While the biggest prizes at this year’s ADC Annual Awards went to major global networks, production systems and technologically sophisticated projects, one regional project from Ljubljana stood out as proof that author-driven design can still have a strong international impact.
At the ceremony held in New York during Creative Week 2026, The One Club for Creativity gathered winners from 39 countries, and this year’s edition of the ADC Awards once again demonstrated how the creative industry is increasingly divided between large integrated systems and individual authorial approaches sustained through strong visual identity and consistent craft.
The evening’s highest honor, the ADC Black Cube for Best of Show, went to HeimatTBWA\ Berlin and Tempomedia Berlin for the project “No Project Without Drama” created for Hornbach. Alongside the main award, the campaign also won Best of Discipline in Advertising, two Gold Cubes, four Bronze Cubes and two Merits, confirming how strongly the industry currently rewards projects that function as cultural commentary as much as traditional advertising.
The title of Agency of the Year went to Area 23 New York, which collected eight Gold Cube awards throughout the evening. Among the agency’s most notable projects were “The EarliShow” for EarliTec Diagnostics, developed together with Aardman Animations Bristol, as well as “The Zip Code Exam” for Equality Health Foundation.
However, one of the most interesting moments of this year’s edition came from Ljubljana.
Tomato Košir Ljubljana won the Freelancer of the Year award, selected through voting by members of the organization’s freelance community, sharing the recognition with photographer Todd Antony from London. At the same time, the studio also received Best of Discipline in the Magazine/Newspaper Design category for the “Objektiv covers” series created for Objektiv by Dnevnik.
In a competition dominated by large international systems, the result feels particularly significant because it shows that international juries can still be won over through strong editorial design, a recognizable authorial aesthetic and long-term consistency, rather than only through large production budgets or technological innovation.
The editorial and newspaper design category itself has become an increasingly interesting indicator of broader industry changes in recent years. While much of the creative market continues shifting toward AI tools, content automation and performance communication, the design of covers, print editions and visual systems increasingly functions as one of the few spaces where authorial craft is still highly valued.
That is further reflected in the fact that some of this year’s biggest winners also included The New York Times Magazine New York with five Gold Cube awards, as well as London-based NOMINT and VML Health Spain Madrid with four Gold Cubes each.
This year’s ADC Awards also openly demonstrated how deeply AI is becoming embedded in contemporary creative production. Best of Discipline in the Artificial Intelligence category went to Google Creative Team Mountain View for the project “Thomas’ Story”, while the new ADC AI Visual Design-Dreamina AI category will announce its first winners on May 21.
The category was created in partnership with the Dreamina AI platform by ByteDance, with organizers stating that the goal is to recognize a new “generative craft” approach and creators who use AI as a creative partner rather than simply as a production automation tool.
Among the evening’s other major winners were Squarespace New York, which won six Gold Cube awards for “Unavailable”, Established New York, recipient of the ADC Designism Cube for the project “Tilt”, and FCB Canada (TBWA\Canada) Toronto, which won Best of Non-Profit for “The Count”, created for Sickkids Foundation.
This year’s ADC Awards received entries from 60 countries and regions, with a total of 90 Gold Cubes, 114 Silver Cubes, 166 Bronze Cubes and 296 Merits awarded overall.
Behind the numbers, however, remains a much more important picture of an industry trying to find balance between AI production, large network systems and creators whose work still manages to remain recognizable regardless of the size of the market they come from. That is precisely why the success of the Ljubljana project stands out this year as one of the clearest reminders that author-driven design can still have global influence.
