Dream Teams: Modern Citizens CCOs Ben and Stu on Finding Harmony
The origin story of many creative partnerships is often steeped in mysticism and glory. For Modern Citizens (formerly Creature) co-founders and chief creative officers Ben Middleton and Stu Outhwaite-Noel, the reality was simply about being in the right place at the right time. They creatively sparked during their advertising BA degree, where their mutual loudness saw them naturally gravitate towards each other.
“I always describe the moment of us meeting, as star-crossed lovers locking eyes across the studio in High Wycombe,” recalls Ben. “Though Stu remembers it more as a stalker being spied in the bushes.”
Choosing a partner can be an incredibly weighty decision – as it inevitably contributes to career success – but it’s also intrinsic to any creative dynamic. Stu’s advice for picking a partner is to go with someone you can hang out with, spend lots of time talking to and kicking ideas around, which is exactly what he has found in Ben.
Building a Partnership: Strength in Differences
Ben and Stu were like-minded from the get-go, yet they have quite different approaches – which they’ve learnt to appreciate as their greatest strengths. Ben brings an emotive and visual focus to the work, while Stu balances it with rational and thoughtful precision. “Stu will think verbally, whereas I think in my head,” says Ben.
Their dynamic is filled with passionate disagreements, which are thankfully, quickly resolved – something they credit as key to their enduring partnership. In the early days at Creature, the pair would surprise their teams with heated and impassioned discussions. “We’d be like cats and dogs at each other’s throats about work,” adds Ben. “Our teams would see us fighting and think it was horrible, so we’d have to reassure them that we’re just working it out, that we do still love each other.”
In spite of Stu calling it “a relationship built on conflict”, the pair agree that actually, being able to bring anything to the table is vital as it means they can have honest conversations together and nothing is off-bounds. “We’ve always had a good work ethic and that’s served us for the past 20 years,” says Ben. “We’ve never had an argument that actually meant anything or that lasted more than a couple of minutes. Above all, we really rate each other, both work really hard and look after each other.”
Their success stems from their mutual reliance on one another and navigating the industry together as creatives and as leaders, both at Creature and now at Modern Citizens. “Single creatives need to self-generate and self-motivate, but I need someone to bounce ideas off and kick me up the ass,” says Stu. “And that’s Ben.” Working together has also helped to keep them humble. Ben agrees: “We're lucky to have each other, we’ve both got big egos but also the humility to, between us, always find the answer.”
From University to Mother: The Early Days
Their professional journey began when they co-worked on a two-week university placement. It was there that they realised their complementary creative styles and committed to each other for the long term.
Besides their creative determination, university was also a time for forming creative rituals – like walking while talking out their ideas. Their combined student portfolio was born out of their lunch time habit of trawling Sainsbury’s supermarket shelves in the hope of being inspired by its products. This is actually where they landed on their first creative eureka moment and came up with a simple but effective brand tagline for Twix – which earned them a job at Mother, just two weeks after their degree show. This habit of talking through ideas on a daily walk has continued and it’s something they still practice today.
Early at Mother, they were placed on big accounts like The Observer, where they honed their craft by coming up with weekly radio and print ads. “It was perfect for a junior team like us,” says Ben. “We had the opportunity to get stuff made and learnt to work quickly. We made an awful lot of really neat little ads and eventually were given more responsibility.” Some of those weren’t ads really at all, like ‘Abba to Zappa’ – an alphabet of musicians and bands from across the ages, for the Observer Music Monthly Magazine.
“We ended up running the account[...] We made some spectacular fuck ups, but we learned quickly not to do that again,”adds Ben. It was these early formative experiences that defined Stu and Ben’s creative relationship and helped them develop conviction in their ideas.
Creature: A Leap into Leadership
After nine years at Mother, the pair co-founded Creature – originally alongside fellow strategist-turned-creative, Ed Warren – marking their transition from creatives to leaders. “At Mother, we were always just creatives,” says Stu. “But then the opportunity to do Creature came along and we leapt at it.”
The trio had worked as a unit at Mother, on various accounts including PG Tips and Pot Noodle, but, incentivised by Ed’s desire to become a creative, they embraced the leadership challenge head on – and aged just 29 and 30.
They teamed up with Dan Cullen-Shute, account director at Isobar at the time, to become their founding CEO – a position he carried through until the summer of 2024.
Above: Creature’s founders, L-R: Stu Outhwaite-Noel, Ben Middleton, Ed Warren and Dan Cullen-Shute.
Ben deploys the famous Tallulah Bankhead quote: “‘If I had to live my life again, I’d make all the same mistakes, only sooner’[...] “We might have got lots of things wrong in our early career days, but we also got lots of things right. I’m incredibly proud of the culture that we've built here at Modern Citizens off the back of all that learning, and the creative talent that we attract.”
He attributes their success to doing things their way, but also acknowledges their reputation for treating people well and looking after their creatives, focusing on growth rather than churning out ideas or burning out their teams.
Modern Citizens: A New Era
When Creature evolved into Modern Citizens in 2024, following its acquisition by Candid and merger with Dutch agency Positive Netherlands, Ben and Stu saw it as an opportunity to broaden their creative output and redefine the industry’s entry points. Though the curriculum they initially developed was rolled out and supported by Creature’s partners, it’s continued under Modern Citizens.
“We want to attract a new set of creatives to the industry, including those without formal advertising training,” says Ben. “Stu particularly spent a lot of time and effort building the curriculum and we’ve got a few people part of our team who joined through it and have built a career here and are now thriving. We really want to find people with more distinctive voices[...] and democratise access into adland.” He adds that the programme hasn’t just diversified their talent pool but also improved the company’s culture and quality of work.
Modern Citizens is driven by a vision to proactively create a more inclusive and sustainable advertising industry, “by throwing creative energy and weight at causes and clients that truly need and want our expertise,” says Stu. They’ve prioritised meaningful work over awards – creating campaigns for the likes of the Green Party, Child Poverty Action Group and The Social Mobility Foundation – rather than pander to the “extraordinarily unhealthy” formats that are guaranteed to win big and are never really seen by anyone outside of the industry.
The pair don’t take each other for granted. In fact, their mutual respect, complementary skills and shared vision have enabled them to create impactful work that they believe really is shaping the industry to be a better place – and having a positive influence on culture. Ben and Stu’s partnership exemplifies the philosophy that “one plus one equals three”, it’s not just their working dynamic they have to think about, but how they want to address the bigger issues at play.
With a legacy of innovation and inclusivity already behind them and continuing to attract underrepresented talent through their doors or actively collaborating with charitable organisations, they’re not afraid to speak out – or against each other – as they challenge the status quo and respond to the industry’s evolving needs. Interestingly enough, as they’ve progressed through their careers, the erratic arguments have lessened as they’ve realised they’re increasingly fighting for the same things.
