Announcing the 2016 NVAs: 15 Artists Under 30

We are thrilled to announce PRINT’s 2016 New Visual Artists—the 15 best creatives today under 30.

This is the second year we’ve run our New Visual Artists: 15 under 30 in Print. What was for years a tightly edited list of 20 of the best and brightest young designers working today has become a more in-depth portfolio of 15 of the most interesting, challenging, provocative new voices working in visual communications.

What does it mean to receive this type of accolade so young? I wouldn’t know, as it never happened to me. But the advantages are clear: lots of exposure, bigger opportunities, public acclaim. But there, buried beneath the benefits, is a sinister challenge: When you “make it” so young, you have that much more to maintain. Ask any one-hit wonder of the music industry; being “of the moment” is quite a different phenomenon than making work that lasts over time.

Print’s NVAs have managed to make it happen and make it last. The list of past NVAs reads like a veritable who’s-who in graphic design: Scott Dadich, Eddie Opara, Alan Dye, Jessica Walsh, Jessica Hische. While their output is varied both in style and execution, the common denominator is a work ethic of epic proportions.

To achieve acclaim so young is certainly enviable. But our history of NVAs and our current crop of young designers proves that design can be both timely and timeless. It will be interesting to see how the 2016 class of New Visual Artists grows and evolves over time as well.

—Debbie Millman