AWARD School celebrates Sydney graduates
The Australasian Writers and Art Directors Association (AWARD) has today released the names of the top students graduating from the Sydney branch of AWARD School, the ideas program for aspiring art directors and copywriters.
At a graduation ceremony held on Tuesday night (7th August) at The Art House in Sydney, hosts Adrian McNamara and Hamish Grieve announced that the honours for top AWARD School student in Sydney went to Curtis McDonald (left). Second place was awarded to Phillip Harkness while Michael Yang came in third. The following students were also selected by the judges for commendation: David Rees, Paul Slater, Carl Fraunschiel, David Biddle, Casey Schweikert, Charlie Gearside, Sunchi Mathur and Salvatore Cavallaro.
(Pictured: Ray Black, Hamish Grieve and Adrian McNamara)
AWARD chairman, Craig Davis, congratulated all the students singled out by the judges, and, in particular, the top three.
Says Davis: “It’s exciting that there’s such great talent coming through in our industry and we’re delighted to see Curtis, Phillip and Michael leading the way among this year’s graduates.”
Margaret Zabel, CEO of The Communications Council, welcomed the news and thanked all those involved in making AWARD School such a valuable introduction to the industry.
(Pictured: The top 11 minus Curtis McDonald)
Says Zabel: “We are lucky to have such talented professionals willing to give up their time to help guide the next generation of creative talent on their career paths. Congratulations to all the top graduates; we look forward to following your progress over the coming years.”
Agencies that were in volved and offered tutoring in New South Wales were: Campaign Palace; Naked Communications; AJF Partnership; JWT; Momentum; The Monkeys; DDB; Leo Burnett; The Hallway; Kastner & Partners; 12 Below; Clemenger; TBWA; McCann; and Sapient Nitro.
Says Davis: “The tutors are an imperative part of the AWARD School program and their expertise is a key element of preparing students for a future in the industry. We commend all the tutors, whose roles involve long hours and ongoing deadlines and demands.”
Sponsored by Google, AWARD School is a 16-week, part time course which runs from March to July each year in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane and Hobart. The course, which also runs in Auckland and Singapore, consists of a Monday evening lecture and a Thursday evening tutorial, held inside agencies by industry practitioners. To be accepted onto the course, each applicant must submit a folio of work based on the brief set by the heads of AWARD School. Students are selected purely on the merit of the ideas in their application.
The judging panel responsible for selection of the top students in Sydney included: Reed Collins (Campaign Palace); Simon Veksner (formerly DDB); Ben O’Brien (Kastner & Partners); Richard Morgan (formerly Holler); Mark Harricks (JWT); David Joubert (GPY&R); Dustin Lane (Rising Giants); Damon Stapleton (Saatchi & Saatchi); Paul Nagy (Clemenger); and Tom Spicer (The Furnace).
Guest speakers included: Ray Black; Simon Veksner; Rebecca Carrasco (Clemenger); Luke Chess (Clemenger); Ralph van Dijk (Eardrum); Julian Watt (GPY&R); Ben O’Brien (Kastner & Partners); Richard Morgan (formerly Holler); Jonathan Kneebone (Glue Society); Shane Bradnick (BMF); and Ben Sampson (Idea Gallery).
AWARD School will host Graduation parties in: Hobart on 9th August; Brisbane and Perth on 14th August; Melbourne on 16th August; and Adelaide on 23rd August.
19 Comments
Nice one Rees!
Another Schweikert in advertising. Well done Casey for your Top 10 and to all the other graduates, good work.
Well done Rees. Got a top career ahead of ya.
Go Rees! Well done.
You’ve changed Adrian
Uh I just googled the winner’s name and it says on LinkedIn that he already works as a copywriter. Doesn’t this go against Award School rules?
“As a creative I’ve worked across Samsung, Cadbury, Schweppes, Blackmores, Vegemite, Visa, Westpac Bank, St. George Bank, a range of alcohol brands, including Corona, Johnnie Walker, Jose Cuervo, VB, Carlton Dry and many more.”
Welcome guys, well done i’m sure it wasn’t easy.
Nah, he was one of those ‘creative suits’ me thinks and has down the smart thing
and capitalised on his recent win etc.
No women in the jury at all and one speaker throughout the course?!
Well then he shouldn’t say he “worked as a creative” on those jobs, this implies he contributed as either a copywriter or art director and not a suit.
You’re allowed to do AWARD School as a copywriter/art director if you’ve been in the role a year or less.
Hang on a sec… someone sounds to be a sore loser…. still dodge – get a life!
Hello ‘hang on a sec’,
Someone mentioned the comment to me so I thought I’d reply.
I definitely haven’t worked as a Copywriter. My title was ‘Experiential Creative’. It was more of a new business role than anything. Taking briefs from Clients and working with the agency to pull together responses and present them. I mostly worked without a CD and in a hybrid role, more of a ‘creative suit’ as mentioned above. In addtion I was in the role for much less than a year. The reason I recently updated it to Copywriter was to frame me up as that position for future roles.
Thanks for your concern. I’ve changed it back for now to avoid upsetting anyone else.
Cheers,
Well done, Curt. Really enjoyed your work on the wall – was streets ahead of the rest. Also, massive big-ups to Sunch and Gearside for getting their hard work recognised and rewarded.
Curt has earned this win fair and square.
People trying to take you down a peg is always a good sign you’re going well.
We need more great creatives being produced by Australia, not less.
It’s not about who wins, it’s about who lasts.
A bit sad to know that even when a young person works hard and acheives something great there’s always a cynic out there waiting to cut them down somehow. Grow up.
I worked with Curt for over 2 years at Traffik and he certainly was not a Copywriter! in fact, we did not have any copy writers at our agency. Curt is an amazingly talented guy with drive and focus. Curt deserves this fair and square and I agree with Dave – “people trying to peg you down is always a good sign you’re going well’. Well done Curt, I can’t wait to see you continue to produce great work!
Well deserved winners!! That said, a very sad snapshot of local industry values on the glory wall in Sydney. Far too many 1990’s formulaic print ads on show. Quite disappointing given the calibre of progressive media neutral ideas floated by many of the students. Some very talented kids = plenty of hope for the future of Australian advertising.