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Watford grads Paloma Gardiner and Alastair Milne – who last September set up their own creative agency in a bid to step into adland – have found full-time jobs as creatives at The Corner.

The pair graduated from Tony Cullingham's Watford Creative Ad course at West Herts college, but soon found themselves amid “a wall of hiring freezes” in the industry.

Subsequently, Milne and Gardiner launched Guappp (short for “Give us a placement pretty please”), where the pair functioned as the agency’s founders, chief creative officers and placement team.

“It’s hard to get noticed as a grad team, even harder during a pandemic, when everyone’s attention is elsewhere,” Tom Ewart, founding partner and chief creative officer at The Corner, said.

“So I was impressed when I read about Paloma and Ali in the Evening Standard, starting their own agency Guappp to give themselves a placement; and happy that they’ve now chosen to ‘merge’ Guappp into The Corner and join us as we embark on our second exciting chapter of independence.” 

Last October, The Corner chief executive Neil Simpson told ��������pk10 that the agency was experiencing renewed creative and financial freedom since buying it back from the Be Heard Partnership in June.

Around the same time (just weeks after Guappp’s inception), Milne and Gardiner were hired by Isobel to undergo a four-month placement.

Gardiner and Milne said: “We’re really excited to turn our bedrooms into the latest corner of The Corner office with another lockdown start in advertising. 

“We wanted to find an independent agency with ambition, collaboration and cracking craic – hence, The Corner."

They continued: “We’re ready to have fun, make work (a lot), and do cool stuff with the latest and most permanent Guappp merger.” 

At the beginning of this year, Gardiner revealed that her new year’s resolution was to “be successful in advertising and meet more people”.

Congrats, Guappp!