This iconic design and advertising awards show honors the best creative talent and groundbreaking work across many different creative disciplines, from graphic design to illustration, from publishing to packaging, from advertising to photography and all points in between.
The ceremony honored winners from 36 different countries, with some of the biggest agencies in the world standing side by side with hardworking freelancers and small studios. But the brightest star of the evening was Leo Burnett Chicago, whose “The Lost Class” campaign for Change The Ref won an astounding eight Gold Cubes, seven Silvers, six Bronzes, seven Merits, two Best of Discipline honors, the Members’ Choice Award, the Designism Cube for encouraging positive societal and political change… and the elusive Black Cube for Best of Show. All of these added up to Leo Burnett Chicago being named Agency of the Year.
More than a celebration of today's best work, this year's show was also a celebration of the Art Directors Club's history over the last one hundred years. 12 leaders in the creative community were awarded the the prestigious Manship Medallion in honor of their great contributions to ADC over the past century.
SEE THE WINNERS
The first ADC gold medal winning work in 1921
ADC 100TH HISTORIC TIMELINE
On August 13, 2020, the 100th anniversary date of the incorporation of the Art Directors Club of New York, ADC launched a year-long ADC100 centennial celebration, kicked off with a special identity and online historic timeline developed by multi-specialty creative studio C&G Partners, New York.
The ADC100 program provided rare insights into the observations and human exchanges of the creative community throughout the past century. Serialized monthly content traced the history of ADC, and by extension told the story of how the graphic design and advertising professions evolved during major global events including recessions, world wars and shifts in consumer lifestyles.
The Art Directors Club, known as ADC, was the first global organization to celebrate and award leaders in creative communications. Founded in New York by Louis Pedlar on August 13, 1920, the club was established to ensure advertising and graphic design was judged by the same stringent standards as fine art.
ADC organized the first juried exhibition of advertising art in 1921 to, in the words of ad and graphic design legend Earnest Elmo Calkins, "dignify the field of business art in the eyes of artists" and communicate that "artistic excellence is vitally necessary to successful advertising." The ADC Annual Awards is the world's longest continuously running design and advertising awards show recognizing global excellence in craft and innovation.
ADC 101ST Partner
ADC will for the third year partner with the creative community Working Not Working on event and content collaborations, as well as special awards including the Freelancer of the Year, which was won in 2021 by film editor Mah Ferraz. All ADC 101st Annual Awards Gold Cube-winning entries submitted through the freelance level of the show's tiered pricing structure will be judged again by a separate jury that includes the Working Not Working community.
