Young Innovator Nominee: Frances Smith, Vice Media

Why she is nominated: Frances Smith is currently a Senior Designer at Vice Media. As designer and art director, she has worked across brands including i-D, Google, Sprite, Moët USA, and Hard Rock. While leading the brand development for Vice City Guides, it gained 112 million impressions at the halfway point of the program and the average time spent on the page (compared to the platforms benchmark average) was doubled. This program is set to go global.

With a Hispanic background and Masters of Science in Global Strategic Communications, she has a solid understanding of the strategy and cultural significance design has for targeting specific audiences. Cultural sensitivity for branding and telling stories is a priority seen through her work with Peace Corps led projects such as branding for “Voices of Morocco” a women based community platform and “APCYD” a cultural youth building community in Errachidia, Morocco. In addition, her work with The Dream Defenders was featured in Fast Company, Adweek, The Washington Post, and displayed on billboards nationwide. “The Dream Vest” campaign launched with a PSA and a physical billboard appearing to sell the Dream Vest, a fake promotional sale for a child's bulletproof vest. The social media components follow the same look and feel of a sales ad with the included #VoteOrVest hashtag to follow the conversation. In the first day alone, it gained 2,000 impressions and within a week, it gained 35,000 views on YouTube.

She currently leads Careluu, a branding studio specializing in small businesses looking to mutually pair with a charity that aligns with their vision.

The Young Innovator Award celebrates excellence and innovation by young professionals. See the other nominees and their backgrounds and check back to learn who has won this prestigious honor from The Advertising Club of New York and Google, with support from The Drum.