Young Lions winners Thijs Biersteker and Karian Weijers

On June 16, The Netherlands won first place at the Young Lions Print Competition at the 55th Cannes Lions Advertising Festival. The winning team members Thisjs Biersteker and Karian Weijers, who have just graduated from the Willem de Kooning Academy, received a voucher for a Getty Images print of their choice as their prize.

The Young Lions Competition is designed to catapult the careers of rising stars that are set to re-define the future use of images in advertising. This year’s brief was set by Amnesty International. The charity disclosed a brief set around giving ordinary people extraordinary power to right the wrongs in the world. The teams, all under 28 years old, had just 24 hours to interpret the brief and develop a print ad using imagery from Getty Images.

“We are very happy,” said the ecstatic winning team from the Netherlands. “It’s a dream come true.”

Competition closes TOMORROW, 14 May, 11:59pm PST!

It’s the Ultimate Pitch and it’s open to the world’s creative community. Send us an idea that makes a world of difference. If it’s judged to be the best, we’ll flaunt your work across the globe and on the beach at Cannes Lions 2008.

If you win, you’ll get to go too. Stepping into the shoes of world-renowned Executive Creative Director Bob Scarpelli - soaking up the finest creative and enjoying all his usual luxury perks at the festival.

And we’ll help you get the gig. Kick-start your brainstorm with our inspirational Catalyst search to land those “eureka!” moments. Then, tap into our big-budget clips, original music tracks and award-winning images to bring your ideas to life.

Play the video - Cannes awaits

Enter the Ultimate Pitch

Good luck.

I’m really excited about the current trend “Tactile Graphics” - the movement of graphic designers to represent their ideas and layouts spatially. It’s blurring the lines between graphic design, sculpture and photography and opens up exciting possibilities for creative’s working in traditional photography and footage to experiment with conceptual ideas.

www.serialcut.com

With the ability to create almost any situation artificially or remove any flaw using software such as Photoshop I think this style of imagery is a refreshing visual counter point. It will be interesting to see if commercial clients agree.

Interesting discussion yesterday on KQED San Francisco’s Forum with Michael Krasny on “Photography and Its Future”.

Photo: FPG via Getty Images

It’s rare that my “Texas ex-es” email me something in the least bit worthwhile, but this is a classic of amateur photography, sure to be in the next time capsule that we launch into deep space as an introduction to humanity. In another life whoever did this would be making millions in advertising instead of duct-taping their own kid to the wall for kicks…