Comments on: Creative City finalists

By: Created in Birmingham » Thoughts on the Creative City Awards 2008

Created in Birmingham » Thoughts on the Creative City Awards 2008 — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:49:52 +0000

[...] seems an almighty stretch given the restrictions in place. As Stef said “wouldnâ€™t a better name for the event be the Creative Business Awards?“. That seems realistic at [...]

By: Created in Birmingham » Creative City Awards 2008 - Q&A

Created in Birmingham » Creative City Awards 2008 - Q&A — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 17:45:18 +0000

[...] the finalists for the Creative City Awards 2008 came out the other week I was left scratching my head a little.Â A few people raised issues or [...]

By: Mr Angry

Mr Angry — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 15:15:47 +0000

I think Suki Bansi should get an award for her efforts to regenerate Curzon Street Station.

By: Stef

Stef — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 21:58:19 +0000

@simon_gray in that case, wouldn’t a better name for the event be the Creative Business Awards? That could have real legs, and could even work nationally.

Instead of awards for design, filmmaking and so on based on the quality of the end product/service like all the others, an award based on the quality of strategy/business development could be really interesting. (You could argue against pretty easily too, but hey.)

I guess the problem here is one of perceptions (I’ve won two of these awards and haven’t entered again) but I thought it was just an awards ceremony for anyone working in creative industries!

Shows what I know… but I did think it was odd that I was trying to find a category to nominate Emily and found it difficult even though she has a great story (new mum, finishing a PhD, starting a successful business single-handed, etc.)

By: simon gray

simon gray — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:26:57 +0000

it’s worth remembering that the creative city awards are (a) self-nominating, & (b) all about the business side of running a creative business, rather than the creative side of it.

this isn’t to defend either the awards in general or this year’s list, but it may explain what appear to be odd choices & omissions.

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:21:05 +0000

Nice use of the word Gah.

By: Created in Birmingham » Plight of the hedgehog

Created in Birmingham » Plight of the hedgehog — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:21:30 +0000

[...] strictly creative (although I’m not sure what is these days) but it’s Harry Palmer, so worth a mention. Join Harry Palmer this Saturday (22nd Nov) near [...]

By: Chris Unitt

Chris Unitt — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:17:59 +0000

Gah! Sorry, bit oversensitive today. Digital Natives seemed interesting (could do with a more digitally native website, mind).

By: Dave Harte

Dave Harte — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:11:14 +0000

I was only jesting Chris - always happy to get info onto CIB - badge of honour in fact. Digital Native Academy are great by the way. Serious Games applications in community setting. Done work with Microsoft amongst others. Did a project in Sandwell called Gaming the Tibby (more here

By: Chris Unitt

Chris Unitt — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:29:54 +0000

Billy – maybe I’m too much of a purist but I’m still not sold on the creativity of SEO and PPC. You’re right though, I’ve not seen any (potentially perfectly good) explanations for their nominations.

You’re right on Adwords Ltd too. I suspect the list should say Adwords Expert Ltd (based in Moseley) whose website is http://www.adwords-expert.co.uk/ (link above amended).

Dave – apologies but I didn’t realise you (or Kenny or the Bham Post for that matter) were trying to spark a debate and didn’t intend to steal any thunder.

For the record (and to defend my honour) I looked up the names of the companies that weren’t familiar to me (Bubblequest, DA Recordings, Adwords, IE Design, Internet Arrow, Violectra, LHM and Digital Native) when I saw Kenny’s post. I originally copied Kenny’s list for this post and started adding links but replaced it with your one (credited) when I saw I was just duplicating work.

By: Billy

Billy — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:05:32 +0000

Good copywriting (which effective seo and ppc advertising rely on) has always been part of the creative industry as I’ve known it, but this does seem a pretty dull list on the face of it. Of course, it is just a list, there’s no explanation of the projects that these companies have nominated themselves for. I’d be surprised if the link for Adwords Ltd is correct though. Apart from being a terrible website, providing no contact details, delivering all its text as images and spelling ‘professional’ wrong, it seems to be particularly targeted at a US audience.

By: Custard Factory - News in brief

Custard Factory - News in brief — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:51:37 +0000

[...] Birmingham Creative City Awards finalists – The contenders for the council’s annual awards are up featuring a number of Custard Factory and Big Peg tenants. The ceremony is on Saturday November 29th. [...]

By: Andy Derrick

Andy Derrick — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:22:44 +0000

I am saddened by the categories as there is little recognition of the creative businesses that are essentially individuals. From my time on the AWM Screen, Image and Sound COG, it was a constant source of debate initiated by the music sector that we had no effective way of measuring these micro businesses that have significant impact. This looks like same old stuff to me, but maybe I am missing the point here, that the awards are set up by a part of the creative industries to celebrate itself.

By: Chris Unitt

Chris Unitt — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:26:25 +0000

Mr H – there was some gentle sarcasm in play.

Actually the 2007 winners were:

DA Recordings (two awards)
Gas Street Works (two awards)
383 Project
The Afro Card Company
Fused Magazine
Gas Street Works
Stan’s Cafe
Fierce Earth
Green Room Retail

Pics, prize details, etc – http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/GenerateContent?CONTENT_ITEM_ID=110760&CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE=0&MENU_ID=13628

By: Anthony Herron

Anthony Herron — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:22:40 +0000

Is Jurgen’s comment correct? Are we looking at last years list? Or did I miss the sarcasm bus?

By: Dave Harte

Dave Harte — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:54:31 +0000

And there was me slaving away for many minutes over finding all the links for the finalists only for Chris to nick my hard work and for the heated debate to be over here instead of at my place. Darn it. Some further reading, listening and watching: There's a list of last year's winners over at the Digital Central site. There's a podcast with Mohammed Zahir from BCC over at Biz TV. There's also some videos from previous years: 2004 2005 2007 See there I go again doing all the leg work whilst CIB gets all the debate...

By: Chris Unitt

Chris Unitt — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:26:03 +0000

Charlotte – yes, the definition’s pretty close. The eligible creative sectors for the awards are “advertising, design & visual arts, heritage and museums, performing arts, publishing, music, screen based media and radio, software”

I can understand the creative input on advertising campaigns generally but SEO and pay-per-click? And business consultancy?

By: Shona

Shona — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:19:19 +0000

A little askew of Chris’ question, but I’m particularly interested to find out who’s responsible for the Creative City Awards logo……

By: Charlotte Carey

Charlotte Carey — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:10:56 +0000

Benefit of the doubt:
I don’t know anything much about these awards and criteria used or for that matter the companies you highlight . But assuming they (awards) are using the DCMS definition of creative industries (http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/creative_industries/default.aspx) then SEO and pay-per click advertising could I guess come under ‘advertising’ sub-sector and the other possibly ’software design’?

By: Jurgen

Jurgen — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:51:05 +0000

Chris, it’s a simple mistake. You’ve got the list from last year’s event muddled up with this year’s. I was there and it was DA Recording, Fused, Stans Cafe, Fierce who won. You’re not suggesting that Birmingham hasnt moved on this year are you?