ADC Young Guns 9 competition for creatives under 30 open to entries

The Art Directors Club (ADC) has opened its ADC Young Guns 9 competition for creatives and designers age 30 or younger.

ADC Young Guns an international, cross-disciplinary, portfolio-based awards competition that aims to identify 'today's vanguard of young creatives', It's open to both ADC members and non-members. Last year's competition included six winners, including illustrators Gemma Correll, HelloVon, Martin Nicolausson, and Mark Ward, director Tomas Mankovsky and creative polymath Ian Wharton.

The program is open to creatives age 30 and under who have been working for at least two years, full-time or freelance. Eligible entrants can submit a combination of professional and personal work in graphic design, photography, illustration, advertising and art direction, environmental design, film, animation, video, interactive design, object design and typography. Full details are available at adcyoungguns.org.

Entries can be submitted from today. Entry costs $110 (around £68), rising to $135 (£85) after April 18, and $170 (£105) after May 16, 2010. The final deadline is May 30.

For the call to entry, the ADC has commissioned previous Young Guns winer Nessim Higson to create a poster with a theme drawn from secret societies and Fight Club express the message that ""reatives fight for their work, now it's time it battles for you". The poster features heavily made up, battered and bruised images of 10 past ADC Young Guns, taken by photographer Brady Fontenot.

All 50 ADC Young Guns 9 winners receive a unique version of the iconic ADC Young Guns Cube, designed exclusively for this year's incoming class; their work featured in an exhibition at the ADC Gallery in New York; their work included in the ADC Young Guns 9 Annual; their work added to the ADC permanent online collection; complimentary one-year ADC membership; permanent membership in ADC Young Guns Network, and the chance to be featured in YG events and on www.adcyoungguns.org; and 'an assortment of career-boosting opportunities from ADC Young Guns sponsors'.

The jury for this year's ADC Young Guns 9 is made by of previous winners, including four from the UK: Mark Ward and Ian Wharton from last year's winners plus art director and designer Bianca Wendt and Tomas Mankovsky, creative director at Blink fro the previous year.