BIC students take gold at 2020 One Club’s Young Ones

Paul Bernabe, Marian Cuestas, Cynthia Rojas, and Ping Sun, from The City College of New York’s Master of Professional Studies in Branding + Integrated Communications (BIC) program, took top prize at The One Club for Creativity’s Young Ones Student Awards. They received the Gold Pencil for their North Face campaign “Nature Never Judges” as well as a Bronze ADC Cube. 

The One Club for Creativity is the world’s foremost non-profit organization recognizing creativity in marketing communications and design. The annual One Show and Young Ones Award Shows are considered the industry’s equivalent to the Oscars. With submissions from all over the world, only 500 entries from 17 countries made the 2020 Young Ones finalist list. Ultimately, only 19 Gold Pencils were awarded. 

BIC’s winning team was among six overseen by BIC professors Jason Stefanik and Andy Currie in a one-credit intensive course that began in November 2019 and wrapped up with the Young Ones deadline on March 10. In addition to the 2020 Gold Pencil and Bronze ADC Cube, Stefanik’s winning streak for BIC includes Gold Pencils in 2016 and 2017, a Silver Pencil and Bronze ADC Cube in 2019, eight Client Pitch Finalists (2016, 2017, and 2019) as well as four Merit Winners (2017- 2019). He has co-taught this course with Andy Currie since 2019, both have won numerous industry awards. 

Two other BIC teams also made this year's short list: Raymond Sein, Carlos Matias, Carmela Vecchione, and Paulina Canalizo for "Vans Pro Classics Are for Skating," and Diana Arutyunyan, Liyi Ma, Amy Liang, Kenneth Medina, and William Howard for "Made to Protect Your Feet."

In addition to North Face, this year's Young Ones competitions — the Young Ones Brief, Young Ones ADC, and Young Ones Portfolio — were sponsored by Vans, Burger King, and Spotify.

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