AWARD School NSW reveals top 10 graduates; Josh Edwards named Top of Class for 2015
Josh Edwards has been awarded Top of Class at the 2015 AWARD School NSW graduation ceremony, which took place at The Loft in Sydney last night. As part of the program, Edwards was tutored by two agencies Josie Fox & Dan Barrett (JOY) and Scott Mortimer (OGILVY).
Close to 300 industry professionals, sponsors, and graduates came together to celebrate the graduation of more than 100 NSW students who have now completed the preeminent training program for aspiring creatives and art directors in Australia and New Zealand.
Certificates were handed out by Ray Black, the 1982 chairman of AWARD and founder of AWARD School 33 years ago.
Top 10 Students:
1st place – Josh Edwards
2nd place – Chris Nguyen
3rd place – Adam Burns
The final seven graduates to make the NSW top ten, in no particular order, include:
Rachel Corbett
Jake Davies
Zachary Goldberg
Raman Goraya
David Little-Jones
Michael Watts
Nancy Zhou
Says Mark Harricks, AWARD chairman and ECD at VCCP Sydney: “The standard of work this year has been extremely impressive. There are people in this room who will go on to become industry leaders. Creativity in business has never been more important. Our industry, and the way creativity is being applied, is in a constant state of change. For those creatives who ride creative chaos adeptly, it’s an exciting time to be entering. Welcome and enjoy the ride.”
NSW AWARD School heads Pete Ogden (creative director), June Laffey (executive creative director, McCann Health) and Simon Jarosz, (creative director, Toast Creative) congratulated the 2015 students on their work and achievements and thanked the tutors for their enthusiasm and commitment.
Says Ogden: “It was a big relief when we got through final judging and saw the quality on display. There was some work that was genuinely amazing. It bodes well for our industry.”
(Picture 1: Josh Edwards, Ray Black, Adam Burns, Chris Nguyen; picture 2: Josie Fox, Dan Barrett, Josh Edwards, Scott Mortimer; picture 3: top 10 & school heads)
11 Comments
Babe with the ginger beard in picture 1
Chris Nguyen. Well done, mate.
In 1993 and 1994 I ran AWARD school the intake was 50/50 male to female. 50% of the tutors were female types. Every student was marked anonymously (to avoid favouritism). The result? Half the winners were female. Shame it’s NEVER happened again and I mean SHAME!
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Josh since 2011. He’s pretty amazing. He’s come so far since I’ve known him, and he was pretty darn good to begin with. So much ability rolled into one guy. Congratulations mate, well deserved!!!
Hi Jane,
I was one of the tutors this year and a judge on the night.
AWARD insists that all portfolios we see are anonymous and we were instructed by Pete Ogden to NOT judge any book, where we recognised the work was from one of our own students, to avoid the very collusion you accuse us of.
Personally I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Despite the fact that two of my students got through to the Top Ten – Rachel and Nancy – they did so because all the other judges in the room thought the ideas in their book were consistently outstanding, not because they were influenced by me in any way.
I don’t know what the gender split was across all the students this year – though both groups I had were fairly evenly split and most got at least on piece up on the wall, I think.
While it’s always guaranteed to fuel the inequality issue in our industry, the accusation you make – in this case, I can assure you – is totally unfounded.
The judging was all about the work, the work, the work and whoever created it was never discussed. Simply because in the end, that doesn’t matter.
Well done Josh!! 🙂
Amazing work Josh! Not surprised at all!
Congratulations Josh!
Not surprised at all, your work was always amazing at uni!
GO JOSH! Well done mate.
Nice one Michael!
Good on ya Josh, what a gun!!