Jamie and Harry

Jamie and Harry: an AWARD School match made in heaven

Harry (copywriter) and I (art director) are a creative team working at Bastion in Sydney and we met at AWARD School. Here’s how it happened.

I’d come into advertising after years working across ecomm, fashion, and branding and while I was instantly excited by the world of advertising, I hit the ceiling of my role quickly. I was feeling idle and underused in my role as a studio designer at Publicis Worldwide in Brisbane. That itch to do more only grew and AWARD School came highly recommended by just about everyone, so it felt like the obvious next step to stretch myself and explore the creative side of the industry.

Harry had a bit of a different route to AWARD School. He wasn’t in the industry but had interned at an agency where he heard about the program. When the last semester of university rolled around, he decided to apply just to see what would happen. He was tossing up between pursuing a career in editing and doing something more creative, so when he got accepted the choice was kind of made for him. Now he can’t see himself doing anything else.  

Brisbane can really feel like a small town sometimes. Harry and I had heaps of mutual friends and met at a Triple J Hottest 100 pool party, as people do. That was just a few weeks before applications opened in 2024. It helped going into it with some familiarity. It's always easier to click with someone when you've grown up in similar circles, have shared references, and just get where each other is coming from. We were lucky to have that built-in ease from the start.

We were also lucky to both land in a collaborative tute group that was super open and supportive. Even the night before submission, we were all still catching up, swapping ideas and helping each other out. So, Harry and I were already pretty comfortable working together and pushing each other. Our group kept pointing out that we should team up. Then we placed first and second, got the same feedback from people in the industry, and it became a bit of a no-brainer.

Moving to Sydney and starting fresh was exciting, but a lot to take in. We accepted the role at Bastion and were in the Sydney office by the end of the month. Starting a new job is hard enough, but add a new creative partnership on top and, yeah… the first few weeks were a bit of a whirlwind. I think we were both just trying to prove to ourselves and our CD that we could do this. And do it well.

Since then, I think we’ve found a solid rhythm. Harry’s more of the dreamer; I’m more of the realist. But we’ve both brought some great ideas to the table and we’re not afraid to call each other out when one of us is diving headfirst down a weird rabbit hole. We keep things chill, and have learned that it’s never that serious, but we care a lot about doing great work and we’ve already seen that mindset pay off.

AWARD School really feels like the starting point for both our careers and our partnership. Even though we knew each other beforehand, I don’t think we would’ve teamed up (or not that early on, anyway) if we hadn’t gone through that experience together. It gave us the perfect intro and the space to make sure the other person wasn’t a nightmare to work with.