Perth agency The Start has picked up seven finalist spots at this year's Australian Web Awards, a step up from the six nominations and two wins it secured in 2025

Perth agency The Start has picked up seven finalist spots at this year's Australian Web Awards, a step up from the six nominations and two wins it secured in 2025

Technical Lead Cullen Webber has also been singled out with an individual nomination for the newly introduced Rising Star award.

This recognition caps off a milestone year for the agency, which underwent a full rebrand, rolled out a series of in-house product launches, and delivered large-scale experiential work alongside Perth Festival.

The Start's 2026 nominations:

● Agency: The Start

● Rising Star: Cullen Webber

● Campaign: Joondalup Festival

● Entertainment & Events: Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre

● Community & Culture: Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre

● Energy & Resources: Pacific Energy

● Science & Sustainability: Pacific Energy The agency's own website sits among the finalists.

Launched in August 2025 as the centrepiece of the move away from "Start Digital," the site leads with an immersive 3D particle system designed to signal the studio's creative and technical ambitions from the first scroll.

"Creating work for yourself is always a strange exercise. It wasn't until we treated ourselves like a client, deadline and all, that it actually got over the line. We wanted to put our money where our mouth is and build something that challenges what a site in our space can be,"

said Neil Mason, Director at The Start.

The Joondalup Festival project, now in its second year as a collaboration with the agency, pairs a time and light-responsive 3D ocean scene built in Three.js with an accessible, card-based event discovery system. It has already been awarded CSS Design Awards Site of the Day and an Awwwards Honourable Mention.

For Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre, the team translated the venue's refreshed identity into a digital experience that balances brand storytelling with the practical demands of SEO, membership and a year-round events calendar.

Pacific Energy's new site leans into an interactive 3D environment that maps the company's clean energy offering, including explorable models of its PEM Electrolysers.

The Start also integrated Voodu, its own conversational AI product, to help visitors navigate a technically complex service mix.

Webber's Rising Star nomination recognises a fast trajectory from designer to creative developer. In just two years he's moved deep into Three.js and 3D web experiences, contributing to the agency's most ambitious builds and recently earning a tutorial feature on Codrops for his personal work.

"A lot of what I've been doing is about pushing what the web can actually do, whether that's for a client or something I'm building at 2am for the fun of it. It's nice to see that land beyond the projects themselves,"

said Cullen Webber, Technical Lead at The Start.

"Seven nominations is a great result, but the thing I'm proudest of is the range. These are very different clients with very different problems, and the team has found ways to push the work both technically and creatively across all of them.

That's exactly what we're trying to be as an agency,"

added Crissy Foster, General Manager at The Start.

The Australian Web Awards ceremony is scheduled for May.

The Start is continuing to grow its client base nationally, with a number of major projects lined up for launch in the second half of 2026.