Young Guns 23 visual identity

Published February 19, 2026

Founded by the Art Directors Club in 1996 as a showcase of emerging creative talent, ADC Young Guns is a portfolio-based competition for creative professionals 30 years of age or under that has grown to become one of the most coveted accolades in the global creative community. The competition is open to professionals from advertising, graphic design, illustration, photography, filmmaking, animation and beyond.

Winners join the eclectic ranks of creative superstars like the Oscar winning ‘The Daniels’, James Victore, Jessica Walsh, Stefan Sagmeister, Olimpia Zagnoli, Menno Kluin, CALMATIC, Dana Tanamachi, Christoph Niemann, Ohni Lisle, Kerby Jean-Raymond, Mah Ferraz, AV Rockwell and Tré Seals.

Every year, the One Club for Creativity invites a past Young Guns winner to reimagine the creative direction. The YG23 branding was created by me, Khyati Trehan (YG19 Winner).

The YG23 visual identity draws from what all winners share: a restless, hands-on spirit that keeps them moving and pushes them past the obvious. It’s a telltale sign they’re going places, and the branding channels that momentum.

The key visual is rooted in a design school assignment I loved: cutting squares out of animation keyframes strips and rearranging them in an 8 by 8 grid to create compositions that had visual rhythm.

What’s great about ADC Young Guns is that winners don’t win alone. The cube award serves as a physical reminder. Beyond individual recognition, the YG23 award celebrates the collective spirit of the Young Guns class. One face bears the recipient’s name and four others feature fragments of every winner from this year’s cohort. The hope is that recipients see friends and future collaborators amongst that body of text.

See the full case study on my website.

Read full story.

WRITTEN BY

FontsInUse

An independent archive of typography.