Students in 26 Countries Win in 2025 Young Ones Awards

The One Club for Creativity kicked off Creative Week 2025 by honouring winning schools and students from 26 countries in the 2025 Young Ones Student Awards ceremony at Sony Hall in New York

Young Ones is one of the world’s most comprehensive and acclaimed competitive showcases for advertising, digital communication, and design students.  The program offers four separate competitions:

- Young Ones ADC, offering students the chance to earn an ADC Cube by competing in many of the same disciplines and categories as the prestigious ADC Annual Awards;

- Young Ones One Show Briefand Client Pitch Competitions, which tasks a team of students with creating work for a specific client with the chance to earn a coveted One Show Pencil;

- Young Ones Portfolio Competition, where students submit 6-15 projects and have it judged as a representation of their entire body of work by industry professionals;

- Young Ones TDC, where student entries in typography, lettering, and type design can win a Certificate of Typographic Excellence from the Type Directors Club, part of The One Club for Creativity.

Based on cumulative points for all awards won by a school’s students in this year’s competition, Berghs School of Communication Stockholm was crowned 2025 Young Ones School of the Year.  The school collected nine Golds, 10 Silver, eight Bronze, nine Merits, and a Client Pitch win on the night.

Rounding out the top-five ranked schools, in order, are ArtCenter College of Design Pasadena, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg Ludwigsburg, Brigham Young University Provo, and School of Visual Arts New York.

The One Club Global Creative College Rankings for 2025 can be viewed here.  A showcase of all 2025 Young Ones winning entries can be viewed here.

Top global winners in the four Young Ones competitions this year are as follows.

Young Ones ADC 2025 (19 Gold Cubes, 35 Silver, 46 Bronze, 205 Merit)

Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg Ludwigsburg is the top school in Young Ones ADC 2025 with eight Gold Cube wins.  

They include two Golds each for 'Breaking Glass'  (in Motion/Film Craft, Cinematography, and Advertising, Craft in Video - Editing), “If I Could Fly” (in Motion/Film Craft, Narrative, and Motion/Film Craft, Direction), and “What was I made for?” (In Advertising, Craft in Video - Direction, and Motion/Film Craft, Animation).  

Salzburg University of Applied Sciences Salzburg was awarded four Young Ones ADC Gold Cubes, including two for “The USB Paradox”, both in Motion/Film Craft (Visual Effects, and Direction).  

University of Applied Arts Vienna Vienna won a pair of Young Ones ADC Gold Cubes, both for “Moment Mal – Modular Candles”, one each in Packaging Design and Product Design.

Other Young Ones ADC Gold Cube winners with one each are ArtCenter College of Design Pasadena, Hochschule Wismar University of Applied Sciences Technology, Business and Design Wismar, National Taichung University of Science and Technology Taichung City, Ringling College of Art & Design Sarasota, and Savannah College of Art and Design Savannah.

Young Ones One Show 2025 Brief and Client Pitch Competitions (16 Gold Pencils, 22 Silver, 31 Bronze, 100 Merit; 1 Client Pitch winner)

This year’s Young Ones One Show competition involved working on briefs from sponsors Duolingo, Heinz, Perdue, Philadelphia, Subway, Sunsilk, Supercell (Clash Royale), and Vaseline.

Berghs School of Communication Stockholm led the way in the Young Ones One Show Brief Competition with nine Gold Pencils for seven different entries.  They include two each for “Lifeline in Plain Sight” on behalf of Sunsilk (one each in Integrated Campaign, and Print, Promotional & OOH), and “Philly Spots” on behalf of Philadelphia (one each in Integrated Campaign, and Experiential & Immersive).  

The Book Shop School for Ads Los Angeles won two Young Ones One Show Gold Pencils, one each for “The Future is Longer: DoorDash” on behalf of Subway in Interactive, Online, & Mobile, and “Vaseline: Get Smart With It” for Vaseline in Film & Video.

Also with a pair of Gold Pencils is VCU Brandcenter Richmond, one each Subway “Cookie.io" in Gaming, and Heinz “Heinz: The 13th Egg” in Experiential & Immersive.

One Gold Pencil each in the Young Ones One Show Brief Competition went to Bendita Carpeta Buenos Aires for Duolingo “DuoMiles” in Interactive, Online, & Mobile; School of Communications and Arts - University of São Paulo Sao Paulo for Subway “Chill Bites” in Print, Promotional & OOH; and IED - Istituto Europeo di Design Milan for Vaseline “Vaseline” in Interactive, Online, & Mobile.

