D&AD New Blood 2014: What winning meant to one of last year's success stories

Date
6 February 2014

This year’s D&AD New Blood briefs are already attracting a lot of attention among young creatives and the deadline for entries across the 16 industry-set challenges is now less than six weeks away. But as much as us, D&AD itself or the brands involved can argue for the scheme’s significance, who better to explain what winning means than one of last year’s victors? Josh Ogden was part of a team from Arts University Bournemouth which scooped both a Yellow Pencil and a Student of The Year award for its BBC Suitcase response to the digital brief.

Read Josh’s insights below and check out his year’s briefs here if you haven’t already!

Josh Ogden

The opportunities that opened up after doing a project that gained such recognition came instantly; it was an overwhelming time for each of us. We literally had job offers and interviews on the spot.

After the awards and finishing the two-week stint at the New Blood Academy in the summer, I was contacted by the judge of the BBC brief, Ian Wharton, who was interested in finding out what I was up to, and what my next steps were. As a result, he put me in contact with founder and CEO of AKQA, Ajaz Ahmed. One of AKQA’s key foundations is about having the best talent, and he saw in me a diverse set of skills needed for such a fast paced industry and he welcomed me to join AKQA as a creative.

"It has been an incredible ride since the awards and I’m looking forward to what 2014 brings."

Josh Ogden

Little did I know at the time, the same day I was going to start I was going to be paired up in a small creative team with someone else joining AKQA. This person turned out to be Ian, who joined as Creative Director. This was an incredible opportunity for me to learn directly from him and for us to create great work.

Since I started a few months ago we have worked on, and won, pitches for huge international brands and have some big projects lined up for 2014. I feel like I have learnt more in the past six months than the all my education. It has been an incredible ride since the awards and I’m looking forward to what 2014 brings.

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Luke Patton, Malin Hassel, Callum Best, James Smith & Joshua Ogden: BBC Suitcase

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Luke Patton, Malin Hassel, Callum Best, James Smith & Joshua Ogden: BBC Suitcase

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Luke Patton, Malin Hassel, Callum Best, James Smith & Joshua Ogden: BBC Suitcase

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