01 / Visual Graphics
Identity, posters, editorial systems.
Logo systems, layout craft, typographic voice. Awarded for clarity of idea and precision of execution — not for the number of mock-ups in the deck.
The next great
creative talent
is in this room.
The 24G GenNext Digital Creative Competition is a worldwide stage for student designers, illustrators, motion artists and storytellers — six rounds of live industry briefs in 2026, judged by working creative directors.
68
Countries (2024)
1,240
Teams entered
6
Live 2026 briefs
£40k
Prize pool
2026 season
A studio year, compressed into six rounds.
GenNext is not a poster dump and it is not a talent show. Each season we publish a set of live industry briefs — the same kind of problem a working studio opens on a Monday — and we ask student teams aged 14–24 to answer them in public, under a clock, with a jury that still has a day job.
The 2026 season keeps the format that produced the 2024 cohort and stretches it across six disciplines: Visual Graphics, Motion Design, Illustration, Storytelling/Film, Digital Product and Experiential. Teams may specialise or move. The leaderboard rewards range as much as polish.
What you take home is not only a score. After every round the jury returns a written critique. Finalists and category winners receive a certificate with a unique ID that anyone — a tutor, an employer, a parent — can check on this site.
Six categories
Where the 2026 season gets made.
Every brief belongs to one discipline. You do not need to enter all six, but the teams that travel — graphics one week, product the next — tend to arrive at Finals with a more honest portfolio.
02 / Motion Design
Title sequences and short-form motion.
Pacing, sound, narrative. From a six-second teaser to a full title sequence — moving image with a reason to exist.
03 / Illustration
Original visual storytelling.
Editorial covers, character work, brand illustration. We back distinctive voices over rendered perfection and over anything a model could have made unattended.
04 / Storytelling / Film
Campaigns and short films with a point of view.
Cross-channel campaigns, brand films, social-first executions. Idea first, format second. A beautiful frame that says nothing is not a film brief answered.
05 / Digital Product
Interfaces people can actually use.
Product flows, marketing sites, microinteractions. Judged on craft, accessibility, and the small decisions that tell you someone sat with a real user in mind.
06 / Experiential
Spaces, pop-ups, and live encounters.
How a brief leaves the screen: wayfinding, installation, event identity, a night market that a first-time visitor can actually read. Physical thinking, digital craft.
The season
Four phases. Six briefs. One trophy.
From the first warm-up to the live final pitch at the 24G Creators' Forum, the 2026 season is built like a real studio year — compressed into five months. Registration is open now.
PHASE 01
Register
Open now · closes 26 Jan 2026
Form a team of 2–5, pick a captain, unlock the brief library, asset packs and your mentor channel. Teams in by 12 January get first pick of Foundations briefs.
PHASE 02
Foundations
31 Jan 2026
Two warm-up briefs to find your team's voice, lock a workflow, and meet your industry mentor. Scores count toward ranking but Finals are decided later.
PHASE 03
Production
23 Feb 2026
Six live briefs across twelve weeks. Scored, ranked and critiqued each round by a rotating jury of creative directors.
PHASE 04
Finals
19–27 Jun 2026
Top six teams meet at the 24G Creators' Forum for a live pitch and the GenNext Award of Excellence. Certificates issue the week after.
Six-round calendar
What a brief cycle looks like.
Each production round lasts two weeks. A brief drops on a Monday. You research, concept, make, and submit. The jury scores the following week while the next brief is already live. That is the job.
Round 01 · 23 Feb – 8 Mar 2026
Visual Graphics
Identity and editorial systems. Deliver a system, not a single poster. See the live brief on the Briefs page.
Round 02 · 9 – 22 Mar 2026
Motion Design
Title sequence and short-form motion with sound. Length is a constraint, not a suggestion.
Round 03 · 23 Mar – 5 Apr 2026
Illustration
An editorial series with a point of view. Distinctive voice over rendered sameness.
Round 04 · 6 – 19 Apr 2026
Digital Product
A flow a first-time user can finish. Accessibility is scored, not optional.
