To be an art director or copywriter you have to actually do the work; we believe that’s true even for students not yet in the workplace. That’s why Miami Ad School offers agency labs for our students, making us the only school to work with the best agencies and studios in 10 countries and 16 different markets across the globe.

Agency labs provide a much needed bridge that closes the gap between the industry and students. Equal parts internship and mentorship, the students work in real agencies and are assigned a creative director who will become a portfolio mentor.

The Breakdown
This unique aspect of our school gives students in our 2 year programs the opportunity to work in an agency ,on real advertising campaigns. This ain’t no vacation, students are held to the the same calibre as other junior level art directors and copywriters working in the agency. They’ll also have the opportunity to collaborate, brainstorm and present to senior strategists, creative directors, account planners and more.

Miami Ad School Toronto Students at their first Agency Lab Cossette.

Photograph by Andrew Pieroni

What’s Going On Now?
While we’ve hosted travelling students in several agency labs, this quarter is especially exciting as three of our original students move on to their 3rd quarter and will be working at Cossette, (creator of cannes lions gold winner: Sick Kids VS Campaign).

Meet Maddie, Ela and Runda, students in art direction and copywriting and the first three to attend our school here in Toronto! These bright young minds have accomplished so much in their careers already creating impressive and award winning work. Every day for the next 10 weeks they’ll be working closely with designers, creative directors, strategists and more at Cossette, a leading agency here in Toronto (and they won’t be fetching coffee). Next quarter Ela and Maddie will be spending 10 weeks in DDB Berlin while Runda spends his time at OneMethod in Toronto.

Our agency labs ensure that students will be guaranteed to work on real, live projects – brainstorming, ideating and creating campaigns that will be presented alongside real agency creatives. The end product: students with real experience (agencies hold off though! They still have to graduate their programs).

Students from Berlin working in Toronto’s john st.

This quarter we are simultaneously running a second agency lab for our international students: Pam & Tom from Miami Ad School Berlin and Hamburg. While the concept is the same for these students, they’ll be placed at john st agency where they can work in a foreign market and bring their perspectives to the mix.