New creative kids on the block.

Every year Award School unleashes a new crop of creative kids into the world, and this year a baker’s dozen emerged from the South Australian chapter under the watchful eye of Nick Brz.

This year they must have been scraping the bottom of the barrel for judges, and had our very own Mayor of MADtown, Sputnik, join in along with the likes of James Rickard, Craig Jackson (Hybrid), Andy Scott (Showpony), Joe Godsell (TBWA), and Michael Gagliardi.

According to Sputnik, the level of work was, as you’d expect, a mixed bag.

“I think some of the briefs were actually really difficult – I totally would have sucked at most of them – so it’s no wonder some people found them a bit tough to crack. But it made the good work really stand out. It’s always reassuring to see some really innovative, fresh ideas in amongst the more regular stuff, to know good old SA can still produce quality young creatives that will be able to mix it with the best of them” he said.

This year saw one student participate from the NT and attend the graduation via FaceTime – which was just as well because Sue Haefner took out the ‘live’ brief which was a Facebook thing – she now goes on to briefly compete with the other brief winners.

Runner up overall was Loren Jolly with Alysha Menzel taking out top spot. Interestingly, or not depending on which way you look at it, Alysha received an AWARD School Indigenous Scholarship, which was developed to encourage more indigenous people into the advertising and marketing industries which is pretty cool.

After winning Alysha said “Last night took my breath away as I was awarded SA/NT’s Top Student for Award School 2019. I’m stunned, ecstatic and beyond grateful to a few who deserve a huge thank you. Peter Kirk for your continuous passion and drive to give Indigenous creatives the confidence and skills to get into the industry. Everyone at NATION Creative for your support and encouragement. The amazing tutors for giving your time to upcoming creatives. Our super group of students who came up with some brilliant ideas. And finally, thank you Micky Grant and The Communications Council for always being amazing and providing such a great learning opportunity. I encourage anyone to try their hand at this great experience. It is challenging, but incredibly rewarding. Next year scholarships will be available again, and I am very excited and proud to see the rise of Indigenous creatives in the industry.”

We know she said all that because instead of actually speaking to her we copied and pasted it from her LinkedIn page. Ah yes, journalism at its finest. Whatever.

Applications for next year’s course open in February 2020.