Advertising creatives and CCOs Ben Middleton and Stu Outhwaite-Noel first met at Bucks New University around 20 years ago and they’ve been creative partners ever since.

Their first joint venture was at London-based ad agency Mother. After securing full-time positions, the pair worked all hours creating work that aimed to break the rules. In 2005, two years into agency life, one project in particular caught the attention of CR and led to the duo being featured in the Creative Futures scheme.

The project was a campaign for the Observer Music Monthly Magazine. “It was called From Abba to Zappa and featured a Dick Bruna-inspired alphabet of musicians and bands from across the ages,” Middleton and Outhwaite-Noel tell us. “Russian girl duo Tatu aside, we think it still stands up. It’s probably one of the best things we’ve made, and the past 15 years have been spent trying to stay at that standard.”

As two young Bucks graduates, being featured in a magazine was exciting. “We used to sleep with Creative Review under our pillows, so to grace its pages was dreamy,” they say. “Although, at the time, the chat-up line, ‘I’m in this month’s Creative Review’, didn’t have the effect we’d hoped for. And then showing them the actual issue only made matters worse.”

The pair were still early in their careers in 2005, and it was a time for trying new things rather than crafting an individual style. “It’s fair to say that we covered a lot of bases while we were at Mother, so developing a style was not really possible, let alone recommended,” Middleton and Outhwaite-Noel explain. “It was a hell of a place to get our education, across all kinds of clients and working with all kinds of amazing creatives. We were a pair of pigs in adver-muck!”

In 2011, after eight years at Mother, Middleton and Outhwaite-Noel stepped away from Mother and set up Creature, along with Dan Cullen-Shute. The independent agency has since built a client list that includes adidas, Moonpig, Carling CX and the British Red Cross, and it’s been a rewarding challenge for the pair. “We always wanted to have our own place. We were very fortunate in our time at Mother to have the exposure we did to a great creative culture, and once we knew what that looked and felt like, we really wanted to do it for ourselves,” say the creative partners. “The main thing it has allowed us to do is launch ourselves at the steepest learning curve there is. We’re hoping to rack up some decent progress soon.”

As founders of an agency, though they’re still drawn to briefs that allow them to take risks, there’s an added layer of obligation. “It’s harder to hold on to a devil-may-care approach as you get older and are given more responsibility, but we’d like to think we still aim for work that gets real people talking,” Middleton and Outhwaite-Noel say. “Even after 17 years, nothing quite beats your grandma telling you she’s seen your ad and ‘quite likes it’.”

Back in 2005, the creative duo say they “didn’t have a care in the world”, and that freedom allowed them to consistently make fun work. “Running a creative agency in London means there’s now a lot more bumping around in our heads,” they note. “Which is challenging when you’re trying to figure out what the right thing is to be putting in front of clients.”

Because of this, one of the things that’s changed in their approach to work has been the pace. “The time to craft work has been massively eroded over recent years. There tends to be more value placed on immediacy than interrupting people’s lives with beautifully made things,” they explain. “In a world where businesses launch, having been scratched together on Squarespace over a long weekend, it’s increasingly challenging to convince many clients of the value of long-lasting, expertly crafted brand comms.”

So is there anything they still do the same? “[We] argue. We think we always will. Our relationship is built entirely on conflict,” the pair say. “That ferocious difference of opinion about what’s right or good is what keeps us honest and striving to make great stuff.”

One thing they do agree on, and one of the most important lessons they’ve learned over the years, is how small a world the ad industry can be. “Shoreditch isn’t Britain. As an industry we’re far too concerned about what our peers think, and when your peers are based in the London media bubble, God help us even more! There’s too much Kool-Aid on offer in advertising; we really should be swigging milky teas with two sugars in a Sports Direct mug more often.”

Looking back, their advice to their younger selves is simple: “Don’t fret about that press ad. They should have fired you, but they didn’t and you’ll end up doing alright.”

Equally, when ruminating on the future of things, not worrying and “trying to enjoy it more” is what they want to carry forward. “At the end of the day, we’re not making parachutes.”

creaturelondon.com