The prestigious and world-famous Award School started on Wednesday night at The Intercontinental in Wellington.
For its 26yrs history of hosting the idea-based course in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore & Thailand, this is the first time ever it’s being host in NZ.
To be considered as great a course as the Miami Adschool, I felt proud, nervous, and excited to be part of it.
Knowing that all of Australasia will be looking at the result of this class, first lecturer (and course leader) Paul Nagy said he’d make sure to be super-tough on our work and pushing us to be the best we could so that we won’t be the bad exception to NZ’s great creative reputation. What a nice challenge to be given on our first day!
(Dan Moth, Paul Nagy, Duster & Anton Hart)
We had 3 speakers on our first lecture. After Paul, we had Clemenger’s writer Dan Moth who’s an ex-Award grad. Both Dan and Paul gave us great advices on how to do well in the course, while our final speaker, Duster the ECD of Clems, was funny as hell when he inspired us with his own wits and references from Paul Arden.
The roughly-1-and-a-half-hour lecture flew past and I was so psyched up that I felt I wanted more! You know, it’s just such rare chance you’d get to listen to three brilliant creatives on one single night!
After the lecture was the opening night’s welcome drinks at the Motel Bar. It was a nice and cozy bar to chat with my fellow classmates and it was very interesting to know that everyone is from different background.
(My classmate Antonia & me)
There are three actresses, two interactive geeks I had so much fun chatting with (consider I’m a bit of a geek as well), some are from marketing / media background plus some are currently doing a placement with Clems.
(tutor Duncan Munro, my classmates Nicola & Tom, tutor Claire Stapleton of Y&R)
Haven’t had a chance to chat with all, but I was glad that I also get to meet my tutors from Y&R – Anton Hart & Duncan Munro. Before the night ended I chatted up Dan & Duster, and enjoyed their openness and down-to-earth attitude.
So this is the beginning of something that’s gonna be very interesting and without a doubt, competitive. Most went home reasonable early and eagerly await the tutorials on the next day when we’ll be given our first brief.
Recently I've relaunched my old personal blog after leaving it untouched for quite a good while. Ever since Anna & I have started IAMCREATIVE2, I've always felt the need for another space to express my other interests and opinions other than just ads.
After finishing a placement with Blackwood, this course is a great chance for me to up-skill during a very tough economic environment. And need not to say, there's no better chance than to learn directly from some of the very best. The likes of Paul Nagy, Tim Hall, Chrissie Lahood, etc. I'm already shivering in excitement!
This also marked a huge change in my creative partnership with Anna. We've been enjoying a wonderful partnership for the last 9 months, and more than that, we've forged a great friendship. We've done some great work together, not just on the drawing pad, but on the football field as well! And we even have a song together. But for the next 3 and a half months, we'll have to be fighting on different fronts. Anna will be looking for some graphic design gigs while pondering what's her next step. While I'll be the sponge and try to absorb as much learnings as possible. Hopefully with lots of hard work and many great ideas I'll come out on top at school.
But IAMCREATIVE2 will keep on going. We'll be trying to find freelance gigs and work on them as remote teammates. The blog will be kept updated with what's going on around us. And surely, industry events will still be reported on, from our junior's perspective. So keep your eyes out for our next post!
This is the story of a type crazy, blues loving copywriter and a soccer mad Hong Kongese art director.
Our names are Anna Smith and Michael Tam and we’re an advertising creative team from the edge of the world – aka Auckland, New Zealand. We love the movie Gattaca, the colour purple, Bubble tea and of course the crazy world of advertising.
Currently we are busy little beavers working on our portfolio and looking for a job in an ad agency.