South African creative, and previous Young Guns winner, Imraan Christian is on the jury. 

Source: Supplied.

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 program is open to creatives age 30 and under who have been working for at least two years, full-time or freelance, and regularly attracts entries from upwards of 45 countries, with more than half coming from outside the US.

A sampling of jury members includes:

• Susana Albuquerque, ECD, partner, Uzina Lisbon; president, Clube da Criatividade Portugal, and The One Club International Board member
• Florian Born, robotics & engineering lead, PCH-Innovations, Berlin (YG14)
• Ivan Cash, artist, filmmaker, Cash Studio, Brooklyn (YG10)
• Mary Dauterman, director, Brooklyn (YG16)
• Skip Dolphin Hursh, lead visual designer, Slack, New York (YG12)
• Northy Chen, associate creative director, Block, New York (YG17)
• Kok Keong Chow, CCO, INNOCEAN Indonesia, Jakarta
• Imraan Christian, director, artist, Arcade Content/Egg Films, Cape Town (YG20)
• Thalia Forbes, creative director, writer, Spotify, Los Angeles
• Ivan Golubić, senior copywriter, Bruketa&Žinić&Grey, Zagreb
• Natasha Jen, partner, Pentagram, New York (YG4)
• Verena Hennig, CCO, AKTTEM, Fuerth (Germany), (YG15)
• Jessica Hische, lettering artist, author, San Francisco (YG7)
• Justin Thomas Kay, group SVP, GCD, Day One Agency, Brooklyn (YG6)
• Cedric Kiefer, creative director, founder, onformative, Berlin (YG11)
• Laura Ljungkvist, illustrator, designer, children’s book author, Brooklyn (YG1)
• Homer Mendoza, director of product, strategy & design, Intact, Montréal (YG9)
• David Miller, associate creative director, McCann Health, New York (YG2)
• Debbie Millman, chair, masters in branding, School of Visual Arts; host, Design Matters podcast; editorial director, PrintMag.com, New York
• Lotta Nieminen, graphic designer, art director, (Studio) Lotta Nieminen, Helsinki (YG8)
• Gemma O’Brien, artist, designer, Sydney (YG13)
• Sadie Red Wing, assistant professor; Faculty of Design, OCAD U, Toronto
• Christa Skinner, senior communications designer, Airtable, Dana Point (California) (YG3)
• Ana Cecilia Thompson Motta, senior design director, PLAYLAB, New York (YG19)
• Michelle Watt, photographer, director, Watt Studio, Brooklyn (YG18)
• Željka Županić, creative freelancer, Dublin (YG5)

The online entry system is now open. Regular deadline for entry is 13 July 2023, and final deadline is 27 July 2023. Winners will be announced later this year.

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 ingenuity behind Young Guns 20 creative Imraan Christian

Karabo Ledwaba  10 Nov 2022

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 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 YG Cube award itself is reimagined each year by a past Young Gun winner. This year’s YG21 branding was created by Zuzanna Rogatty (YG18), senior designer at Collins New York.

Past Young Guns include rising stars who went on to become leaders in their chosen fields, including filmmakers Daniels (YG14) and Calmatic (YG16); graphic designers James Victore (YG1), Stefan Sagmeister (YG1), and Jessica Walsh (YG8); artist/designer Rich Tu (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/photographer India Sleem (YG17); photographer Ryan McGuinness (YG2); typographer Alex Trochut (YG6); film and video director Mike Mills (YG1), animation artist Todd St. John (YG1), and others.