Gigi Lee named top of class at New Zealand’s 2016 AWARD School graduation on Wed night

Gigi Lee (centre) has been awarded Top of Class at New Zealand’s 2016 AWARD School graduation ceremony, which took place at Mexico Restaurant in Auckland on Wednesday night.

Lee was among nine students who were tutored by representatives of Colenso BBDO and DDB. Second place winner was Ryan Hobbs (right) with third place going to Lucy Galbraith (left).

Before a crowd of industry professionals and supporters, AWARD School head Brett Colliver, creative director of DDB: “Congratulations to all of this year’s graduates. AWARD School is a gruelling 12 weeks, but I think the results were worth the pain. Particular congratulations go to our winner, Gigi, and a huge thanks also go to our tutors and lecturers who volunteered their time throughout the course.”

Tutors for this year were Liz Richards and Nicholas Dellabarca from DDB and from Colenso BBDO, Jordan Dale and Clemens Zlami. 

Says Zlami: “The whole class made the judges’ decision really hard this year. There was a lot of great talent, and Gigi stood out with great improvement every week. She started from the bottom, now she’s here.”

Guest lecturers for this year included Corey Chalmers, Shane Bradnick, Angus Hennah, Toby Talbot, Damon Stapleton, Tom Paine, Paul Catmur, Tim Wood, Steve Cochran and Regan Grafton.

A full list of AWARD School tutors can be found here.

The 2016 AWARD School has concluded for the year, with applications opening again in early 2017.

An application workshop is being held in Sydney on 26 November. The full day workshop will assist budding AWARD School students prepare for the application process, with a series of tutorials and group work. More information here.