D&AD Shift, the free night school that turned a store manager, a nursery worker and a home care coordinator into industry creatives, has turned ten.

To mark a decade of finding creative talent in unexpected places, D&AD has launched Shift Edition, the first platform to unite standout alumni stories and work in one place.

A decade ago, Sophie McGovern walked into D&AD Shift as a store manager. She is now a Pencil-winning senior creative at MullenLowe UK. Edem Wornoo was also a founding Shifter. Now he directs music videos for Stormzy, Dave and Kojey Radical.

They are two of hundreds of people that D&AD Shift has pulled into the creative industry from the outside. Shift Edition, the first platform to bring together the full breadth of that community in one place, tells their stories – in their own words, through their own lens, with commissioned photography from Shift alumni Xavier Duah. 

Since 2016, D&AD Shift, the free night school for emerging talent from non-traditional backgrounds, has operated across the UK, USA, Brazil, Germany and Australia. On average, 75% of graduates secure employment in the creative industries within a year of completing the programme.

The idea and the program are still working. Russie Miessi was a nursery worker and is now a creative strategist at Ogilvy; Lorena Pereira was coordinating home care in New York, she’s now an associate art director at BBH USA. 

“For a long time, the creative industry has been hiring the same type of people,” stated Paul Drake, foundation director at D&AD. “Same schools, same networks, same postcodes. D&AD Shift was our answer to that and honestly, what it’s uncovered has been remarkable, careers that wouldn’t have happened otherwise, work that wouldn’t have existed. But we can’t do it without the brands, studios and agencies who are willing to take a chance on someone new, that’s what will keep it going for another ten years.”

Among the partners helping to fund Shift over the past ten years are Google, adidas, Spotify, Airbnb and Uber. Diageo has gone a step further, funding the programme continuously for five years and placing no fewer than 29 Shifters into its agency roster, ensuring the creatives working on their accounts continue to reflect their customers, and helping to drive cultural change across the agency landscape.

Shift Edition is live now at dandad.org/learning/shift/shift-edition.