Mark and Steven - Shelf Awards

Steven and Mark and their Shelf Award

Steven and Mark entered the Shelf Awards, which is a advertising competition. The Shelf Awards apart from actually being a very special piece of wood The Shelf is an annual event aimed at helping the best young graduates get a foot in the door of the creative industry. It’s tough out there and trying to get your work seen by the top names in your chosen profession is even tougher. Particularly when you’ve just graduated from university…

That’s where The Shelf comes in. This annual event, now in its 11th year, connects the best creative graduates in the UK with leading art directors, copywriters, creative directors and recruiters. The graduates get an invaluable opportunity to network and showcase their work to industry experts while said experts get a chance to nab the freshest young talent around (and we mean that in the nicest possible way, obviously.) It’s a win-win situation. Especially as all guests get to judge and score the work on show.

The Shelf was started in 2001 by Gary Sharpen and although it’s undoubtedly a fun, friendly and informal event, the end result couldn’t be more serious. To date, over 120 students have benefitted from participating in The Shelf, either through making excellent contacts, securing work placements or, ultimately, gaining full-time employment.

It was held at The IPA, Belgrave Square, London. It was a great networking opportunity for them. All the entrants had to wear vote for me on the back of their t-shirts. Steven and Mark, had a sheet on top of their table for people to write comments about their work.

Steven and Mark came second place, winning a B&Q shelf to put all their future awards on.