MDS AdSchool grads win Grand Prize in last round of 2023 International Young Shits comp

After an overwhelming number of entries from around the world, judges of the international Young Shits Competition have announced Media Design School New Zealand’s Reece O’Gorman and James Sandham as winners of the final round.

Says Kate Humphries, programme director for MDS’s Creative Advertising class: “Those were some gratifying words to read on my first day back to from the summer break and nice to know that the 2023 class, our most-awarded class yet, had one more final award up their sleeves.

“One hand picked judge, one awesome brief, one month to kill it is the promise of the YS competition. And, as part of their final portfolio build last year, Reece and James killed it by taking on the challenge of the October brief to come up with an idea for a brand which uses colour to make our world a more vibrant place.”

The duo’s solution, inspired by Auckland’s wettest weather in 20 years, was an instant hit with the judges, who told O’Gorman and Sandham that when they saw the submission they knew it was the winner: “It ticked all the boxes of simplicity, a good sized deck, not too much writing, and cool pictures that bought it to life.”

Says O’Gorman and Sandham: “They loved how we flipped the idea on its head, and turned a real-life negative into a cool positive. They also loved how the idea could go beyond Auckland, and how we’d bought that to life with our PR headlines.”

As the October Grand Prix winners, O’Gorman and Sandham (who started at Special this month as junior creatives), met up online with the Toronto judges, Shirley Xu Wang and Marley Dichter.

Says O’Gorman: “We chatted for about an hour and they not only gave us some tips on how to survive the industry, we also had a great conversation around PR and Advertising and how creativity is blurring the lines between the two disciplines.

“We’re stoked to win the last Young Shits for 2023. The idea of turning cities into colour came from us staring out a rainy window all year, so if that’s the only positive from Auckland’s awful weather last year, then we’ll take it.”

Says Humphries: “A big thank you to Thinkerbell’s Regan Grafton, FCB’s Tim Gavriel and Arron Carbines and Pitchblack’s Kate Lil for their invaluable feedback back on the team’s idea. And three cheers to our final industry panel of 2023 for all the love they showed the idea.

“And now, upward and onward to 2024!  We only have a few places left in our 2024 class (starting Feb 19th), so if you know anyone who should stop dithering around and start  \ scratching their creative itch, then put them in touch for a chat right this second with Dan, MDS’s creative-people-finding-man: Daniel.Trainor@mediadesignschool.com.”