The Young Guns 17 Awards ceremony was held at Sony Hall in New York on November 21. Special recognition awards went to dwarf studio Tokyo stop motion animator, Kenta Shinohara, and independent art director and motion designer, Joyce N.Ho.

Shinohara won Young Guns 17 Creative Choice Award, chosen by public vote by the global creative community at large after reviewing the work of all YG17 winners.

Shinohara says his stop motion philosophy is based on bringing emotion to every scene, which allows the audience to easily connect with the work. His style involves making puppets look alive with minimal animation and he enjoys projects where he can direct and animate at the same time.

Joyce N. Ho won the Levine/Leavitt Artist In Residence Award, presented annually to a newly crowned Young Gun judged by an advisory board of industry professionals across a range of disciplines. As this year’s winner, Ho receives a full year of professional development, guidance and mentorship from Levine/Leavitt to help advance her career.

Ho was born in Hong Kong, raised in Australia and now lives in New York. He specialises in storytelling through motion and bringing ideas to life through design work that is textural and expressive. Her work includes directing the titles for Semi Permanent, opening titles for Syfy’s The Expanse, and serving as design director for Volume 3 of Netflix’s Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj.  She is also a three-time SXSW Film Awards finalists.

Young Guns is the industry’s only international, cross-disciplinary, portfolio-based awards competition that identifies today’s vanguard of young creatives. Submissions were received from more than 45 countries and judged by 61 top creatives from around the world, about half of whom are past Young Guns winners.

The presentation was hosted by Rich Tu, vice president of digital design at MTV, VH1, CMT and Logo, host of the First Generation Burden podcast and a Young Guns 8 winner from 2010.

“It’s an honour and a pleasure to be welcomed back as the host of Young Guns 17,” he stated. “This year’s class is an amazing group of international creatives who I hope will shake up the industry at a time when multiculturalism, representation and identity are more important than ever to our industry’s creative output. Change is good, and these folks are great.”

All Young Guns 17 winners receive a unique version of the iconic Young Guns Cube, designed exclusively for this year’s incoming class, and have their permanent profile page added to the Young Guns website. Winners also receive a complimentary one-year membership to The One Club for Creativity, permanent membership in Young Guns network, a chance to be featured in Young Guns events and an assortment of career-boosting opportunities from Young Guns sponsors.

Program branding and design of the Cube award is recreated each year by a past Young Gun winner. This year’s YG17 branding and Cube award are designed by Hey, Barcelona, founded by Verònica Fuerte (YG7).