Every year, Ad Age celebrates young creatives during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity with our Young Creatives Cover Competition—in which we ask talents from around the world, age 30 and under, to create the opening page of our print issue that publishes in the week of the festival.

Though the pandemic has put a pause on the festival until next year, our contest continues. We are inviting young creatives to create a stunning image to be featured on the cover of our Creativity Issue, which comes out June 15. Though we won’t be flying the winner to join us at our annual lawn party in Cannes, we will be featuring them at our virtual event, The Future of Creativity, in the week that issue comes out. 

The competition is free to enter. The deadline is May 28, 2020 at 5 p.m. EDT. 

The brief

The advertising and marketing industry, like most others, has been upended by the pandemic. But through it all, the industry’s talents have demonstrated innovation and ingenuity as they create marketing and safety messages while also expressing their creativity in their personal projects.

The brief is to create a cover that celebrates how creativity continues to shine and empower, in what feels like our darkest moments. Important: this is not just an open invitation to “be creative.” The cover should clearly address the industry’s struggles and creative innovation throughout the crisis.

Be clever but avoid clichés. At this time, for example, perhaps it’s best to steer clear of images of masks or hand sanitizer and overused phrases. But if you do dare to go there, make sure it’s in a fresh way.

For full details and specs, please check out the competition page.