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.