Young Guns

Young Guns is a portfolio competition awarding creative professionals 30 years and under, including designers, illustrators, entrepreneurs, and more!

1996: Art Directors Club Members Jeffrey Metzner and Bill Oberlander proposed the creation of an award which would identify and honor young creative professionals. The multi-disciplinary group would be known as the Young Guns, and would be evaluated on the strength of their entire portfolios, rather than a single piece of work.

The first class of Young Guns was curated by a selection committee of seven esteemed creatives who hand-picked 140 New York-based creative professionals 35 years of age and younger from among scores of nominees. The winners were honored with a five-week exhibition beginning on December 10, 1996.

Young Guns 1

Guy Aroch

Natalie Ascencios

Chika Azuma

Arkadiusz Bansik

Lisa Billard

Tracy Boychuk

Paul Buckley

Penguin Books

Miguel Calvo

Lynda Churilla

Photographer & Director
Independent
New York

Tamar Cohen

Elan Cole

Creative Director
NYC & Company
New York

Marc Cozza

Anselm Dästner

Geoffrey De Boismenu

Bridget De Socio

the dog house @poochclub

Kathy Delaney

Kevin Dresser

Dresser Johnson

Joanne Dugan

Visual Artist
Joanne Dugan Studio
New York

Jeffrey Fulvimari

Peter Gabriel

John Gall

Alexander Gelman

Zach Gold

Baruch Gorkin

Liz Gumbinner

Hugh Hales Tooke

Merideth Harte

Executive Art Director Quality Assurance
Callisto Media
New York

Geraldine Hessler

John J. Hill

Marc Hohmann

Carol Holsinger

Manabu Inada

Dallas Itzen

Gordon Jee

Principal + Founder
arjuna16
Albuquerque

Mark Jensen

Mike Joyce

Artist & Designer
Stereotype
New York

Michael Ian Kaye

Chief Design Officer
SYLVAIN
New York

Markus Kiersztan

Brett Kilroe

Tom Kuntz

Jordi Labanda

Adam Levite

Albert Lin

Traffic NYC & Shanghai, Creative Director
MQDesign Shanghai, Founder
Shanghai, China

Laura Ljungkvist

Aimee Macauley

Dindo Magallanes

Craig Markus

Executive Creative Director
Proof Advertising
New York

Vivek Marthur

Nancy Mazzei

Partner
Most&Co.
Pelham, NY

Paul Meany

Risa Mickenberg

Mike Mills

Jason Mohr

Sean Mosher-Smith

Eva Mueller

Jeff Musser

Emily Oberman

Partner
Pentagram
New York

Rebecca Odes

Antonio Otalvaro

Matt Owens

Partner
Athletics LLC
Brooklyn

Rick Patrick

Claudia Pearson

Julian Peploe

Designer
New York

Andre Razo

Mikal Reich

Jennifer Roddie

Aaron Rose

Betsy Roxby

Stefan Sagmeister

Bonnie Siegler

Founder / Creative Director
Eight and a Half
Westport, CT

David Slatoff

Yoshi Sodeoka

Artist
New York, NY

Todd St. John

Designer / Creative Director
HunterGatherer
New York

Stan Stanski

Adriane Stark

Gong Szeto

Nam Szeto

Bill Tsapalas

Akiko Tsuji

Giulio Turturro

Chris Van Oosterhout

Brett Vapnek

James Verdesoto

James Victore

James Victore, Inc.

Auke Vieer

Jayne Wexler

Kenneth Willardt

Michelle Willems

Creative Director
Twitter
Brooklyn

Christian Witkin

Romon Yang

ROSTARR Studio
Brooklyn

Phil Yarnall

Graphic Designer
SMAY Design
North Salem, NC

Maggie Zackheim