A diverse group of 31 talented creative individuals and teams in 10 countries and regions have been named winners in the prestigious Young Guns 20 competition, celebrating international creative professionals age 30 or younger.
A program of The One Club for Creativity, the world's foremost non-profit organization recognizing creative excellence in advertising and design, Young Guns is the industry’s only global, cross-disciplinary, portfolio-based awards competition that identifies and celebrates today’s vanguard of young creatives.
Young Guns 20 winners are:
- Amara Abbas, director, Brooklyn
- Sindha Agha, director, the corner shop, Los Angeles/London
- Felix Brady, director, Stink Films, London
- BRTHR (team of Alex Lee, Kyle Wightman), directors, Serial Pictures, New York (Lee originally from Tokyo)
- Angelo Cerisara, director, London (originally from Sichio, Italy)
- Ryan Takashi Chun, director, Off-Site Works, Brooklyn
- Imraan Christian, director, artist, Arcade, Cape Town
- Maria Jesus Contreras, illustrator, designer, Santiago
- Talia Cotton, designer, coder, educator, New York
- Alexander Farah, director, editor, Vancouver
- Max Friedman, graphic designer, New York
- Eric Hart Jr., photographer, Brooklyn
- Princess Hıdır, illustrator, Istanbul
- Jump Jirakaweekul, graphic designer, New York (originally from Bangkok)
- Angela Kirkwood, illustrator, animator, Edinburgh
- Nik Kohler, editor, Cabin Edit, Berlin/Munich
- Enle Li, animation director, visual artist, New York
- Danica Tan Lijun, animation director, Los Angeles (originally from Singapore)
- Xinmei Liu, illustrator, Harrison (US) (originally from Shanghai)
- Beatriz Lozano, designer, typographer, educator, New York
- Kelia Anne MacClusky, photographer, director, Los Angeles
- Megacomputeur (team of Camille Jalabert, Oscar Malet, Corentin Yvergniaux), directors, Passion Pictures, London (originally from Paris)
- Jenny Lucia Mascia, director, animation, New York (originally from Urbino, Italy)
- Jackie Molloy, photojournalist, visual storyteller, New York
- Sarah Beth Morgan, director, illustrator, Cleveland
- Hiromu Oka, motion designer, London (originally from Tokyo)
- Vincent René-lortie, director, the corner shop, Montréal
- Marko Roth, director, Frankfurt
- Lysa Thieffry, photographer, collage artist, director, Paris
- Kurt Woerpel IV, graphic designer, art director, Brooklyn
- Adrian Yu, creative director, director, artist, Offline Projects, Los Angeles
This year’s entries were judged by a diverse jury of 96 top creatives — many of whom are past YG winners — from 41 countries. The complete list of 84 finalists from 23 countries and regions can be viewed here.
Young Guns 20 winners will be celebrated at a special in-person event on November 16, 2022 at Sony Hall in New York, co-hosted by noted artist, author, and designer Timothy Goodman (YG7), and designer Zipeng Zhu (YG13), founder and creative director at Dazzle Studio New York.
The One Club is also holding the Young Guns 20 Creative Choice Award, where the global creative community can explore the work of this year’s winners and vote on which one they believe stands above all others. Voting is open now through November 11, 2022, 11:59 pm ET, with the winner announced at the Young Guns 20 awards ceremony.
All Young Guns winners 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 get 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 is reimagined each year by a past Young Gun winner. This year’s YG20 branding and award are designed by Zipeng Zhu, with branding font created by NaN Berlin.
Young Guns 20 and other One Club activities are made possible in part through the generous support of sponsors including Shutterstock.
“With every passing year, evolving technology and new ways of working continue to expand and redefine what creativity means,” said Paula Goldner, VP, Global Agency Partnerships at Shutterstock. “By empowering young artists to unlock their artistic potential, Shutterstock and The One Club demonstrate their belief in the fact that creativity should be cutting-edge, yet human-centric.”
The One Club for Creativity, producer of The One Show, ADC Annual Awards, Type Directors Club competition, TDC Ascenders, Young Guns, and more, is the world’s foremost non-profit organization whose mission is to support and celebrate the global creative community. Revenue generated from entries to its global awards shows goes back into the industry to fund programming under the organization’s four pillars: Education, Inclusion & Diversity, Gender Equality, and Creative Development.
