With 18 years experience in the business, of which seven were spent at Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, Briginshaw and his copywriter partner Malcolm Duffy are enjoying their creative renaissance. While they admit that most agency creatives in their forties are historically limited to print, these two are responsible for breathe.com's "In/Out", arguably one of the most beautiful and cutting-edge commercials produced this year. "As you get older and more familiar with your craft, the more confident you become and are able to break rules better than when you were younger," adds Duffy.

It took a while for the duo to find their ideal workplace. They met at Masius but moved on quickly as Briginshaw says: "It wasn't for us. Very big, lots of P&G and run by account handlers". They spent a stint at Grey, Geers Gross and then Colmans, which had a reputation as a creative hotshop. It was at Colmans that they won their first D&AD Pencil for a Morphy Richards ad. They then went to CDP under the creative leadership of John O'Donnell and were spectacularly fired ("The great cull") in 1991 in an attempt to cut costs.

Luckily David Abbott came to the rescue and offered the duo a job. While at AMV, Briginshaw and Duffy worked on Guinness, created the popular W.H. Smith campaign starring Nicholas Lyndhurst, Volvo and Apple Mac. They created the notorious Gossard bra press and poster ad, which showed a transparent lingerie-clad model lying in a haystack in the style of Jane Russell with the copyline 'Who said a woman can't get pleasure from something soft.'

Their witty press and ambient work for The Economist earned them a multitude of awards. One of their executions for the magazine was on the roof of a red (echoing the brand's corporate colors) London double-decker.

In white type the copyline read 'Hello to all our readers in the high office'. "When we take a brief, we always attempt to work outside the defines of the brief," adds Duffy.

After seven years with "the best agency in the world," Briginshaw and Duffy established Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy with AMV's ex-vice-chairman Jeremy Miles and new business director Helen Calcraft. "It seemed the right time to leave," Briginshaw muses. "There was the Omnicom buyout and David Abbott retired. We'd been offered loads of creative directorships with mediocre agencies, but we decided to go our own way and give up the private healthcare, pension plans, good salaries and company cars and set up with no business."

Their current client roster includes Self Trade online, Aristoc, Radio Times, BT Syntegra, Think Little (a babywear Web site), pets on the brain.com and breathe.com. They resigned Bosch earlier in the year because of "creative differences".

Duffy adds: "Our reason for leaving the comfort of AMV was to produce edgier work and position the agency as our creative brand. It's not a prima donna attitude, it has integrity and we want people and clients to buy into our philosophy. We do see clients a lot more than we used to, but that's no bad thing as many agencies try to create a mystique about themselves."