Jesse Young (left) has been awarded Top Student at Victoria’s 2017 AWARD School graduation ceremony, which took place at Smart Artz Gallery in Melbourne on Wednesday night (26 July). Jesse was tutored by: James Willis, Kieran Moroney, Aaron Pepper, Jake Barrow of Y&R; and Pete Cvetkovski and Adam Ferrie of Publicis.
He is now in the running for Top Student at the National AWARD School Competition, with the chance to win a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet David Droga in NYC. The national winner will be announced on Monday 7 August in Sydney.
Second place was awarded to Oliver Brock, who was tutored by: Adam Barnes and Ray Ali of Clemenger BBDO; and Anna Yates and Locki Choi of DDB.
Third place went to Kate Foley, who was tutored by: Michael Punton and Lars Wannop of Isobar; and Alex Metson and Blair Kimber of Leo Burnett.
Before a crowd of industry professionals and supporters, VIC AWARD School Heads Elle Bullen (SDWM), James Orr (SDWM) and Michael Mulcahy (JWT) congratulated the class of 50 graduates on completing the 12 week intensive course.
Commenting on the calibre of the 2017 class, Bullen said: “We’ve been blown away by the effort and enthusiasm shown by this year’s students. The briefs continue to get tougher and more challenging every year, but the ideas only get better and better. The level of innovative thinking, particularly in non-traditional media, has been exceptional. Bravo to all.”
The School Heads also took the opportunity to thank this year’s lecturers, tutors and judges for their time and support over the 12 week course. 2017 AWARD School NSW Tutors here.
VIC Top 10 Students:
1st place – Jesse Young
2nd place – Oliver Brock
3rd place – Kate Foley
The final seven graduates to make the VIC top 10, in no particular order, are:
Katarina Matic
Ben Grant
Jack Harrison
Matthew Bladin
Harrison Robbins
Aaron Bethune
Keir Telfer-Williams
AWARD School VIC Judge and Creative Director at J. Walter Thompson Melbourne, Annie Price said: “In previous years, it’s been quite a clear gap between great, good and average. But this year, the gaps had closed significantly and it was tough to pick. We deliberated over those top spots, and there were a lot of fantastic contenders. So well done, class of 2017. Hopefully agencies will be snapping up this wealth of fresh talent at graduation night.”
This year’s five state winners from Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane will have their books reviewed in the National Competition by a ‘Super Jury’, comprising leading creatives from around the world.
The National Competition coincides with the 30th anniversary of a teenage David Droga, Founder and Creative Chairman of renowned agency Droga5, winning Top Student at AWARD School in 1987.
To mark the occasion, AWARD School will fly the national winner to NYC to meet David Droga and to compare their winning portfolios from 1987 and 2017.
Dates for all graduation ceremonies are as follows:
QLD – Wednesday 19 July
NSW – Tuesday 25 July
VIC – Wednesday 26 July
SA – Thursday 27 July
WA – Friday 28 July
National Announcement (in Sydney) – Monday 7 August
For event details and tickets, visit the AWARD School Graduation Night Events Page