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Friday, January 9, 2026

GLOBAL ADC 105TH AWARDS NAMES 220-PLUS JURY MEMBERS ACROSS 44 COUNTRIES

The Art Directors Club, part of The One Club for Creativity, has announced more than 220 creative leaders from 44 countries as jurors for the ADC 105th Annual Awards. The competition expands globally across emerging disciplines, introduces tiered entry pricing, and reimagines the Paul Manship Medal, with entries remaining open through February 20, 2026. ย 

The global Art Directors Club has unveiled the more than 220 acclaimed creative leaders from 44 countries who will serve on the jury for the prestigious global ADC 105th Annual Awards, marking the latest chapter for the worldโ€™s longest continuously running competition honouring craft and innovation across advertising, design and commercial creativity. Organised by The One Club for Creativity, the ADC awards date back over a century and remain one of the creative industryโ€™s most recognisable benchmarks for excellence. This yearโ€™s jury announcement offers a detailed snapshot of how the club continues to broaden its geographic, cultural and disciplinary reach, drawing from a wider pool of creative voices than in generations past.

A look at the roster reflects a cosmopolitan sweep that spans every major creative market: from Tokyo to Copenhagen, from Mexico City to Nairobi, and from New York to Christchurch. The list includes executives and practitioners from global networks, boutique agencies, technology platforms, gaming studios and brand-side creative teamsโ€”illustrating how the modern creative economy now blends advertising, design, production, gaming, AI and product thinking into porous categories. The club noted that the 105th edition includes jurors from 44 countries, among them five selected from Australia and New Zealand, reinforcing the regionโ€™s growing influence in fields such as artificial intelligence and emerging experiential tech.

Across the Asia-Pacific region, representation includes Tokyo-based integrated art director Justina Zun-Zun Chang of Hakuhodo Inc., who will judge the interactive category. The AI discipline, one of the most scrutinised emerging categories in global awards, will be evaluated in part by Australia-based senior creative technologist Jessie Hughes of Leonardo.Ai. The expanding healthcare and wellness market is represented through Sharon Howard Butler, creative partner at Omnicom Health Oceania in Sydney, while the rise of gaming as both an entertainment medium and commercial canvas is brought into focus through Chelsea Rapp, the Christchurch-based CEO of CerebralFix. Photography, an enduring discipline, enters this year through the lens of Nika Januszkiewicz, producer at Loupe Agency in Auckland. The brand-side vantage pointโ€”long considered an alternative path to the traditional agency modelโ€”is showcased by Guo Jun, creative director of Our LEGO Agency Shanghai at The LEGO Group, while Seoul-based Youji Noh, executive creative director at TBWA\Media Arts Lab, contributes to the motion and film craft jury. Other APAC representation includes Tokyo creative leader Takeshi Nozoe, CEO of SIX INC., Bangkokโ€™s Thamakorn Ruchakityanon of SOUR in interactive, and Soo Hee Yang of Publicis Groupe Korea overseeing gaming.

Europe and the United Kingdom, traditionally dominant regions within the creative awards circuit, continue to demonstrate depth across emerging disciplines. Jury members include Uberโ€™s Amsterdam-based executive creative director Jerome Austria, who represents the fast-growing brand-side category; Severine Autret, global creative excellence lead at Opella in France, who sits across health, wellness and pharma; Sony Interactive Entertainmentโ€™s London-based senior graphic designer Myoung Chung, representing gaming; and Hamburg-based Barbara Dirscherl, executive creative director at Scholz & Friends, who will judge artificial intelligence. Motion and film craft sees Danish executive producer Camilla Nilsson of Chemistry in Copenhagen contributing, while architect and technologist Carlo Ratti, director of CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati in Turin, evaluates architecture, interior and environmental design. The advertising discipline, still the backbone of the awards system, includes London-based global creative director Eduardo Salles of MullenLowe Global.

Latin Americaโ€™s creative markets, which have experienced notable acceleration in craft-led categories in recent years, are represented by VML Mexicoโ€™s Luis Madruga Enriquez in advertising, Fernanda Fontes of GINGA in Sรฃo Paulo for experiential design, and Montevideo-based photographer Carolina Gelfont of Amรฉn McCann. The AI category adds Colombian visibility through Santiago Losada of Monks in Bogotรก, while Juan Mesz, executive creative director at TBWA Peru in Lima, joins interactive. Typography and letteringโ€”among the most specialized craft disciplinesโ€”will be judged in part by Guadalajara-based type designer Gen Ramรญrez of DualType.

From the Middle East and Africa, Ghanaโ€™s Yaa Boateng, managing director and chief creative officer of The Storytellers, joins to represent the fusion category, while Dubai-based head of art Gabriel Cavalheiro of You Experience and Basel Jumaa of VML Amman both evaluate product design. Kenyan photographer and cinematographer Andrew Mageto of INKA Creative will contribute to photography, and Amon Rotem, creative strategist at Meta in Tel Aviv, serves on the gaming panel.

North America offers one of the most eclectic and technologically skewed cohorts, reflecting the regionโ€™s blend of platform-oriented companies, sportswear and entertainment brands, production networks and global design agencies. Jurors include Alex Abrantes, North America chief creative officer of Iris Worldwide, evaluating interactive; Maria Devereux, executive creative director and head of innovation at Accenture Song in Los Angeles on artificial intelligence; and Goodby Silverstein & Partnersโ€™ Eamonn Dixon for advertising. Nikeโ€™s global senior design director for concepts, Diego Guevara, represents the brand-side and in-house category; Sarah Moffat, chief creative officer at Turner Duckworth in San Francisco, evaluates packaging design; and Bruno Regalo, global chief design officer at TBWA in Los Angeles, contributes to advertising. The artificial intelligence jury will be presided over by Indgila Samad Ali, designer at OpenAI in San Francisco, underscoring the fieldโ€™s growing institutional relevance and the need for new evaluative frameworks around machine-assisted creative work. Spotifyโ€™s global group creative director Sasha Shor in New York will join the in-house brand-side category, while experiential design will be judged in part by Sid Leeโ€™s North American president and chief creative officer Johan Vakidis from Montreal. One of the more specialised disciplines, typography and lettering, includes representation from Jacqui VanLiew, senior designer at Wired in San Francisco.

Beyond the jury reveal, the club confirmed several structural details about this yearโ€™s competition, including deadlines, pricing and changes to category design. Entries are currently open, with fees rising through the yearโ€™s staggered deadlines. The regular deadline is set for January 23, 2026, followed by an extended deadline of February 6, 2026, and a final cutoff on February 20, 2026. The 105th edition will also feature the presentation of the Paul Manship Medal, newly reimagined as an enterable honor recognising a single designer deemed to have acted as a catalyst for change, demonstrated foresight and innovation, embodied lasting legacy, and made the most significant contribution to design in the previous 12 to 24 months.

The organisation is introducing a tiered pricing model aimed at lowering structural barriers for freelancers, one-person studios and small independent shops. Under the model, larger agencies and brands are charged standard entry fees, smaller studios receive discounts that vary by discipline, and freelancers receive additional reductionsโ€”an adjustment welcomed by practitioners who argue that cost has long suppressed participation by independent talent. The club also confirmed that the global call-for-entries campaign for the 105th edition was created by Dentsu Inc. Tokyo, another nod to the influence of APAC creative networks in shaping the awardsโ€™ public identity.


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