Roses Design Awards
Blooming awards
The judging took place over two days, split between graphic design and architecture. The graphic design panel – which consists of chairman, Malcolm Garrett from Applied Information Group; Fernando Gutiérrez, from the eponymous titled studio; Neil Starkey of Howdy; Sankey Sankarayya of AllofUs; Apple Inc’s Harriet Devoy; and Jason Bruges of Jason Bruges Studio – scrutinised hundreds of entries to finalise a shortlist for the awards.
The architecture jury was chaired by Rick Russell of Nichol Russell Studio and included writers Penny Lewis and Phil Griffith and archiect Lesley Palmer.
This year sees a diverse range of agencies nominated, with a strong representation from the north of England. Love tops the nominations, on the graphics sides with five pieces of work up for awards, followed by True North, B&W Studio and Taxi Studio all with three nominations. In total, 28 agencies were shortlisted for awards, with 21 teams hailing from England and just seven from Scotland.
The quality of the market, however, is most evident in the number of young designers nominated for the Emerging Designer of the Year title. Seven designers are nominated in this category: Richard Bassett from Thompson Design; Lynn Devine and Anna McManus, from Navyblue; Andrew Diey of Radium Audio; B&W Studio’s Andrew Droug; Matt Maurer of True North; and Claire Brooker at MMU. Their entries show that agencies are continuing to invest in their rising stars.
Meanwhile, the three Designer of the Year nominations went to Thomson Design’s Rob Brearley, Gavin Downey of Sumo, and Mark Lester at Mark Studio.
The most competitive area, it would seem, is in the Corporate Literature category, with seven pieces of work being nominated by the judges. The CD-Rom/DVD category was the only one where no work was deemed worthy of a nomination by the judges.
Meawnhile around 25 firms have been nominated on the achitecture front. including Andrew Wallace Architects for their work on the Code Computer Love interior, Checkland Kindleysides for Sony Erickson and Denton Corker Marhsall for Manchester Civil Justice Centre.
For a full list of nominations, visit The Drum’s website www.thedrum.com and click on the ‘events’ link.
The results of the Roses Design Awards will be announced at a ceremony on Thursday 18 October at the Hilton Hotel, Deansgate, Manchester. The evening begins at 7pm. To secure your table, contact Claire Miller at claire.miller@carnyx.com or on 0141 559 6064.