Workshop This Thursday for TikTok Young Lions’ New Design Category! AKQA’s Ros Horner says “The World Needs More Designers!” (Part 1)

The TikTok Young Lions competition is open for entry and we’re on the lookout for the best and brightest young Aussie talent to compete at the 2022 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

If you’re under 30, the TikTok Young Lions competition is one of the best places to celebrate your creativity!

Entries are open to teams of two young professionals across five Young Lions categories. And this year’s competition includes a brand-new category for Design professionals, sponsored by AKQA.

If you’re a go-getting, young creative who’s up for an exciting challenge (and the chance to win a trip to Cannes), this one is for you!* 

In this two-part interview, we learn more about the new Design category from AKQA’s executive design director for Australia and New Zealand, Ros Horner. And we uncover what inspired AKQA’s involvement with the TikTok Young Lions competition.

B&T: Why do you feel it’s important that a design category is included in the TikTok Young Lions competition?

RH: The world needs more designers! Especially at the moment. The process we go through on any design brief involves listening, empathy, exploring multiple solutions, and making sharp decisions at the right time – skills that are so useful. 

Design briefs also require us to sit with the blank page, feel the fear of not having the answer straight away and trust the process.

B&T: What was the inspiration behind AKQA’s sponsorship of the design category?

We’re sponsoring the design category because design is at the heart of everything we do. Although we are an ideas and innovation agency, those ideas are brought to life by how they’re designed, all our teams no matter what their discipline or role are encouraged to think like designers.

And we’re sponsoring Young Lions because we see the huge value and benefit of diversity of all kinds, and age is part of that.

We have some amazing experience at AKQA but we’re always amazed by the talent, energy and fresh perspectives that our young talent bring, so we want to continue to support that, both for those who know our industry exists and have trained in design but also people who may not know that this career is even an option.

B&T: How do you keep creative at AKQA?

We really acknowledge and embrace everyone’s different approaches to staying creative, but there are a few things we know work for everyone. You can’t create when you’re stressed! So we put a huge amount of work into our culture and wellbeing initiatives and it shows in the work. 

We also know that great work doesn’t come from looking at other work or comparison. Being in a wide variety of environments, cultures and having broad interests is always where the best insights or ideas come from.

It’s no coincidence that so many of our people at AKQA around the world love sports and the outdoors and big challenges, it’s that sense of adventure and level of comfort with risk and new things that translates so well to creativity at work.

B&T: Why should young designers consider entering the TikTok Young Lions competition?

Because you should do everything as a young designer! Great work and the ability to actually make a difference with design comes from a little bit of talent, but mainly from momentum, sharing and energy.

No one is going to notice something you keep to yourself, no one is going to build on an idea you were too worried to share, no one is going to ask you to be involved in something they don’t know you’re passionate about. This is a great brief, and a chance to bring something of yourself to your work, those chances get less and less so go for it.

B&T: What can participants look forward to at the upcoming Design workshop?
Designers will get a behind the scenes look at what AKQA have been up to, designing for a better future and get into the depths of the TikTok Young Lions brief as we delve into the circular economy. They’ll be the chance to hear the brief directly from me, but also hear two of our amazing Creative Directors talk about the variety of work we do and their process. 

As someone who’s always looking for hacks and optimisations I would be there because you’ll get to hear what makes a winning entry, hear from previous winners and get a load of insights that accompany and expand the brief for you.

So what are you waiting for? Register now for the Design workshop taking place this Thursday 17th February at 10:00 AM Sydney (GMT 11:00) for the inside scoop on crafting a winning entry!

Stay tuned for part two of this interview, where we hear more about Horner’s personal relationship with the creative world of advertising, and what TikTok Young Lions participants can glean from her success in this dynamic field.

*The TikTok Young Lions competition is open to teams of two young professionals working in creative communications/ advertising/ digital agencies. Freelancers and in-house creative teams from client companies will be accepted to compete in the Design competition.

Teams will be tasked with creating a design that will include a brand identity as well as visuals of how this identity would look in the real world.