Creative leaders to receive Manship Medallion at ADC Awards

Image supplied: The Manship Medallion honourees for 2022

When ADC was founded as the Art Directors Club in 1920, its highest award accolade was the medallion created by famed sculptor Paul Manship, renowned for the Prometheus sculpture in New York’s Rockefeller Center. The medallion trophy was later replaced with today’s ADC Cube.

In celebration of ADC’s first century, The One Club has revived the Manship Medallion, but with a different focus: to honour a select group of industry innovators who played a significant role in ADC history and development over the years.

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The Manship Medallion honourees

• Gail Anderson, celebrated designer and chair of BFA Design and BFA Advertising at the School of Visual Arts, past host of ADC Saturday Career Workshops, current board member of The One Club.
• Brian Collins, CCO at Collins, ADC board member who initiated the club’s annual “Designism: Design for Social Change” forum and Designism Cube special award for work that promotes positive societal and political change, organised numerous exhibitions and talks at the ADC Gallery, current One Club board member and treasurer.
• Myrna Davis, ADC executive director emeritus, served 13 years as ADC executive director.
• Olga Grisaitis, who served 22 years as ADC associate director, director of operation, acting director and executive director.
• George Lois, ad legend, ADC past president when ADC and The Copy Club joined forces to create The One Show, initiated the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame when president, ADC Hall of Fame laureate.
• Philippe Meunier, cofounder/creative chief at Sid Lee, ADC past president when ADC came together with The One Club to form The One Club for Creativity.
• Bill Oberlander, ADC past president, co-creator of ADC Young Guns, now a premier global competition for creatives age 30 and under, responsible for moving the Art Directors Club to the ADC Gallery space.
• Georg Olden, graphic designer who was the first African-American member of the ADC, served as an ADC officer and contributed to the design of ADC Annuals.
• Paula Scher, legendary designer, partner, Pentagram, ADC Hall of Fame laureate who designed a number of Annuals and reiterated the club’s monogram in 2002.
• Eileen Hedy Schultz, professor of Graphic Arts, School of Visual Arts, was the first and only woman to serve as ADC president, a champion for arts education during her ADC tenure.
• Rich Tu, GCD at Jones Knowles Ritchie, Young Guns 8 winner, a perennial active supporter of club initiatives, cofounder and underwriter of Young Guns Colorful grant programme for BIPOC creatives
• Richard Wilde, former chair BFA Advertising and BFA Design departments at School of Visual Arts, ADC Hall of Fame and The One Club Educator’s Hall of Fame laureate, past ADC board member, actively involved in the early years of the club’s Saturday Career Workshops for high school students.

“As ADC moves into its second century, we thought it was the perfect time to bring back this historic medallion, not to award work but as a rare honour bestowed upon a select group of creative leaders who have played enormous roles in shaping ADC throughout its first 100 years,” said Kevin Swanepoel, CEO, The One Club. “While congratulations are in order, a sincere thanks is also appropriate. Without the efforts of these honorees, ADC would not have played such an important part in the world of advertising and design.”

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ADC’s commitment to the ideal of art is underscored by the choice of Manship (1885-1966) to design the Art Directors Club's first award medal. He had a strong personal style with elements of both the realist academicians and the avant-garde. The Manship Medallion depicts Apollo, god of the sun and leader of the Muses, flying on Pegasus, a symbol of inspiration. The Muses are represented by the strings of his lyre.