The global Art Directors Club has announced the first recipients of the relaunched Paul Manship Medal as part of this year’s ADC 105th Annual Awards. The honor was awarded to Debra Bishop, founding design director of The New York Times for Kids, and Yannis Konstantinidis, director, creative director, and co-founder of London-based studio NOMINT.
The return of this accolade is not only a symbolic reminder of ADC’s history, but also an attempt to redefine what lasting creative value means at a moment of major transformation for the industry.
The award was originally introduced in 1920 under the name Manship Medallion and was created by American artist Paul Manship, best known for his monumental Prometheus sculpture at Rockefeller Center in New York. During the 1960s, the medallion evolved into today’s iconic ADC Cube, one of the creative industry’s most recognizable awards.
With this year’s relaunch, ADC is trying to return the focus to creators whose work functions not only as a successful campaign or aesthetic trend, but as a long-term contribution to the development of craft, design, and creative thinking.
“The Paul Manship Medal represents a legacy born from an almost insane ambition,” said Brian Collins, President of the Art Directors Club and co-founder of COLLINS.
“When the Art Directors Club was founded, those artists understood that in a world that changes with the weather, only the highest levels of imagination and craft endure.”
Collins added that the award is not intended to be just another industry accolade, but recognition for people who define the highest standards of creative work.
This year’s recipients clearly reflect the direction in which ADC sees the future of the creative industry.
In the case of Debra Bishop, the focus was not only on the quality of design, but on the ability to build an entirely new media format for younger audiences through visual identity. As founding design director of The New York Times for Kids, Bishop helped develop a platform that sought to combine the authority of a newspaper with the visual language and curiosity of a children’s magazine.
ADC particularly highlighted how her career reflects a combination of creativity, longevity, and consistency, from her earlier projects for Rolling Stone to her work with The New York Times.
Alongside her professional achievements, organizers also emphasized her role as a mentor and educator, particularly her structured and individualized approach to developing young designers.
On the other hand, the selection of Yannis Konstantinidis feels like recognition for a form of craft that deliberately moves against the dominant logic of speed, automation, and content hyperproduction.
As creative director and co-founder of NOMINT, Konstantinidis has become known in recent years for projects combining stop-motion, 3D printing, practical effects, thermal cameras, and experimental production techniques to create work that feels physical, tactile, and almost entirely opposed to generic digital content.
In its statement, ADC specifically highlighted his projects for WWF, including the films Up in Smoke and In Hot Water, as well as the campaign Trails Will Blaze for BBC around the Winter Olympics.
He commented that, in his view, the award represents a call for the industry to invest “unreasonable effort” into the work it creates, even when those projects appear too complicated, risky, or difficult to execute.
The Paul Manship Medal presentation will take place on May 13 at Capitale in New York as part of Creative Week 2026.
This year’s Creative Week also includes a range of additional programming, including The One Club AI Creative Challenge, Executive Creative Summit 2026, portfolio review sessions, Type Directors Club events, and daily panel discussions focused on the future of the creative industry.