In the Young Ones One Show Client Pitch Competition, where students present their ideas to a jury including top brands who sponsored this year’s program, the Berghs School of Communication Stockholm team of Channa Ekborg, Martha Falkenberg, and Alice Maddock won for “Breakfast in Bed” on behalf of Heinz.

Young Ones 2025 Portfolio Competition (34 winners from 19 schools)

ArtCenter College of Design Pasadena led in the Young Ones 2025 Portfolio Competition with eight wins, going to the following students: Alvin Lin (Graphic Design), Heejai Park (Graphic Design), Jaiwon Lee (Graphic Design), Jamie Kim (Multidisciplinary), Manuel Levy (Film & Video), Tata Lam (Illustration), Yeheng Li (Graphic Design), and Ze Feng (Graphic Design).  

Brigham Young University Provo has four Portfolio winners, for students Adam Sheets (Film & Video), Eli Rothas (Advertising), Joseph Larsen (Film & Video), and Kyle Gilmour (Film & Video).

Also with four Young Ones 2025 Portfolio winners is Savannah College of Art and Design Savannah, going to students Jinkyu Kang, Qi Qi, Tiffany Tedy, and Xinyue Gu (all in all in Animation & Visual Effects).

School of Visual Arts New York has three Portfolio wins, including two for Gloria Jiang (one each in Multidisciplinary and Graphic Design), and one for Doga Bircan in Graphic Design.

Young Ones TDC 2025 Competition (40 winners from 23 schools)

ArtCenter College of Design Pasadena has seven Young Ones TDC 2025 Certificate of Typographic Excellence wins — all in Communication Design — for “Academy Museum” (Other/Experimental), “Desert Echoes” (Branding/Identity), “Fashion Research Library” (UI/UX/Websites), “Fog Generator” (Other/Experimental), “ISSUE Project Room” (Branding/Identity), “Public Space in Private Time” (Branding/Identity), and “Softness Has No Place” (Book/Editorial).

Also with seven Young Ones TDC 2025 Certificate wins is School of Visual Arts New York, with six in Communication Design for “Setting Off” (Motion Design), “14 SECS TO EARTH” (Book/Editorial), “ANKA” (Branding/Identity), “Layers for Tracks” (Branding/Identity), “Neighborhood Guide” (Posters/Moving Posters), and “Woorijip” (Branding/Identity).  SVA received one win in Type Design, Single Typeface, for “Seal”. 

Maryland Institute College of Art Baltimore has three Young Ones TDC Certificate wins, all in Communication Design: “Tickticktick” (Branding/Identity), "TOOL REMIX” (Book/Editorial), and “Vanguard”  (Other/Experimental).

The three top entrants in Young Ones TDC 2025 as decided by the jury also receive cash awards, as follows:

- $1,000: Doga Bircan, School of Visual Arts, New York (Branding/Identity: ANKA)

- - $500: Gonçalo Salgado, ELISAVA School of Design and Engineering, Barcelona (Branding/ Identity: Heroes of Petanca)

$300: Xin Tan, Class TAO, Shanghai (Other/Experimental: 3000 Troubled Threads)

Young Ones is celebrated annually with the goal of inspiring and nurturing the next generation of advertising professionals.  Events during the week present an invaluable opportunity for college students and graduating seniors to network with top agency professionals, receive feedback on their portfolios, experience the industry's best work and more. 

Creative Week 2025

The Young Ones 2025 Student Awards is the first event of Creative Week 2025, taking place May 12-16th in New York.  

Now in its 16th year, Creative Week is a premier annual gathering for the advertising and design industries to come together and celebrate the creative excellence showcased in four of the club’s leading global awards shows, and discuss the latest creative trends and issues.  

Other Creative Week 2025 programming includes Type Directors Club TDC71 Best of Discipline and Judges’ Choice winners and exhibition on May 13th, ADC 104th Annual Awards on May 14th,  the first-ever Creative WeekAI Creative Challenge on May 15, the exclusive AI Executive Creative Summit-New York on May 15-16, and The One Show 2025 awards ceremony on May 16th.

Please visit Creative Week 2025 for more information and to buy tickets.

The One Club for Creativity – home of The One Show, ADC Annual Awards, Art Directors Club of Europe (ADCE) awards, ONE Asia Creative Awards, Type Directors Club and competition, TDC Ascenders, Young Guns, Young Ones Student Awards, Next Creative Leaders, ONE School, ONE Creator Lab, Where Are All The Black People conference and career fair, Portfolio Night, Creative Week, and more – is the world’s foremost non-profit organization 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 organization’s four pillars: Education, Inclusion & Diversity, Gender Equality, and Creative Development.