The first ever ADC Young Guns app is now available for free download and it’s an incredible way to experience the groundbreaking work that was awarded as part of Young Guns 11. By the very nature of the Young Guns competition, many of the winners can’t be neatly defined as simply designers, and their work is becoming more difficult to categorize—that’s part of why it won. The new YG11 app for iPad embraces that truth and provides a unique platform for all kinds of work, from video to web design, 3D animation to interactive installations. A printed annual just wouldn’t do these artists justice.

Upon first opening the app, there is a game of Mega Pong to be played, in which you must win three points to “Level Up” and see the award-winning work (or if you hate fun you can just swipe ahead). This is followed by a quick lesson for the future with YG11 Chair Rich Tu’s 20 Things to Take Away from Young Guns 11.

When you resurface after about 20 minutes of pong (time may vary depending on your tendency toward addiction), there’s the work. It’s surprising, beautiful, scary, demanding, arresting, and engaging in a way that could never be fully encompassed in a print format. And it feels personal. In a way, sitting down with the app is like directly encountering each of the 37 winners and getting to know how their mind ticks, even if only for a few minutes.

Take Jordan Bruner, whose stop animation films you can delve into and be mesmerized by right within the app. There’s no navigating of YouTube to be done—just an intimate viewing experience with each impeccably crafted video.

Or Chris Cheung (honhim) and his interactive art installations, like the haunting piece No Longer Write: you can’t be transported you to the experience itself, but this really is the next best thing.

Similarly, the app allows you to engage with Wendy W Fok’s architectural and material-based investigations (without having to travel to Shanghai or Hong Kong) a step closer to the way they were meant to be seen.

The playful work of animators Alex Grigg and Matthias Hoegg is like a mini-cartoon marathon within your app experience, Lauren Indovina’s commercial work for Fage defies any screenshot presentation, and Joshua Harvey’s “Metamorphosis” takes over your whole mindset in addition to your screen.

Which is all a drawn-out way of saying, the Young Guns 11 app is very, very cool. Download your free copy today and let us know what you think!