LA-based agency will provide recipients with a year of representation, guidance and support from its agents and their Advisory Board of industry professionals.   

ADC Young Guns background
The 2016 ADC Young Guns program is its first year as a curated invitation competition where winners were nominated and selected by an esteemed cultural influencer committee.  

The influencer committee, a highly diverse in terms of gender and ethnicity, included 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 Paola Antonelli, senior curator, architecture & design director, Research & Development, The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA); 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 (for a complete list, please see http://adcglobal.org/awards/adc-young-guns/jury/).

Each member of the influencer committee nominated up to five individuals from around the world who they felt 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.  In addition, ADC members were eligible to submit their portfolios online free of charge to be considered for a select group of additional nominations chosen by ADC.

Throughout the year, the organization will host additional curated ADC Young Guns dinners, lectures, screenings, parties and exhibition showcasing creative work by the program’s latest inductees at interesting locations around the world.

“This is a special year for ADC Young Guns, as we’ve totally revamped the program to be focused on curating international talent and building an invigorating club for the creative community”, said Philippe Meunier, ADC Board president and creative chief/co-founder, Sid Lee.  “We’re extremely proud of this latest class, and look forward to helping them and all Young Guns winners past and future by providing exclusive ongoing platforms and content that cultivates their talents and helps them make big, beautiful things in their careers.”

ADC Young Guns and other club activities throughout the year are made possible in part through the generous support of ADC global partner Shutterstock (http://www.shutterstock.com).

"We are thrilled to be longtime supporters of ADC and its community," said Jon Oringer, founder and CEO, Shutterstock.  “We’re particularly excited to work together on Young Guns to help nurture and propel this next generation of creatives forward.” 

For more information about ADC Young Guns, please visit http://adcglobal.org/awards/adc-young-guns-2016

Art Directors Club (http://adcglobal.org) 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. Join the first international creative collective of its kind, and follow ADC on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/adcglobal), Twitter (https://twitter.com/adcglobal) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/adcglobal/).