Round 05 · 20 Apr – 3 May 2026
Storytelling / Film
A campaign film or cross-channel story. Idea first. Format has to earn its keep.
Round 06 · 4 – 17 May 2026
Experiential
A live or spatial encounter. How the work behaves in a room, a street, a night market.
Inside one round
Monday, 09:00 local to the brief (we publish in GMT): the PDF, the asset pack, the audience note and the exact rubric land in the team workspace. The first 48 hours are for research. We would rather see three pages of looking than a logo on day one.
Mid-round, your mentor holds a short critique. It is not a rehearsal of the jury and it is not a rewrite of your idea. It is a check that you have understood the constraint. Friday of week two, 17:00 GMT, the portal closes. Late work is not scored. The following week you receive a numeric score against five lenses — insight, idea, craft, cultural tension, feasibility — plus a written note from the round chair.
That rhythm is the point of GenNext. A portfolio built in private, over a term, with unlimited revision, tells a tutor something. A portfolio built in public, against a clock, with a stranger's brief, tells a creative director something else.
Who should enter
Built for students who want a working brief, not a vanity prize.
If you are 14–24, currently enrolled, and willing to work in a team of two to five, you can enter. We recruit especially from schools that do not already have a pipeline into London, New York or Shanghai studios.
Age band A
14–17 · high school
Shorter briefs, the same five judging lenses. A school coordinator is required. Mixed-age teams with an 18+ captain compete in Band B.
Age band B
18–24 · undergraduate & FE
Full-length briefs across all six categories. Self-taught students who can evidence current enrolment or a recognised college programme are welcome.
Teams
Two to five people
Solo entries are not accepted. A captain submits. Up to five teams per school; only one school team can be put forward to Finals.
You do not need a branded laptop, a full Adobe stack, or a showreel. Registered teams receive a Bluebeam workspace, Figma educational seats, and a curated asset pack. Make the work in whatever you already use. We score the thinking and the craft, not the subscription.
If you have entered GenNext before, you may enter again unless your team reached the Finals last time you competed. Returners are some of our strongest work. If you are comparing us with D&AD New Blood, ADC Young Guns or Cannes Lions Young Lions, start on The Field — those programmes sit in the same landscape; they are not partners of 24G.
2024 Champions · historical
Wonders, from Massey University.
A four-person team from Auckland took home the 2024 GenNext Award of Excellence after a final-week brief on cultural identity in digital advertising. Their certificates remain verifiable on this site.
Best in Visual Graphics
Best in Brand Storytelling
Award of Excellence
See the 2024 cohort →
Certificates
If we issued it, you can check it.
Every finalist and category winner in GenNext receives a certificate with a unique ID printed on the bottom edge. Type that ID into the public verifier and you will see the holder, team, school, category, season and issue date. If a PDF is on file, you can open it.
We do this because student awards are easy to invent and hard to trust. A creative director who has never heard of 24G should still be able to confirm, in under a minute, that a certificate is real. The staff issuing desk is not public. The verifier is.
Questions
Things people ask before entering.
A longer set lives on the FAQ page. During term time, hello@24g.org replies the same day.
How many teams can my school enter?
Up to five teams. Only one of them can represent the school in the Finals, so most schools run a short internal selection at the end of Production.
What does it cost to enter the 2026 season?
£375 for one team, scaling down per-team if your school enters more (up to £1,125 for five). VAT applies in the UK and EU. Fee-waiver places run every season — apply through the registration form.
May we use generative AI?
As a research or production assistant, declared in the submission notes, yes. As a substitute for authorship, no. Undeclared generated imagery or copy is a disqualification. The full rule is on the Judging and FAQ pages.
Do I need design software or industry tools?
No. Every registered team gets a free Bluebeam workspace, Figma educational seats, and a curated asset pack. Use what you already use.
Design something worth being seen for.
Registration for the 2026 season closes on 26 January. Teams in by 12 January get first pick of the Foundations briefs. Certificates from 2024 remain verifiable today.
Start your 2026 application →