Fernando Luz tops 2016 AWARD School NSW; 50:50 gender split of successful applicants this year; six out of the top ten graduates female
Fernando Luz has been awarded Top of Class at the 2016 AWARD School NSW graduation ceremony, which took place at The Loft in Sydney last night.
Luz (pictured left – centre) was tutored by two agency groups; Justin Carew (far left) and Nigel Clark from Leo Burnett and Sarah Parris, Jerome Gaslain and Jon Foye from BWM Dentsu.
Close to 260 industry professionals, sponsors, media 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.
Top 10 Students:
1st place – Fernando Luz
2nd place – Cyndall McInerney
3rd place – William Halstead
The final seven graduates to make the NSW top 10, in no particular order, include:
Isabel Brand
Jack Chapman
Leila Cranswick
Nicola McCooe
Celia Mortlock
Joe Ranallo
Hayley Warwick
Preparing the graduates for the next step in their careers, AWARD chair and managing partner of The Sweet Shop, Wilf Sweetland, said: “AWARD School is the pre-eminent, most highly sought after, and most highly regarded course in Australasia that teaches students how to think creatively. What these students have achieved over 12 weeks is an excellent grounding for a long and rewarding career in commercial creativity. We look forward to welcoming them into the industry, supporting their development and celebrating with them as they graduate this evening.”
From more than 1000 submissions, a selection of 55 outstanding pieces were chosen for display by this year’s jury. NSW AWARD School Heads Niccola Phillips (Head of Art, M&C Saatchi), and Simon Jarosz, (Creative Director, MediaCom) congratulated the students on their work and achievements and thanked the tutors for their enthusiasm and commitment.
Says Phillips: “It was a pleasure and a privilege being one of the AWARD School heads for 2016. One of our major aims this year was to champion diversity, and we’re delighted to say that we succeeded with an unprecedented 50:50 gender split of successful applicants, and six out of the top ten ultimately being female.
We also wanted to ensure that the students’ work was carefully considered and seen by a number of Australia’s top creative directors, and by splitting the judging over three nights, every folio was given the attention it deserved. There was tighter curation of ‘The Wall’ this year, ensuring a consistently high calibre of the work on display, and the Top Ten were reviewed by two Executive Creative Directors on a dedicated night of judging to ensure that they were properly benchmarked and awarded fairly.”
A special thank you to the tutors who mentored the students over the 3 month program.
AWARD graduation ceremonies are still set to take place in Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, and Perth. Dates for the upcoming ceremonies are as follows:
Melbourne: Tonight: 20 July
Adelaide: 28 July
Brisbane: 28 July
Perth: 3 – 5 August
AWARD School is also currently running in Auckland.
The AWARD School program has now been running for over 30 years; the 2016 graduates follow in the footsteps of many of today’s creative leaders, including past students David Droga, founder and creative chairman of Droga5 and Matt Eastwood, worldwide creative director of J Walter Thompson, both based in New York. Craig Davis, ex-Chairman of AWARD and former worldwide CD of JWT, was also an AWARD graduate.
17 Comments
Congrats Cyndie. One to watch!
It’s only a 50:50 split when the ratio is 60:40 in favour of women.
Now, I’m no maths scientician… but 6 out of 10 isn’t a 50:50 split. Or is this considered progress with the feminist agenda and we’re closer to our equality end goal?
We’re almost there, ladies!
So a woman is worth 0.83 for every man. Good to see it’s aligned to the salary benchmark.
Shame it took 21 years to get 50/50 gender balance back in AWARD school.
Pretty sure 6 out of 10 is not 50:50 gender split
So someone that works at AWARD/Communications Council is in the top 10?
Congrats Hayley!
From reading this thread I know where the bitchy dumb comments on this blog come from. Always wondered if it was bitter old guys or dumb kids.
Congrats Hayley!
Whilst I understand and celebrate the gender diversity aspect of these comments, can we get back to congratulating the graduates for their efforts. This is a tough industry and a tough course, so let’s embrace and encourage fresh thinking first and foremost. Great ideas are our lifeblood. Whether they come from a male or female brain is secondary. I reckon this young talented bunch would agree.
A transgender grad possibly? Now that progress!
@Dr Numbers
@Not a numbers guy
If you read it carefully, the headline says successful applicants for this year’s total intake were split 50/50, and that, separate from that, 6 out of the top ten were female.
Still, took way too long to get there – next, let’s work on race.
How many went to public schools?
30% max I’d say by looking at them, but that’s just an opinion.
Yeah, still not enough, hey.
When 97% of the population we sell to are from public schools who don’t really care about women vs men (because they’re all co-ed, am-i-right?), we have a real problem in our industry.
As well as the ethnic one. Anyway, congrats on AWARD for achieving this years diversity targets.
Well done Hayley. Such fantastic work!