The D&AD Shifters Sydney 2023 showed off their skills at a viewing on Thursday, August 10. For the last five months, the seventeen emerging creatives have been learning from industry pros, answering briefs by Google, adidas and The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. Now they are ready to make an impact on the creative industry.
The Shift Sydney Class of 2023 are Ella Gilberg, John Paine, Jess Stapleton, Minori Ueda, Raf Potenza, Daniel Muscat, Rey Vargas, Rodney Todd, Marmi Alatipi, Tom Gregory, Rubee-Rose Stephenson, Kent Boumaïza, Andrew Riis, Sammara Woolrich, Ayah Darwich, Binti Kamara, Hannah Churchill.
“Just like other regions, we know that our Australian commercial creative industry severely lacks diversity. But due to various barriers at play, often agencies struggle to reach candidates from diverse backgrounds. Shift forces us to rethink how we recruit by equipping self-taught creatives with the industry skills they need to thrive,” stated Lauren Chibert, D&AD Shift with Google Sydney lead producer.
“It was incredible to see teams of talented, passionate creatives come together and produce creative strategies for tackling one the world’s biggest challenges – climate change. In just a day, these incredibly talented individuals came up with exciting, new communications strategies with huge potential for impact. Shift isn’t just an exciting opportunity for up-and-coming creative leaders – it’s an opportunity for the entire industry to be challenged by people from all walks of life who are ready to use design for good,” added Michael Poland, campaign director, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty
D&AD Shift with Google, the free industry-led night school, was created to shake up old industry paradigms to benefit self-taught creative talent, creating a fresh system that helps them to access and flourish in the commercial creative industry. Internationally, Shift has trained over 300 creatives in London, New York, Sydney, Hamburg and Berlin since 2016 with an average of 74% of Shifters going on to creative jobs and placements after completing the programme.
After the program launch in Sydney in 2022, 88% of the inaugural class of Shifters have gone onto working in the Sydney commercial creative industry employed by companies such as The Monkeys, Heckler, Abel, and BMF Australia.
View the Shifters and their work here.
Here’s a sample:
