Dynamic Duos: Safari partners Nigel Camilleri and Andrew Englisch
In this week's Dynamic Duos, Safari partners Nigel Camilleri and Andrew Englisch share how they were brought together by leftover sandwiches 12 years ago, and have since shared bigger and better things.
Nigel Camilleri:
Agency Kitchen. 2011.
Two men stand over a platter of semi-stale leftover sandwiches. Their eyes meet, and then immediately dart to the last one, wilted lettuce and aircon-dried roast beef, a favourite.
Andy mumbles through a mouthful, “Hey, I’m Andy.”
Dodging flying breadcrumbs Nigel nods, “Hey, I’m Nige.”
And that’s where it began, a shared passion for leftovers and making cool stuff brought us together, and over the next 5 years we traveled, shot and ate our way across the country.
I was immediately drawn to Andy’s boundless enthusiasm, with the energy of a Jack Russell and stature of a Wolf Hound, it’s infectious!
As our mutual respect grew, we felt we could turn this dynamic into something more than a casual working relationship. So following a wind-blown hike down in Bushrangers Bay, SAFARI was born. Why not combine our passion for travel and adventure with that for creativity?
The “what if’s” were traded for “what nows” and the fancy office was traded for the confines of Andy’s son’s bedroom!
Andy is one of the most diversely and brilliant creative individuals I’ve ever met, he’s also prolific. Within two weeks, we had created a brand, website, business cards, t-shirts, stickers, creds deck and we were on our way. Our first client was next.
Our shared values and vision have allowed us to make quick decisions and steer the business in a direction which has given us so much more than just commercial success, it’s given us a lifestyle.
Running a creative business is a 24/7commitment and it’s been an emotional rollercoaster, I mean you didn’t want to be making content for travel and tourism brands in a global pandemic, especially in locked-down Victoria, let’s never go there again. But knowing I’ve always got Andy’s support to shine a head-torch out of the darkness of the metaphoric cave has been nothing short of humbling.
I count myself very lucky to have stumbled across that sorry sandwich platter, cos we’ve sure had one hell of a time!
Andrew Englisch:
I met Nige in 2011, when we were both working in the early startup days at Cummins&Partners. I think we both shared somewhat ‘unconventional’ and specialised skills at the agency so naturally gravitated to each other. I was also envious of Nige’ dark, thick bouffant.
Fast forward to 2017 when we decided to start SAFARI and create a life of creativity and adventure. As Nige and I already worked closely together and shared a similar work ethic and philosophy, it seemed a natural progression to evolve to running our own creative business.
Like most great businesses, SAFARI started out of my 2-year-old son Luka’s bedroom. This proved problematic at times as we had to schedule our operations around his nap times.
Luckily, he eventually abandoned his room and Safari boomed. From the very beginning we both strived to create a great work/ life balance and luckily Nige and I found our own rhythm which meant we could work in a very flexible manner. This freedom was underpinned with mutual trust and respect.
Nige is very levelheaded and logical, and is definitely the more risk adverse, pragmatic one in the relationship, which is great as it balances my more impulsive and chaotic side. He also loves a good spreadsheet, and generally only lets me near documents with pictures.
Nigel on Andrew:
Most memorable moment with Andrew: Not just a moment, an ordeal. The infamous Banana Bread incident of 2018 will long stain our memories, clothing and nostrils! One day on a shoot Andy snuck a piece of banana bread into my jacket pocket that went unnoticed for a good couple of weeks.
Suffice to say upon discovery it was immediately shuffled into his laptop case, and so on and so forth for over 3 months. We became very stealth at passing it off to each other, until under the guise of a client Christmas gift, I smuggled it into a package and had it couriered to his place.
By now green and growing all kinds of fungus and with a disagreeable odour, the gift was not received with the Christmas joy it had been sent!
Best word to describe Andrew: Exuberant.
Most annoying habit or endearing behaviour Andrew has:
I’ve said for years that when he goes, it’s going to be choking on a meal, cos the bloke eats like he may never be fed again!
Chew your food. (Please heed this cautionary tale in writing Andy)
Andrew on Nigel:
Most memorable moment with Nigel: On a shoot in Cairns, Nige attempted a high dive into a rock pool. It was poetry in motion, and luckily I captured the catastrophic belly flop on camera in glorious 240fps.
Best word to describe Nigel: Legend.
Most annoying habit or endearing behaviour Nigel has:
Does his best thinking with sporting equipment in hand (like Tom Cruise in ‘A Few Good Men’). And has a very annoying habit of playing basketball while on a Zoom call, so all I can hear is the ball clanging off the rim.
The upside to this is I can’t hear him speak!
If you and a colleague would like to submit your story to Dynamic Duos, please email lmcnamara@mumbrella.com.au.
Got a tip?
Lauren McNamara is a journalist at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
Linkedin
Have your say