Matt and Alex

From AWARD School to agency founders
By Matt Arbon

We were in very different career stages when Alex and I first met at AWARD School. Alex already had her foot in the door, working as a designer at CumminsNitro and although I'd completed a design degree at uni, I was stuck working in I.T. I'd heard about AWARD School through a uni friend and the promise of breaking into the creative industry with a portfolio that could actually land me a job was exactly what I needed to escape my tech support prison.

After successful entry submissions, Alex and I ended up in the same AWARD School class together. We had a great group where everyone, from our tutors to classmates, were very supportive in trying to help each other succeed. I remember one late night before a deadline when Alex and I were throwing some of our ideas around to critique, and we realised we had very similar creative standards. Two art directors can’t team up, right? We joked.

After doing a few internships at DDB and JWT with my partner at the time, I landed my first full-time gig at CumminsNitro and was pleasantly surprised to walk through the door to see Alex was still there, and had also been promoted to an art director.

As often happens at agencies, our Creative Director would often team Alex and me up on jobs together and rather than competing for who'd be the art director, I was happy to let Alex's far superior design and art direction take the reins. AWARD School had taught us that ideas are what matter most, and just as good creative teams share opinions on ideas, they should also share opinions on design and copy. For us, that's always helped to lead to better work.

Around 10 years into our ad career, a former client approached us and asked if we would be interested in working on their brand. It was big enough to support us launching our own small creative shop. We'd always talked about going out on our own someday, but this opportunity gave us the push we needed. Seven years later, ScienceFiction has grown from just the two of us to a team of eight. We’ve also been able to give back by tutoring at AWARD School and supporting junior creatives on their AWARD School journey. Most importantly, the foundation of trust and creative chemistry we built back in those AWARD School days has been our secret weapon through all the ups and downs of agency ownership.

We’d have to say that, second only to the creative skills you develop in AWARD School, is the people you get to know. Advertising is a rare industry where working with a partner is essential. Finding the right partner can often be make or break for your career, so establishing those connections early on is so important. AWARD School doesn't just teach you how to develop and hone great ideas; it also introduces you to a great creative community. In our case, it brought together two people with complementary skills who might never have connected otherwise. That creative foundation has carried us through multiple agencies and now into entrepreneurship. We still approach briefs using techniques we learned during those intense twelve weeks, and we still occasionally pull out our AWARD School books when we need a reminder of how far we've come.