Sydney AWARD School announces top 10 graduates – Dane Van Veen named top student
Close to 300 industry professionals, sponsors, and graduates attended the AWARD School Graduation ceremony at The Loft in Sydney last night to celebrate some of Australia’s freshest new creative talent.
The top 10 graduates from the 2013 class of 100 students were announced at the Google-sponsored event, where Dane Van Veen was awarded top student, followed by Patrick Allenby who took second, and Nick Cole in third. The remaining top ten students, in no particular order, include Tim Batterham, Nicholas Wright, Johnnie Crawford, Matthew Faint, Serge Ozegovic, Jessica Waal and Elliott White.
Communications Council Board member and AWARD chairman, Mark Harricks (executive creative director at JWT Sydney), welcomed the crowd in a speech that reflected upon his own experience during and beyond the AWARD School program. While arming the young creatives for the rejection they will face throughout their careers, he proposed that it is rejection which will encourage their creativity.
Speaking on behalf of the NSW AWARD school heads (Joe Hawkins and Hamish Grieve), Hamish Grieve congratulated the 2013 students on their work and achievements before presenting the top ten students with their certificates and offering thanks to all of the 2013 AWARD tutors for their commitment and enthusiasm throughout the 16 week course.
Says Harricks: “For many of our students, this program will be the first step towards the right career path, and we hope that this is only the beginning of an ongoing relationship between the graduates and AWARD throughout those careers. Now more than ever it is important that we create a strong community of young creatives. We have seen some incredible talent showcased here this year, and it is wonderful to see those achievements celebrated.”
AWARD graduation ceremonies are still set to take place in Adelaide, Perth and Hobart this month. Dates for the upcoming ceremonies are as follows:
Hobart – Thursday 15th August
Perth – Wednesday 28th August
Adelaide – Contact Tesha
The AWARD School program has now been running for 30 years; the 2013 graduates follow in the footsteps of many of today’s creative leaders, including past students: Craig Davis, ex-chairman of AWARD and co-chairman & chief creative officer of Publicis Mojo, David Droga, founder and creative chairman of Droga5, and Matt Eastwood, chief creative officer at DDB New York.
The graduations welcome attendees from across the industry. To buy tickets for any of the upcoming ceremonies, please contact Tesha Jones: tesha@communicationscouncil.org.au.
23 Comments
Only one girl…whoaaa
Well done Tim.
Congrats Dane! Well done mate, perseverance!
Danoz direct you the man…!!! Well deserved
Nice one Nick C!
Well done nick and pat. And everyone else. Some quality students this year, looking forward to you all doing well from here on in.
Looks like a good cross section of society
Well done Nicholas Wright!
You are great and someone should definitely give you a job asap.
Thanks Nick.
Whoa, only one pair of glasses
Whoa, only one beard
Whoa, only one checkered shirt
All the people remarking how ‘there’s only one woman’ – the books are judged on the quality of the work, not the sex of the applicant. Deciding the top ten is pretty simple, generally about 10-20 books are exceptional, 80 are average to poor, and 20-30 are absolute rubbish.
I would hate for someone with a better book to miss out because the top ten should have five women. I’d actually find that incredibly sexist, and would ask to be removed from the judging panel if that was the case.
To all the moaners, get over it. You weren’t beaten because you’re a girl, you were beaten because you were rubbish. Every woman that does well in this industry learned that very early on, and they have been formidable creatives as a result.
To mandate 5 guys and 5 gals would be sexist indeed. To investigate why the creative departments of Australia attract so few women, and keep even fewer, would not be.
The observation that there is only one woman in a “Top 10” is a fair one to make, as it speaks to this latter point. And frankly, one in ten is an even lower ratio of representation than, say, the legal profession, the medical profession or any parliament in Australia.
I note also that there are no aboriginal faces, no Asian faces (that I can spot) … and I suspect that were we to investigate backgrounds there would be few if any from a low socioeconomic background.
There are no overt or formal reasons why any of these groups should be excluded. But investigating the underlying reasons would be a worthwhile activity, IMO.
JackFox x10
Rip it up Crawfdog!
I couldn’t agree more. It’s plainly not right. Positive prejudice isn’t either, but why isn’t it a fair representation of Aussie society? Or even close?
Batty is the bomb!
The supposition that the top 10 are chosen on their sex is absolutely astounding. The judges don’t get to see their names, only the work.
Seriously, there’s no handicap in advertising. You have to be good, that’s all there is to it.
It’s not a fair representation of society because life isn’t fair. Suck it up sweetheart. If you didn’t make the top 10 you weren’t good enough. Now you can either bitch and moan about it, or use that to fuel the fire. As Mark Harricks said in his speech, being a creative is about dealing with rejection and going again. What are you going to do?
Go Mat!! Good work, you definitely deserved it!
‘Why isn’t it a fair representation of Australian society?’
BECAUSE A TOP TEN ISN’T ABOUT A FAIR REPRESENTATION OF AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY YOU FUCKING MORON, IT’S ABOUT THE BEST TEN CREATIVES IN THE YEAR. NOW GO AND PLAY WITH YOUR DOLLS YOU BLACK CAUCASIAN MALE LESBIAN AND WHEN YOU’RE DONE HAVING A CRY, TRY WRITING SOME DECENT ADS.
Aren’t enough women in this industry?
A casual scan of the comments section will tell you it’s already full of princesses.
who cares about the lone chick? i’d be more concerned about 1) how much crap was on the wall; 2) the rumours of a certain irishly-titled agency helping its pupils a little too much.
why would anyone want to work in the advertising industry?