Young Guns 22: Dev Valladares
By Alixandra Rutnik on Oct 30, 2024
Presenting the kick ass class of Young Guns 22
It’s a kick-ass class. Young Guns 22 is topping the charts in creativity. But are you even surprised? Of course, not. If you’re new here, let me catch you up. Young Guns is a community of incredibly talented individuals – think amazing cinematographers, animators, illustrators, photographers, designers, and directors – and a new class of winners is chosen by an expert jury every year. This year we have 33 winners and among them, we have some very new, very exciting titles to unveil – an Architectural Designer, Composer, Stage & Show Designer, and Colorist.
We interviewed the winners so we could share their prowess with you. And if you’re a NYC local you can snag a ticket to the official YG22 Party at Sony Hall on Wednesday, November 13, 2024, where you will have the chance to meet and greet them.
Young Guns continue to dominate the creative industry, so we’re happily presenting you with the kick-ass class of Young Guns 22.
Dev Valladares
Design Generalist
Based:
San Fransisco, USA
Hometown:
Mumbai, India
What were your original impressions of the Young Guns competition, award, and community?
It was something that gradually emerged during my time as a grad student at MICA. I probably came across it in many a conference speaker’s bio. Or during one of those many late (deadline) nights on The One Club website when I should have been applying to TDC with a few hours to go, but instead would be scrolling through the Young Guns archives, starry-eyed, wondering if I’d ever compile a good-enough body of work before I turned 30.
It’s felt like a competition that’s more than just an award, it’s the community that forms henceforth. I love how winners are grouped and then referred by classes each year — like a little graduation ceremony.
How did you end up in the creative field anyways?
I’ve always drifted towards the arts - with a childhood love for reading and writing short stories. Once in second-grade Dad drew me a character set of the alphabet drawn using nothing but their shadows. It was a revelation. I couldn’t believe I could still read a letter with half its form missing. This fascination with letters and what I’d later learn were principles of gestalt blossomed into a fondness for drawing display type and geometric doodles in the margins of my school books. When I found out typography was an actual thing I could pursue, it was design school for me.
It’s been more or less a straight line since then. My interests organically expanded from type to design to motion to 3D to code to, currently, AI art. And blending all these different tools together to create something novel, meaningful, and unexpected — to surprise others, but also myself.
Congrats on the YG win! Why did you decide to enter this year?
Thank you so much! I’m a real procrastinator — the type who submits competition entries at the last minute of deadline day. It’s a trait that, paradoxically, is supposed to make me feel like I’ve maximised every second of the given timeframe. Case in point - this very YG entry was submitted on the last day of the extended deadline.
This was year 29. The deadline approached. Fortunately, in my head, it was also the first time I believed the quality of my work felt like it matched the mental standard I had of a strong YG entry (and I still had another chance if I was wrong!).
You only get to submit six projects that embody you and your talent. So, how did you decide which pieces were good enough to make the cut?
It was a careful curation of projects that made me, me. In other words, I had a lot of compilations. This let me sneak in a ton of smaller experiments and sketches that would not ordinarily have their own spot.
Overall, the entries were a balance of projects for some big names (where the focus was on craft and attention to detail), and a bunch of playful experiments (where it was about pushing boundaries). I opened with The WIRED AI Project because for me, it did both.
“Once in second-grade Dad drew me a character set of the alphabet drawn using nothing but their shadows. It was a revelation. I couldn’t believe I could still read a letter with half its form missing.”
What was your reaction when you discovered that you won?
I will always remember the moment. A sunny WFH Thursday. I was sitting cross-legged on my couch, my phone vibrated, I read the news, got off the couch, stretched, began dancing around, made some celebratory noises and gestures, then thanked the universe for this lovely surprise. Then shared the news with the close ones - a screenshot of the email, all caps text, many many emojis.
I don’t think the gravity of this has sunk in yet. Maybe it will closer to the actual ceremony.
How does your current home inspire your creativity as an artist?
I used to think abstract art was the highest form of art, but lately I’ve been more inspired by the emergent beauty and richness of nature. SF has a lot of it. On the cold, dark eve of my first ever day in SF, I ended up at Sutro Baths, overlooking ocean waves crashing against the cliff I stood on, from three sides, while I got wet in the drizzling rain, still on a buzz after a very successful job interview.
Three years of graffiti-ed Bushwick concrete had previously grated against my soul. I knew I was in the right place. This was paradise. It’s been a muse since.
Now that you’re a part of the Young Guns community, are there any past winners you look up to and admire?
Chronologically: Stefan Sagmesiter (YG1) pushed the boundaries so far and wide. His design x philosophy work is always so interesting, and I love that he uses his Instagram to support designers (including me a couple times over the years).
Eric Hu’s (YG8) online voice is as powerful and fun as his work.
Every time I see a Pablo Delcan (YG14) piece I sit up straight and end up looking at the world in a new way.
Nejc Prah (YG14) was an inspiration and provocation for my Graphic Design Meme Lord project (not included, for good reason, within my YG entry).
I worked at Collins for three years in the hope of one day being as good at graphic design as Ben Crick (YG15), who incidentally and perhaps symbolically left Collins the same week as I joined.
Ben Denzer’s (YG16) projects touch the heart like few others in the field. What an artist.
Zuzanna Rogatty (YG18), now a dear friend, single-handedly popularised an entire genre of typography, which is incredibly cool, but don’t tell her I said that.
Khyati Trehan (YG19) has been an inspiration for as long as I can remember, breaking new ground and paving the way for Indian designers like me for nearly a decade, but don’t tell her I said that either.
Finally, Ryan Bugden (YG21) is just an inventive type genius and his work fulfills both the love for display-type and the geometry-enjoyer in me.
If you could create a new Young Guns tradition, what would you want it to be and why?
A WhatsApp group for collaborations and memes. Collaborations are always a joy - there is something totally new born in the space between two human beings working together. Memes are also a joy, for similar reasons.
On a tangent, what if branding for subsequent YGs was done by inter-class collaboration rather than a single individual? Would make for an interesting experiment.
Name a dream project that you have yet to fulfill — maybe Young Guns will propel you in that direction!
Such a good question. Honestly, anything to do with music, for me it’s the truest of all art forms.
Will we see you at the YG22 party in NYC in November?
Without a doubt.
Come party with us and celebrate the class of Young Guns 22 on Wednesday, November 13, 6:30 PM, at Sony Hall in NYC!
