This year’s winners, Paul Bernabe, Marian Cuestas, Cynthia Rojas, and Ping Sun (all BIC '21) received the Gold Pencil for their North Face campaign “Nature Never Judges.” Their team, City Creative Studio, also received a Bronze ADC Cube. BIC’s effort this year resulted in The City College of New York / CUNY being ranked in the Top Ten among schools in the United States.

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

They were among six teams overseen by BIC Professors Jason Stefanik and Andy Currie in this year’s one-credit intensive course that began randomly in November and wrapped up — over the phone, in a bodega, and at various agencies — with the Young Ones deadline on March 10th. In addition to the 2020 Gold Pencil and Bronze ADC Cube, Jason has helped BICsters win two Gold Pencils (2016 and 2017) and a Merit (2017) as well as 2019’s Silver Pencil, Bronze ADC Cube, and two Merit Winners along with co-instructor Andy Currie.

According to The ONE Club, this year's Young Ones competitions — the Young Ones Brief, Young Ones ADC, and Young Ones Portfolio — attracted an especially talented group of students. When the dust cleared and the esteemed juries finished their scores, over 500 entries from 17 different countries made the Finalist list. In addition to North Face, 2020 sponsors included Vans, Burger King, and Spotify.

Competition for the top prize was stiff: only 19 Gold Pencils from the young Ones Brief were awarded. So a big BIC Bravo to Paul Bernabe, Marion Cuestas, Cynthia Rojas, and Ping Sun. While the pandemic may have cancelled the festivities, BIC was happy to salute you with its first-ever Zoom photo shoot. What an amazing achievement. Congrats!!!

Thanks also to the intrepid instruction of our instructors, Jason and Andy. Your expertise, passion, and good humor were instrumental in elevating the students submissions and making them "ONE Show Worthy." We owe you big time -- or at least a beer.

More about Jason Stefanik and Andy Currie: Jason is currently a Group Creative Director at mcgarrybowen where he works on the Audible, Manhattan Mini Storage, and Subway accounts. He’s worked at agency powerhouses such as Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal, TBWA\Chiat\Day, and BBDO. While at BBDO, he won and launched the popular Foot Locker “Approved” campaign, and created well-known work for Snickers, Fed-Ex and AT&T. During his 12-year career he has consistently created advertising that breaks into popular culture, having been featured on The Today Show, CNN, ABC News, New York Magazine’s Approval Matrix, Mashable, ESPN, Bleacher Report, TBS Funniest Commercials of the Year and in the print edition of The New York Times. And he’s been repeatedly acknowledged by the industry with Cannes Lions, One Show Pencils, ADC Cubes, Clios and many other international advertising awards.

Andy's work has won at Cannes, D&AD, The One Show, the Clios, and even captured a Golden Drum - an award he neither submitted work for nor knew he won until receiving a fancy watch along with an esoteric letter written in Polish. More importantly, he’s been fortunate to spend most of the last 20 years working with a wonderfully odd and talented assortment of creative  people. Despite constantly preaching the value of simplicity, brevity, and outrageous creativity in advertising, he isn’t convinced that any person can be summed up in a paragraph.

More about The ONE Club: The One Club exists to champion and promote excellence in advertising and design in all its forms. It is the world's foremost non-profit organization devoted to elevating creative work in the industry. It seeks to celebrate the legacy of creative advertising and to use that legacy to inspire future generations. The One Club is the 'keeper of the flame' for advertising creatives. The One Show remains the pinnacle of achievement by providing a showcase of the world’s best work, and by inviting collaboration among individuals who are actively developing outstanding work.  Further, The One Club exists to educate and inspire students of the business and to benefit the next generation of creatives through scholarships, portfolio reviews and annual student exhibitions and competitions.