The Creative Express is a programme organized by the ADCE designed to provide professional training and promote young European creatives.
It brings together the continent’s best young art directors, copywriters and designers, to draw inspiration and new methods of learning from their international peers. The winning creative team come together to work on a real-world business challenge in a unique learning environment.
In 2026, the Creative Express takes on a new competition format. Young creatives up to 28 years old, working in teams of two, will have 24 hours to develop a creative solution to a live client brief. Each participating ADCE club or country have organized a national competition and select one winning team to represent them at the European Final in Barcelona, taking place during ADCE Creative Week, 17th –20th November 2026.
The winning creative team will be crowned on stage on 18th November during the ADCE Awards Judging – Final Round, where they will also present their project live as part of ADCE Creative Week 2026.
As official partner of the New European Bauhaus movement, ADCE organised the 10th edition of the Creative Express to find creative ideas for a more sustainable, inclusive and beautiful Europe.
Young creatives met online and worked guided by experienced mentors, in April 2021.
36 young talents from 17 different European countries were selected to participate in the #ViralCreativeExpress, the first digital edition of this programme done via Zoom.
The talents teamed up to wake the power of optimism, hope and the belief in a better tomorrow, demised by the Covid-19 crisis.
32 young creatives from 16 different European countries were selected by their respective local associations, members of the ADCE, to take part in the 8th edition of the Creative Express, an exclusive educational programme organised by the ADCE, which took place in Riga (Latvia) on the 18th and 19th of July, hosted by the Latvian Art Directors Club (LADC).
Co-organized by the Clube de Criativos de Portugal and the ADCE, the 7th edition of the Creative Express challenged its 29 young participants to develop ideas and communication strategies to involve the European creative community in the next edition of the ADCE European Creativity Festival which will be held in Barcelona on the 9th and 10th of November.\
The Creative Express programme was hosted at Pi Campus in Rome. The event, organised by the Art Directors Club for Europe (ADCE) in collaboration with Pi Campus, took place May 18-19 2017.
Together with Creative Express director HP Albrecht, Pi Campus founder Marco Trombetti challenged 28 young creatives to develop a communication campaign aimed at inspiring designers around the world to found a startup over just two days. The final projects were presented to a daunting audience of 100 people from the industry.
The 5th Creative Express took 24 young creatives to the Baltic Sea, on a cruise ship travelling from Helsinki to Stockholm, as they developed a communications campaign for the ship’s operator, Viking Line Ferries. The challenge was simple: How can an effective creative campaign drive awareness and increased purchases for Viking Ferries? How can you persuade more people to spend their free time at sea?
For the 4th edition of the Creative Express, that setting was the cable cars high in the Austrian Alps. To develop a creative campaign for the Brenner Basis Tunnel – a green construction project to develop the world’s largest underground tunnel passage. As one of the most important and expensive traffic projects in Europe.
Europe’s most talented young creatives had the chance to work in a fantastic setting at the heart of a brief. Not in an office, nor in a classroom or a conference centre, but a place where they could truly immerse themselves in the challenge.
A Creative Express Experience held on the 23 & 24 August. 27 young creatives from all over Europe, invited by the ADC of Europe, the CommClubs, and the Akademie U5, met at the Isar to learn, network and work within the context of the CREATIVE CAMP. Presentations – briefing – work – party. An unusual as well as successful project for young professionals.
The second edition of the Creative Express Workshop was held in Amsterdam on Friday, 14 March 2014. Leading the session where HP Albrecht and NGO, Democracy International. Participants from 12 countries worked to develop creative ideas for a more democratic Europe and lead a movement under the slogan: “United People of Europe”. The workshop was organized into 4 teams lead by one senior coach. The results were impressive! Selected ideas are currently being further developed by the teams in order to produce and execute them in the near future. The one-day workshop was held at ADCN headquarters in Amsterdam.
