DrawHistory integrates into national impact agency “Today”

To our community —

Whew. Those ten years really flew by.

Writing this has made us think of so many of you who helped author this story over the years.

It’s a jolt that we’re looking back on something that we poured everything into for a whole decade.

We first met when we were both in law school hoping to one day work at St George’s Terrace in Perth (Boorloo), where all the commercial lawyers are. One of us was always late to class—it showed when they were rejected hundreds of times before landing their first job. The other had lined up a prestigious internship and aced an honours program. (You can guess who’s who.)

But we found out during that time we had something in common that propelled us forward so many years after as well—a quiet conviction to broaden how people would live, learn, and explore. We wanted to create something that would leave the world in a better place.

We didn’t quite know how to harness that conviction at that time, but we knew it anchored so much of who we were. Between us, our families were either forcibly displaced through conflict or grew up in an environment where education wasn’t available. There was always some lived experience that rang loud, and a deeper empathy for people doing it tough—folks experiencing homelessness, refugee communities, First Nations peoples. While we felt incredibly lucky to have found a home in Australia, we also saw that it didn’t feel like a home for everyone. That tension of being between worlds nudged us to investigate stuff that we otherwise wouldn’t about the communities we had roots in across the Asia-Pacific. It dared us to dream bigger about what we could reimagine in and beyond Perth by whatever means we had.

DrawHistory became a vehicle for us to explore all of those questions with the communities that needed answers most, and maybe allow us to do something about it with them. Ironically, we were excited that we’d be starting something that ran countercultural to all our peers’ expectations—job prestige and income predictability.

But we were also scared. It felt like a freefall. “Who are we to even do this work? We’re nobodies. Is there proof an agency focused on impact would even work!?” To compound that feeling, we’d often hear friends perplexed by what we were doing, asking us: “Wait, how do you even make money with that?” One time we heard through the grapevine someone saying: “Angel and Jeff, what are they doing these days? Designing websites? Guess they couldn’t cut it. Maybe Maccas would’ve been a better option.” Gosh, even those early client moments still make us feel queasy: “Mate, I’ve been in marketing longer than you’ve been alive—why should I listen to you?” Ouch.

Those moments were rough initially. It played to our insecurities. We were young. We weren’t part of the “in crowd” in both agency land and the community sector. Because truth be told, we didn’t start with much—no big advertising agency background, no working in London or New York, and heck, we barely knew anyone outside of law school. Not to mention we had zero formal training in stuff that feels table stakes in our work today like brand positioning, design research, and program design. Those felt universes away.

But so many of you answered the call—whether as clients entrusting us with your quiet ambition or as teammates who carried the baton and ran alongside us. You made our light brighter and brighter when we needed it most. Eventually we chipped away enough that we got better at the work—not just the outputs, but when to push back and hold our strategic convictions and cultural rhythms sacred. And then more of you joined, not just from Perth, but across Australia and then in Indonesia later on.

Hey, we found ourselves alongside people we deeply admired from places like UNICEF, Change.org, Google, Habitat for Humanity, Harvard Kennedy School, Wikimedia Foundation, St John of God, Neami National, and countless others to partner on impactful work we’re proud of. Together, we protected a legal clinic for refugees from shutting down, repositioned the world’s largest tech platform for social change, and amplified the nation’s first mental health helpline for new parents. We even got the call to work with the WA Government’s COVID-19 Communications Team in the middle of the pandemic to provide some guidance on how to bring a second wind to the state. These were your wins, too.

We never became the household name in all of agency land—but that was never our goal. There’s many more agencies like us in the decade since we’ve been around and became the first B Corp agency in our state, and we find joy in that. It was wild to experience Forbes featuring us in their 30 Under 30 list to finally elevate this type of work, because we knew we had a whole community behind us. The evolution of our industry makes us proud. It should also make you proud.

It feels normal to talk about purposeful workplaces, purpose-driven brands, and all things purpose these days, but it didn’t feel that way back then. We found ourselves looking up to agencies like Today, based in Melbourne (Naarm), to reassure ourselves that people will “get us” as well one day.

