I started my advertising career in the despatch department at Leo Burnett Sydney in 1995. By the spring of that year, I’d worked my way into the creative department and refused to leave for the next eight years.
In 2003 I had a briefish freelance sojourn before returning to Leo’s as a Creative Director overseeing Diageo, P&G, Colonial First State Bank, and led projects for McDonald’s and NRMA. During that first year I was promoted to Deputy Executive Creative Director, where I worked with the Creative Directors overseeing Leo’s entire client portfolio. During this period, I was also Creative Director on a P&G brand across the APAC region.
Freelance beckoned again in 2008, and for the next nine years working as a Creative Director and writer, across every imaginable category, at Publicis Mojo Sydney, JWT NYC, Ogilvy Sydney, Droga 5 Sydney, The Monkeys Sydney, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, DDB Sydney, MJW Sydney, and M&C Saatchi Sydney. In 2017 I took a job at VCCP Sydney, where I worked on ING and launched Compare the Market in Australia.
In 2019 my family and I moved to Brisbane. After initially picking up some work at Rumble, things went quiet, and I ended up working at Special Group Sydney which was a great experience. I then worked at VML Brisbane for a couple of years across most of their clients and led projects on Bond Uni and BEDA.
In 2021 I became the Creative Director at Youi’s in-house agency. We did everything including writing, art direction, film direction, design, content creation, social, digital and activations. While at Youi I created a new brand platform – insurance that’s a bit more you-shaped – and worked with the creative teams to create a new look and feel for the brand. It was a 12-month project. The work we did in 2024 led to Youi winning Australian in-house agency of the year in 2025.
At present I’m the Group Creative Director of Colony Group. The group is comprised of Colony PNG, Colony Australia, Creative Outpost and Type + Pixel.
Colony PNG is the South Pacific’s largest creative and strategic agency with a client roster including Coca- Cola, Nestle, Colgate-Palmolive, Indomie, BSP, WR Carpenter, The Chiefs (NRL), Papua New Guinea Government, Exxon and a host of large local and multinational companies.
Creative Outpost (only founded two years ago) and Type +Pixel’s rosters include the Queensland Government, Baskin-Robbins and a host of medium and large Queensland businesses and organisations.
Nice people have recognised my work at Cannes, D&AD, One Show, AWARD, Effies, BADC and some other award shows.
Thanks for reading this loose little bio.
To find out why this site is called axes & ads or to see more work involving breakfast goods, rum drinking polar bears, noodles, running shoes, tampons, tourism, government work, charity work, fast food and nearly every other category, you can find me, Trent Christie, at:
Email:
soundsliketent@yahoo.com.au
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/trent-christie-0650022b/
Homepage photograph:
The Postiche Collection by Julian Wolkenstein & Paul Sharp
Website bits and pieces:
Phil Vale