Designer Juan Carlos Pagan Creates Branding for Young Ones Student Awards
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.
Pagan chose to leverage these existing icons - the historic Art Directors Club ADC Cube, The One Show Pencil, and 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.
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,” said Juan, 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.”
He added 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.
Jury announced
An esteemed global jury of 124 top creatives from 28 countries was also announced today 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 February 28th, 2025, and final deadline of March 14th, 2025. For more information, please visit the Young Ones entry site.
Winners will be announced on May 12th 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.
About Sunday Afternoon
Sunday Afternoon is a creative company that builds brand stories through design and world-class creative talent. The studio creates impactful brand strategy, identities, campaigns, and all-encompassing communications for clients of all sizes. It also represents more than a dozen talented diverse artists and directors who work independently and collaboratively on a wide range of projects for clients including Under Armour, Nike, Pinterest, Adidas, Microsoft, MTV, Lobos Tequila, Travis Scott, Migos and others.
The One Club for Creativity – home of The One Show, ADC Annual Awards, Art Directors Club of Europe (ADCE) awards, ONE Asia Awards, Type Directors Club and competition, TDC Ascenders, Young Guns, Young Ones Student Awards, Next Creative Leaders, ONE Screen Short Film Festival, and more – is the world’s foremost non-profit organisation whose mission is to support and celebrate the success of the global creative community. Revenue generated from entries to its global awards shows goes back into the industry to fund programming under the organisation’s four pillars: Education, Inclusion & Diversity, Gender Equality, and Creative Development.
