The Roses Design Awards 2002
The second annual Roses Design Awards run in association with The Liverpool and Manchester Design Initiative was held earlier this month in Manchester. Whilst it may still be in its infancy, Scottish design consultancies were certainly not left out of the running, with a whole host of companies bagging a clutch of awards.
Battling it out for supremacy were Scottish agencies including BD-Tank, newton.eh6, Graphic Partners, Locofoco, Redpath, Citigate SMARTS, 999 Design, Curious Oranj and Revolver.
The overall victor of the night though was BD-Tank, which managed to win a total of three awards: Exhibition, Best Use of Photography and the crème de la crème of the night – the Grand Prix. The Glasgow-based designers were recognised for their work based on the Great Eastern Hotel in Glasgow, one of Glasgow’s oldest hostels housing many of the city’s homeless. The gritty, stark photography had a profound effect on the judges, who all acknowledge that it was the outright winner in the competition.
Whilst the majority of the other awards did, admittedly, head south, there were some surprises, with eight of the top awards going to consultancies north of the border, with an additional five Scottish companies picking up commendations in the various categories.
The judging was chaired by Newell and Sorrell founder John Sorrell CBE. He was assisted by Nick Talbot of Seymour Powell, Rasshied Din of Din Associates, Peter Christian of Christian Stuart Partnership, Gavin Thomson of Factory Design, Malcolm Garrett, Alan McCulloch, Joe Baker of Joe Baker Design, Simon Elliott of Rose Design Associates, Paul Cilia la Corte of Lewis Moberly and Alan Johnstone, deputy editor of The Drum’s sister title The Marketeer.
The work that BD-Tank completed for Loretto Housing was held in high esteem by all of the judges. Rasshied Din of Din Associates commented on the piece saying it was “rather atmospheric. The quality and content of the photography was very interesting, the installation was gritty and realistic, which was rather impressive”.
The Loretto Housing project also picked up an award in the Exhibition category, winning despite stiff competition from The Lighthouse, Manchester-based Creative Lynx Partnership and National Museums of Scotland. Comments from the judges were highly flattering for both categories – the exhibition was “emotive, staged with real intelligence, which added another dimension to excellent, but harrowing, photography”. The photography was commented on for being both “brilliant and harrowing in equal measure. Beautifully done”.
Whilst BD-Tank was flying the (blue and white) flag at The Roses showing all how to complete simply stunning pieces of work, there were other companies from north of the border giving the southerners a run for their money.
Edinburgh’s Redpath won the Corporate Literature category for its work with the British Council. The Moving With The Times piece managed to win despite competition from Taxi Studio Ltd and NE6 Design Consultants. The Moving With The Times literature was praised by the judges, with the overall opinion being that the work was of the highest quality. “It was a beautiful piece of work. It’s the antithesis of lazy A4 brochures and easily achieves the objective of standing out amongst the other pieces of work.”
newton.eh6 was the next company to win a coveted award, in the Best Promotional Literature category. Their design for Career Development, entitled ‘6 Posters and Flyers’, was highlighted by the judges for its sheer quality and originality. newton.eh6 also won in the Best Use of Illustration category for the design of the Corporate Brochure for the Noble Group. The judges took special notice of this piece of work, stating, “The report contains some brave, colourful and ultimately appealing choices of illustration that communicate the client’s values with style. Very impressive.”
Next up was the Annual Report category with yet another Scottish company winning. Those eagle-eyed readers of The Drum will remember that last year the Scottish Ambulance Service Annual Report was ranked highly in all polls for the Scottish Annual Report Prize, and it should come as no surprise that the judges of the Roses Design Awards felt the same way too. The report topped the majority of polls and won overall in last year’s poll – with the quality and originality of the work being highlighted. The judges thought highly of this report, echoing the thoughts of those who judged the Annual Report Prize, commenting that it “easily avoids the pitfalls as far as annual reports are concerned. Innovative, with fine use of photography, it communicates the information well. An outstanding piece of work”. Only time will tell if Paul Sudron and Graham Sturzaker can hold on to this success in their new incarnation at Elmwood Scotland.
Next up for the Scots was the category of Animation. Glasgow-based Locofoco was the winner in this category, with its work for RIS on a project called Stuff. The CD was judged to be original yet also good fun. “Brilliant animation and a truly individual piece of work. Refreshingly quirky and ultimately tremendous fun to watch” was the judges’ opinion on the piece of work. Citigate SMARTS was commended on its work for its own Poetry Book Launch Graphics in the same category, with the judges impressed by the “vast array of styles to create something that can’t fail to make an impact”.
Citigate SMARTS was the bridesmaid once more in the CD Rom category for its work with the Tayside Primary Care Trust, losing out to Code Computer Love Ltd for its work with Airwair Ltd. The CD Rom was judged to be an “impressive piece of work”.
Other Scottish companies who received commendations at the awards this year were: 999 Design for its work with Reebok for Instant Tees in the Packaging category; Curious Oranj in the Best Office Interior category for the Scottish Enterprise National HQ; Northcross for its work on the Lowry Shop in the Public Interior category; and Revolver for the HEBS website – www.hebs.com/tobacco.