The One Club for Creativity has announced that award-winning designer Juan Carlos Pagan, Co-Founder and Partner at creative studio Sunday Afternoon in New York, has developed the first brand identity for the Young Ones Student Awards, one of the world's most acclaimed competitive showcases for advertising, digital communication and design students.
Young Ones branding presented a challenge, as the program encompasses four separate competitions. Three of the competitions — Young Ones ADC, Young Ones One Show Brief competition and Young Ones TDC — have origins in other awards from The One Club for Creativity, each with their own well-known icons, The One Club for Creativity says.
Pagan chose to leverage these existing icons — the historic Art Directors Club ADC Cube, The One Show Pencil and the Type Directors Club circular seal — to develop a simple and dynamic new icon that incorporates all three shapes around the central "Y" representing Young Ones, adds The One Club for Creativity. The identity extends to each of the individual competitions, where the flat, singular design allows them to stand on their own by highlighting the original Cube, Pencil or circle shape in yellow within the context of the overall Young Ones branding icon.
"The branding was very much an exercise in geometry and reduction," says Pagan, a past winner of multiple Cubes, Pencils, and TDC certificates, and a current TDC Advisory Board member.
"We needed a simple way to bring the three show icons together. Luckily, each of the competitions has an ownable icon. The trick was to make sure the mark both housed and highlighted the individual competitions that live within Young Ones. This was crucial to the success of the new icon," Pagan adds.
Pagan says that the new branding rests seamlessly within the context of existing One Club logos, "It sits nicely alongside the others, while at the same time carries its own weight."
The branding also works in conjunction with the Young Ones 2025 call for entries campaign, designed by Lebassis, The One Club for Creativity adds.
The One Club says that an esteemed global jury of 124 top creatives from 28 countries was also announced for the 2025 Young Ones Student Awards. The complete list of judges can be viewed here.
Entries are now being accepted, with the regular deadline of Friday, 28 February and final deadline of Friday, 14 March. Winners will be announced on Monday, 12 May at an evening ceremony during The One Club's annual Creative Week in New York.
In addition to receiving awards, all past winners have their work permanently featured in the Young Ones archive. Winners also amass points for their schools which are used to compile The One Club's annual Global Creative College Rankings, concludes the One Club.
For more information, visit www.oneclub.org. You can also follow The One Club of Creativity on Facebook, X or on Instagram.
*Image courtesy of contributor