And here we are—a decade in.

Building DrawHistory has been an immense honour. It’s given us a chance to grow together. We hustled, hurt, and hurtled through walls with so many of you, especially our DrawHistorians, to bring to life our mission of designing new futures for people with people who need tomorrow to be better than today. We built our own little family throughout that time, too. But it’s in this season that our other, more well known statement—once sprawled across our office in St George’s Terrace no less—comes to mind: “Purpose finds progress when you refuse to play things safe.” This belief has always been our driving force from day one.

As we look to the future, we see a world where our daughter might need more people to believe that, and to meet the moment. Climate change ravages on as hypercapitalism pushes us to the brink. Immigration discourse is fraying communities apart. Unchecked misinformation and abuse of AI are eroding democratic processes in real time. As her parents, we’re realising that our mission is more needed than ever before, but that ultimately this is bigger than us.

All these years later, we still want to create something that’ll leave the world in a better place. When Damon and Adam from Today—the agency we looked up to many years ago—felt a shared heart to bring DrawHistory into their orbit, we knew it was time to converge with their journey. We love that they have the strength of a national team on top of being Australia’s most awarded impact agency. But what we love most is their spirit to be of service to the same goal: a brighter future for everyone, everywhere.

DrawHistory will be a part of Today going forward because that goal needs more people to rally behind it. Our roots in WA now grow through Today, who’ll begin operating locally in Perth with our support, backed by their national strength in strategic design, research, digital products, and applied AI. In turn, we’ll be bringing along our know-how in brand and communications, client relationships, and portfolio of work into their world. With this, Today’s national journey continues.

We hope you—the people who have been part of our community throughout the years—will join us on that journey too.

We never liked going for the easy and obvious path. Many of you told us you didn’t either.

The world needs more fearless people.

Hope to see you out there,

Jeff & Angel

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For more on our 10-year journey, listen to Annotations, an intimate three-part conversation where we open the vault on a decade of building and eventually evolving our studio.

To our team —

Abi Coldrey, Amira Khanifah, Angelica Rivera, Angie Ramkerrysingh, Annika Rose, Anthony Crewe, Antoine Nguyen, Becca Burns, Bianca Aranha, Chiara Mensa, Christine Garcia, Cyrus Todd, Dalina Dominguez, Dianne McLean, Elissa Glorie, Emmelyn Wu, Essie Zar, Fioline Oetomo, Fred Effendi, Greg Clark, Hana Haddad, Hannah Carpenter, Hayley Thoms, Helena Trang, Ivy Yang, Jenny Mackintosh, Jessica Chew, Joelle Chan, Kate Shelton, Kathryn Heaney, Kira Rikkers, Kosta Lucas, Krysten Chai, Leonie Shah, Linh Nguyen, Luke Riley, Mara Papavassiliou, Megan Ngo, Meredith Edwards, Morgane Guedj, Nicholas Smith, Penny Wittenbaker, Serina Luong, Sharmaine Adaza, Sheilla Njoto, Stephanie Yoong, Tatjana Acimovic, Tawanda Kungache, Tres Garner, Ynah Pantig

To our advisors —

Alex Anderson, Batsheva Hersch, Jade Gray, Einav Jacubovich

To our collaborators —

Ben Smith, Caleb Stent, Camilo Roa, Claude De Lucia, Christine Parfitt, Daniel Gouvignon, Dien Tang, Glenn Forrest, Grace Taylor, Jacob Scowden, Jesse Tyler, Juan Pablo Meija, Jimmie Linville, Joe Grant, Matt Biocich, Matt Hare, Nat Foo, Neha Bhatia, Paul Bui, Ryan Lucas, Silvana Perdomo, Stacie Lucas, Sunita Sebastian, Steven Ebert, Tom Smolarek

To Today’s executive leadership —

Adam Morris, Alisia Muscat, Damon O’Sullivan, Louise Sergent

To our clients and podcast guests —

There’s too many to name, but we wanted to say a heartfelt thank you once again. Truly, none of this would have been possible without your belief in us. We honour you and hope that our paths cross again, sooner than later!