The Art Directors Club is one of the most concentrated groups of creative talent in the world, and is a gathering place for leaders in visual communication. ADC Members share the vision of our founder, Louis Pedlar, who brought his colleagues in advertising together in 1920 to dignify their profession and judge advertising art by the same stringent standards as fine art. For 89 years ADC members have taken up Pedlar’s challenge by funding programs to Connect, Provoke and Elevate creative professionals around the world. Each year ADC brings together the best minds in the creative industries to celebrate the winners of our Annual Awards and Young Guns competitions, help a new generation of creative leaders rise up through the National Student Portfolio Reviews and Saturday Career Workshops, and celebrate the achievements of Hall of Fame inductees and GrandMasters recipients.
ADC’S MISSION: CONNECT | PROVOKE | ELEVATE
PROGRAMS
Throughout the year ADC produces a wide range of programs on advertising, design, and interactive media for professionals, students, and others with a serious interest in visual communications. These programs support the ADC mission to inspire and celebrate creative excellence. To receive program announcements sign up for the ADC newsletter.
ADC NOW
The Art Directors Club announces the return of ADC Now, a written and visual compilation spanning a year of programs and activities that have taken place at the ADC and around the world. It includes information about educational programs, the Annual Awards and Traveling Exhibition, member evenings, exhibitions, and speaker events.
ADC Now will be available in print as part of the 89th Annual and as a separate booklet available at ADC in December 2010. Can’t wait? Get it now. (14.6MB PDF)
AWARDS
Judged by an international panel of the world’s most respected creative professionals, the ADC Annual Awards competition honors the best work from around the world in interactive media, broadcast and print advertising, graphic design, publication design, packaging, photography and illustration.
Winners are presented with the ADC’s coveted Gold and Silver Cubes at a gala ceremony each spring. In addition, the ADC Hybrid Award is awarded to the year’s most innovative, ground-breaking work and the ADC Design Sphere honors a sustained program of design by a design firm for a single client that sets the standard for excellence in design communications.
All of the winners are featured in the award-winning Art Directors Annual, the oldest and most respected compendium of outstanding work in the industry, whose pages have been graced by the work of such legendary figures as Saul Bass, Roy Grace, Helmut Krone and Bill Bernbach. Presenting more than 500 full-color images, the Annual is an indispensable reference tool and source of creative inspiration—or visual fuel—for creatives, clients and students alike. On the heels of the awards ceremony, ADC sends the Black, ADC Hybrid, ADC Design Sphere, Gold, Silver and Bronze work on a worldwide tour—from New York to Sao Paolo, Wiesbaden to Beijing, and scores of venues in between—in ADC’s International Annual Awards Exhibition.
ADC Young Guns is a global, cross-disciplinary portfolio competition that identifies today’s vanguard of young creative professionals. Over the years, our roster has grown to include seven classes of exceptional talent. Past winners jury the work and choose fifty young creatives to join their ranks each year.
The ADC Vision Award recipient will honor a company or individual whose work embodies ADC’s mission by connecting in new and exciting ways, provoking the industry, addressing important issues and presenting breakthrough ideas.
Since 1971, the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame has recognized and honored those innovators who have made significant contributions to art direction and visual communications, and whose lifetime achievements represent the highest standards of creative excellence. An exhibition of the year’s distinguished laureates and a series of speaker events accompany the opening dinner each year.
ADC GrandMasters are educators whose careers in creative education have impacted and mentored generations of students and whose legacy is a far-reaching network of industry leaders and professionals in Advertising and Design.
MEMBERSHIP
Membership at the Art Directors Club is an opportunity to participate in a community of the most talented creatives in the world. ADC works to forge strong relationships between extraordinary individuals and companies through a variety of programs, events and initiatives. Through ADC, members have a connection to a greater visual communications community that regularly inspires and challenges them. To learn more about the opportunities and benefits of membership, please see the member pages.
EXHIBITIONS
The Art Directors Club is a self-funded non-profit working on behalf of its members. The events and programs are the result of the collective energy of nearly 1500 creative professionals worldwide, led by our President and Board of Directors. For 89 years the ADC has enjoyed bringing together the most interesting creatives in Advertising, Design, Interactive Media and Communications – we invite you to join us as we continue on our mission to Connect, Provoke and Elevate.
EDUCATION
The ADC encourages students to explore the field of visual communications with year-round educational events, including workshops for high school students, scholarships, portfolio reviews, and the student competition. We work with the best design, advertising and new media programs at accredited colleges across the country.
