It was a spectacular night for Fernando Luz at the 2016 AWARD School NSW graduation ceremony on July 19. Luz was awarded Top of Class in front of 260 industry professionals, sponsors, media and graduates. Luz was tutored by two agency groups – Justin Carew and Nigel Clark from Leo Burnett and Sarah Parris, Jerome Gaslain and Jon Foye from BWM Dentsu.
This year’s NSW top 10 students (cover photo shows 9) are:
#1. Fernando Luz
#2. Cyndall McInerney
#3. William Halstead
l-r: Cyndall McInerney, Fernando Luz, William Halstead
Plus (in no particular order)
- Isabel Brand
- Jack Chapman
- Leila Cranswick
- Nicola McCooe
- Celia Mortlock
- Joe Ranallo
- Hayley Warwick
AWARD chair and managing partner of The Sweet Shop, Wilf Sweetland, commented, “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, 55 outstanding pieces were chosen for display by this year’s jury, led by NSW AWARD School heads, Niccola Phillips (head of art, M&C Saatchi), and Simon Jarosz, (creative director, MediaCom).
Phillips commented,“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.”
This year’s tutors were:
| Company | Tutor |
| Isobar | Marcel Moniaga |
| Isobar | Tom McMullan |
| Clemenger BBDO | Ollie Beeston |
| Clemenger BBDO | James Beswick |
| DDB | Jade Manning |
| DDB | Vincent Osmond |
| DDB | Matt Chandler |
| DDB | Peter Galmes |
| The Monkeys | Barb Humphries |
| The Monkeys | Tim Pashen |
| Whybin TBWA | Craig Brooks |
| Whybin TBWA | Carlo Mazzarella |
| Ogilvy | Derek Green |
| Ogilvy | Scott Lambert |
| Ogilvy | Jenny Mak |
| Ogilvy | Scott Mortimer |
| Ogilvy | Andrew Hankin |
| Havas Worldwide | Stuart Alexander |
| Havas Worldwide | Daniel Fryer |
| Havas Worldwide | Seamus Higgins |
| Havas Worldwide | Stuart Turner |
| Havas Worldwide | Helen King |
| Saatchi & Saatchi | Anton Posa |
| Saatchi & Saatchi | John Jordan |
| M&C Saatchi | Vanessa Robinson |
| M&C Saatchi | Lauren Ami MacDonald |
| M&C Saatchi | Paul Gregson |
| M&C Saatchi | Jonathan Flannery |
| M&C Saatchi | Michael Harris |
| M&C Saatchi | Tristan Cornelius |
| George Patterson Y&R | David Joubert |
| George Patterson Y&R | Bart Pawlak |
| George Patterson Y&R | Brad Stapleton |
| George Patterson Y&R | David Barton |
| Ideaworks | Jen Dobbie |
| BWM Dentsu | Sarah Parris |
| BWM Dentsu | Jerome Gaslain |
| BWM Dentsu | Jon Foye |
| Leo Burnett | Justin Carew |
| Leo Burnett | Nigel Clark |
| BMF | Harry Neville-Towle |
| BMF | James Sexton |
| HOST | Josie Burns |
| HOST | Matt Ennis |
| JOY | Christian Tough |
| JOY | Effie Kacopieros |
| Zoo Group | Mark Lees |
| IRIS | Jon Kelly |
| R\GA | Gavin McLeod |
| R\GA | AJ Musial |
| R\GA | Christian Hewitt |
AWARD graduation ceremonies are still set to take place in Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, and Perth. Dates for the upcoming ceremonies are: Melbourne, 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 more than 30 years. Past students include 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.
