Young Guns 20: Adrian Yu
By Alixandra Rutnik and Brett McKenzie on Nov 02, 2022
Spotlighting the stupendous class of Young Guns 20
Nearly 100 renowned industry professionals made up the jury for Young Guns this year. And after revealing the 84 finalists, it is finally time to unveil the 31 winners who make up the class of Young Guns 20.
Every year, we add another class of young talent from all over the globe to the exclusive Young Guns community. The winners of Young Guns 20 are your next project directors, animators, designers, editors, illustrators, artists, photographers, storytellers, coders, and writers. So this is your cue to follow them on Instagram immediately– because they are our industry’s future legends after all.
In two weeks, the winners will fly into NYC from around the world to celebrate their accomplishments, make new friends, have a few cocktails, and take home their official Young Guns Cube. We can’t wait to celebrate with them at Sony Hall on Wednesday, November 16, 2022, at 6:30 PM– and we hope to see you there too!
Before the party begins, we took the time to get to know each of our winners so you can read up on the highly creative individuals who make up Young Guns 20.
ADRIAN YU
Creative Director, Director, & Artist
Based:
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
Hometown:
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
What were your initial impressions of the Young Guns competition — the award and the community?
I heard about Young Guns from my boss at my first agency job – a company that was actually involved with the production of the Young Guns event. That first year, I had friends who won Young Guns awards – it always felt like the highest esteemed award for a young creative to receive. Now that I'm amongst a class of mentors and peers, I feel legitimized in that caliber of work in such a wide breadth of mediums.
"I had friends who won Young Guns awards – it always felt like the highest esteemed award for a young creative to receive."
Since this is your second time entering, what did you do differently than in previous years?
I think my work has continued to grow larger in scale and reach. My previous work has been geared towards culture brands and music, but this year it's moved into more mainstream media and developing my own IP.
This win comes at a time that marks a new chapter in my career. I'm starting a few new ventures – one of which is a new agency called Excetera, which merges my company Offline Projects with my friend's design studio Seriously Fun. It signals a new era that takes me to a different playing field than I'd operated in past years.
Young Guns is as much an exercise in self-curation as it is in sheer creative talent. How did you decide which pieces were best to enter and truly reflected you and your work?
It's extremely difficult for me to pick and choose from my body of work because it's so broad in scope, disciplines, and industries. I have enough work to apply for four totally different categories – but I think my strength is being truly multidisciplinary because all my work informs each other (film & design into experiential & digital). I decided to put my category in Other to share the best of each discipline, showcasing my work in commercial, art, and entertainment industries across totally different mediums. That way, it allows my work to be judged from a unified creative body of work instead of confined to a single discipline.
What went through your mind when you discovered that you won, especially knowing how difficult it is to make it into Young Guns?
I was on a work call when I saw the email so I brushed it off as spam until I reread it at the end of the day. I was exuberant for exactly 10 seconds – before celebrating by getting on another work call.
How would you describe your personal brand in one sentence? Now, try defining it in three words.
I'm super sarcastic, like a court jester at the crossroads of high brow and low brow. Smart, but dumb.
Who is your biggest influence on you and your work?
My biggest mentor, whether I'd like to admit it or not, is my dad. Being around him, his work, and his influences allowed me absorb that knowledge into my practice and develop my own creative language.
Now that you’re in the Young Guns crew, are there any past winners you look up to and admire? What is it about their work that you love?
I have a lot of friends and peers who've made Young Guns in past years – like NONOTAK (YG14), Ezra Miller (YG14), Hassan Rahim (YG14), and Eric Hu (YG8) to name a few. I love their work because it's as broad and unconventional as the disciplines I work in.
Name a professional dream that you have yet to fulfill — hey, maybe Young Guns can help propel you in that direction!
My dream project would be to work on the LA Olympics, or any Olympics really in any capacity. After that, I think I'm content in putting the pen down to quit any and all client work for the rest of my career.
This is YG20, but what do you imagine you’ll be up to when YG30 rolls around in 2032?
My life ethos is that I want to constantly reinvent myself – which fuels the reason why my body of work is so broad. So in 10 years, I want to have fully transitioned out of commercial work and into creating my own personal work – directing feature films, focusing on my art practice, and developing new products outside of the creative services industry.
Goals heading into 2023?
I've spent my career selling other people's products. My goal heading into 2023 is to create a product of my own.
Come party with us and celebrate all the Young Guns 20 winners on Wednesday, November 16 at Sony Hall!
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