The One Club for Creativity has announced the winners and finalists from eight countries for COLORFUL 2024, an annual grant program related to the global Young Guns 22 competition to help up and coming BIPOC creatives around the world advance their careers.
COLORFUL winners are awarded cash prizes to be used towards a professional dream project of their choosing, and free entry to the YG22 competition.
This year’s first-place winner is Jappy Agoncillo, a New York-based artist and illustrator originally from Manila, who will receive a $3,000 grant. The $2,000 second-place grant went to Jocelyn Chambers, a composer and creative based in Los Angeles.
There were a pair of third-place winners, each receiving $1,000 grants: Kaanchi Chopra, a biodesigner and nature-based artist working in Delhi and New York, and Shantanu Sharma, a Brooklyn-based designer, illustrator, and art director originally from Delhi.
In addition, the following COLORFUL 2024 finalists qualified for free entry in Young Guns 22:
Tara Anand, illustrator, Mumbai
Carlos Bocai, designer, New York, NY (originally from Rio de Janeiro)
Miida Chu, writer, director, Los Angeles (originally from Suzhou, China)
Kamila Daurenova, commercial & music video editor, Brooklyn (originally from Almaty, Kazakhstan)
Malik Dupree, photographer, graphic designer, Brooklyn, NY
Carmel Gatchalian, graphic designer, illustrator, art director, San Diego
Sajid Guerrero, creative director, Manila
Lo Harris, multidisciplinary artist, New York
Arion Kidd-Weeks, writer, director, director of photography, Los Angeles
Marcie LaCerte, animation director, New York
Hayley Lim, art director, designer, director, Montréal
Amanda Lobos, illustrator, designer, Vila Velha, Espírito Santo (Brazil)
Hermes Miranda, designer, Brasilia
Anagha Narayanan, type designer, France (originally from India)
Gonzalo Silva Corcelet, graphic designer, illustrator, Montevideo (Uruguay)
Suki Violet Su, designer, visual artist, New York (originally from Shenzhen)
Wenjia Tang, illustrator, Nanjing, China
The COLORFUL grant program, which has no application fee, is open globally to BIPOC creatives who qualify for the club’s prestigious Young Guns competition: age 30 years and under with at least two years of professional creative experience, and never having won Young Guns in the past.
Submissions were reviewed by the 2024 COLORFUL jury – many of whom are past Young Guns winners – made up of Ritesh Gupta designer, founder, Useful School; Kajal, director, photographer; Ahmed Klink, director, partner, cofounder, Sunday Afternoon; Marte, designer, lettering artist; Wael Morcos, graphic designer, type designer; Mischelle Moy, digital artist, photographer (COLORFUL 2023 winner); Leyla T. Rosario, producer; Rich Tu, ECD, partner, Sunday Afternoon; Justen Turner, filmmaker; and Sophia Yeshi, illustrator, designer.
Sunday Afternoon, a female and minority-owned creative studio based in New York, will also once again offer one COLORFUL applicant 12 months of mentorship from its leadership team of Juan Carlos Pagan, Ahmed Klink, Audrie Poole, and Rich Tu. Receiving that honor this year is first-place winner Jappy Agoncillo, who will connect with the team to help support their creative growth and goals.
“The COLORFUL mission hasn’t changed since its inception and the selections were harder than ever,” said Tu. “We had more global entries this year, and I’m confident we could build a world-class agency with just the finalists and winners alone.”
COLORFUL 2024 branding for this year’s program was created by Brooklyn-based freelance designer Ritesh Gupta, who is also founder of Useful School, a pay-what-you-can program for BIPOC designers to improve their practical skills and better navigate the industry.