Media Design School alumni win big at 2024 Axis Awards

Says Kate Humphries, programme director of the Bachelor of Creative Advertising at Media Design School, and recent, inaugural winner of the Comm Council's Outstanding Achievement Award: “Congratulations from everyone at MDS to Dentsu Creative’s Lucy Lim and Rose Heron for winning the Student Axis Award for The Protective Pixel for Netsafe; and three cheers to Colenso’s Jack Close and Zak Hawkins for totally owning the Emerging Talent Award as they well and truly emerged with all manner of metal wins across three of their ideas including a Grand Prix at the Axis Awards.

“A huge thank you to the pre-Axis judging panel of Haydn Kerr ECD (Tribal Aotearoa); Kristal Knight ECD (Ogilvy NZ); Angelo An and Alan Jones, creative directors (FCB); and Michael Swinburn, senior copywriter (Mother London) for their invaluable feedback through two rounds of judging which saw them picking the final three ideas to go forward to executive judging at Axis.

“A big high five also to the Comms Council for getting the show on the road with the competition itself, the briefing, the judging and the feedback sessions.

“As for the dandily-coiffed-and-attired-team of Zak Hawkins and Jack Close, boy did they put the word emerging on steroids as they trotted back and forth all night long collecting all manner of metal for their hilarious Delivereasy campaign (Yay! A Gold for Little Birdie!); their sharply pointed Pīkari Mai idea (Kopu O Te Rangi); and for the Grand Prix-awarded Bagels by BENEE (ASB and Youthline). And a raucous cheer also to a much-missed couple of alumni faces on the night Jacob Newton and Josep Jover for also picking up a Grand Prix on the night for DDB’s Correct the Internet.

“Congrats to all the other alumni whose work picked up numerous awards, and to all the winners and finalists on the night. It was a great night.”