Robyn Frost and Henry Foenander on the Unbreakable Bond Behind Great Ideas

Robyn Frost and Henry Foenander have that kind of creative partnership that just makes sense. Seven years strong, it's been rooted in humour, hustle, and an almost telepathic trust -- a friendship forged in ad school, tested in late-night pitch sessions, and still going strong through career moves and life changes.

It was back in 2016 at SCA 2.0 – the School of Communication Arts in London that Robyn and Henry first met. SCA wasn’t a typical school, says Robyn. “Everything feels like an experiment in which you’ll probably cry and discover some cool ability you didn’t know you had… It’s anti-establishment.” In the crucible of stand-up comedy workshops and assignments, the two formed a fast friendship. By the final term, they found themselves as “Solo creatives, but weighing in on each other’s work,” says Robyn. They hadn’t officially teamed up – in fact, each was stubbornly trying to make it on their own – but their natural chemistry was obvious to everyone around.

Eventually, it was a perceptive tutor who intervened. “We smashed our books together into one, and that was the beginning.” Once they joined forces, things clicked into place quickly. Their first taste of real-world came as joint interns at a London agency in 2017, and it was a baptism of fire. Thrown onto a high-stakes pitch from day one, Henry says they experienced “all the emotions over a week – excitement, exhaustion, thrill, dejection, camaraderie, and elation.”

But long days and late nights paid off when they won the pitch. “The dancing on the tables after we won cemented that we were in the right industry,” he says. Robyn recalls that moment fondly as well: winning that first project was “the best feeling and a start to our career that we’ll always be grateful for.” It taught them that together they could tackle big challenges – and have a blast doing it.

Since those early days, Robyn and Henry have been virtually inseparable professionally. In 2019, barely a year into their careers, they made a bold move that many creative partnerships wouldn’t survive, relocating to the United States for a new opportunity.

“We both felt acutely aware that this was the sort of thing you jump at, even if you don’t know what’s waiting for you,” Robyn says of the move. Uprooting their lives at 24 and saying goodbye to family was daunting, but doing it as a duo made all the difference. Henry tells me that “moving as a partnership brings some consistency and helps stabilise the wobbles – it’s the one thing that doesn't change when everything else changes.” In a new country with “weird new people, who have weird new accents,” as he jokes, they still had each other to rely on.

Robyn adds that having a “built-in friend to share the whole experience with” turned a scary transition into an adventure. In fact, their friendship deepened outside of work as well – they’ve witnessed each other’s major life moments. “Some of the highs for me,” Robyn says, “are getting to see Henry meet his now-wife… and vice versa – Henry officiated my and my husband’s wedding last year.” It’s not every creative partner that ends up literally marrying you (in a manner of speaking), and that closeness in life translates to trust at work. “That vulnerability built even more trust, because you’re showing the other person who you really are,” says Robyn. Once you’ve seen each other at your most vulnerable, sharing even the craziest creative idea feels easy.

Over the years, as they’ve risen to senior creative roles, their partnership has only grown stronger. One reason is their complementary working style. “I think what drew us together initially was our similarities, but what made us stick was realising that our differences were complementary,” says Henry.

Robyn is the more intuitive, spur-of-the-moment thinker, while Henry can be more analytical and systematic. Rather than clash, those differences balance out. “We definitely wear different hats, but it always feels easy seeing where the other person is coming from,” Robyn explains.

They also made a pact early on not to silo themselves into the typical art-director vs. copywriter divide. “Neither of us is title-driven. If we accept that people are creative, then it shouldn’t matter who writes the script or who comes up with the concept for a visual. When we present ideas, they’re both of ours, and it truly feels like we’re a team.”

In practice, their day-to-day cooperation is almost second nature. They brainstorm together (often peppering ideation sessions with those trademark jokes), and when it comes time to execute, they divide and conquer intuitively. On set during productions, for example, they might wordlessly split tasks – one staying by the director’s side while the other monitors the shot from the video village – texting updates to each other rather than hollering across the set. It’s all about keeping the machine running smoothly. Importantly, they present a united front: “When we present work, people get us, not one or the other,” Henry says. And because they trust each other implicitly, there’s no ego about whose idea is whose.

Rather amazingly, Robyn and Henry claim that creative disagreements between them are rare to the point of non-existent. “We very rarely disagree, and I think we’ve had one squabble ever, which was about five years ago and was over before it started,” laughs Robyn. It helps that they share a vision for the work – if one is veering one way and the other has a different idea, they figure the best solution lies somewhere in between. “If I think X and Henry thinks Y, the answer is probably Z. We always just want to make the work the best it can be and stay friends through it,” she says. Henry has a similar philosophy: when both of them feel absolutely certain they’re right, that’s usually a sign to keep looking for an option C. In the end, every decision is made with the quality of the idea (and the health of the partnership) in mind.

Ask them about their favourite projects or proudest achievements, and they'll tell you they’re proud of everything that makes it into their portfolio, but they’re convinced their magnum opus is still ahead of them. “We’ve definitely not made our best work yet,” says Robyn. Both partners carry the “nagging feeling and ambition that the best is yet to come – and that’s both extremely motivating and extremely annoying.”

They’ve already pulled off some impressive feats together – from winning that first pitch as juniors to creating global campaigns for household-name brands. Henry fondly remembers a particularly high-profile beer account they tackled early on: “It was such a gigantic client with so much weight to it, and we were completely unbothered by what was actually a pretty big deal… because we were naïve to all the politics and pressure, we were able to just be playful.” That fearlessness paid off and set the tone for how they approach big challenges. Now, years later, they still chase the kind of ideas that make them giddy.

What makes this duo tick is that they genuinely enjoy the ride together. They credit their longevity to always having each other’s backs and keeping a bit of fun in the process.

Henry even jokes that he doesn’t understand why every profession doesn’t adopt the two-person team model. “Doctors should have partners. Electricians should have partners. CEOs definitely should have partners,” he says. “Someone to keep you in check, be a constant sounding board, celebrate with you, commiserate with you… It’s that classic idea of 1 + 1 = 3.” In their case, the maths certainly makes sense.