English agencies come out on top at this year’s Roses Design Awards
Design companies in the English centres outside of London appear to have sent the Scottish design industry homewards to think again at this year’s Roses Design Awards.
In the past the event has been dominated by marauders from North of the Border. However, this year it was English agencies that collected the lion’s share of the loot.
Love emerged as the most creative design company outside of London collecting four golds, one silver and two bronzes for a selection of work that included Silver Cross and the University of the Arts.
Thompson emerged as the second most creative with two golds. The awards saw Thompson’s Rob Brearley being named designer of the year and their books for the Leeds College of Music winning the chairman’s awards, even though they did not win in any other category.
The Drum’s Creative League is compiled by scoring each agency in terms of the awards they won. For gold an agency gets three points, two for a silver and one for a bronze.
On that basis True North were in third place and Brighton-based Red Design which won the Grand Prix for Sony Computer Entertainment were in fourth position. B&W were in fifth place. It was only when you got to the sixth position Scottish agencies emerged with Guy Robertson Partnership and Navy Blue sharing the spot with The Chase.
On the architecture front Building Design Partnership emerged as the most creative building designers. The clients they won on behalf of include Ancoats Building Preservation Trust and Birchwood Park Estates.
Three practices shared the number two spot: Andrew Wallace Architects for projects that included Code Computers Love new office interior, Denton Corker Marshall for Manchester’s spectacular Civil Justice Centre, which also won the Grand Prix and Scottish practice Reiach and Hall for jobs that include Mr & Mrs Law’s Heriot Toun Farmhouse.
Said Gordon Young, editor of The Drum and director of The Roses: “The results are interesting, particularly on the graphic front. The spread of the awards alone demonstrate that there are more good design companies operating on our patch than ever before.”