2. Awards & Education;

Since 2001 YCN has orchestrated and curated a series of educational and professional development programmes; aiming to stimulate, support and showcase emerging creative talent.

Our YCN Student Awards annualy shine a light on emerging creative excellence; and run closely alongside the many Universities, Colleges and Art & Design schools across the UK, and overseas too. The awards are based around a collection of live creative briefs; written each year by partnering brands, charities and other organisations. The most recent collection presented challenges from organisations as diverse as Warp, Sega, Fairtrade, the Big Issue and 20th Century Fox.

Commended entrants are are awarded at a splendid ceremony each year; and all such work is showcased in the pages of the YCN Student Annual. 10,000 copies of the Annual are distributed across education, and across the creative industries. The Awards enable all those that take part to benefit from engaging with thoroughly contemprary communication challenges, and give increased confidence, visibility and employability to all those that excel within them.

Further to the Awards, we have developed a broader raft of professional development content, events and projects - some of which are evident in this section. Members of the central YCN team visit Universities, Colleges and Art & Design schools throughout the year; introducing our aims and partners in person; and sharing some of the commercial work that comes out of our unique creative agency.

Here in the Awards & Development section we are developing a rich raft of professional development content, and centrally curating details of internships, jobs and freelance roles across the creative industries.






A group of students from Aberdeen college proudly pose outside the YCN HQ. We host visits from different colleges throughout the year; presenting work in our groundfloor shop and library space (shown). To arrange a visit email kezia@ycnonline.com.




A collection of past YCN Student Annuals archived at the University of Northampton. Students from the University assemble for a YCN presentation below.