Awards Archives | Bristol Creative Industries

Open to third-year design students in the South West and Wales, the South West Design + Digital Student Awards is an annual competition that champions commercial thinking in creative higher education.

Hosted by Bristol-based creative agency Proctor + Stevenson, the Awards have been inspiring students to make and submit exciting, commercially viable work since 1986.

With categories for Graphic Design, Digital Design, and Video & Motion Graphics (including 3D and CGI), these awards can really kick-start design careers.

Entries close on midnight on Friday 13th June 2025 so hurry and enter, or share this with any students you know who could be crowned the next Ultimate Creative Champion!

Championing the next-generation of talent in the South West

The South West Design + Digital Student Awards were launched by P+S founder Roger Proctor MBE as part of his ongoing campaign to tackle how institutions approach design education.

Previous winners include Charles Golding – Senior Creative at Hello Charlie (now a regular on the SWDDS Awards judging panel) and Emily Hawkins, who went on to start her career by winning an internship at P+S. The internship led on to a full-time position in the Proctors Studio back in 2022, and she is now Digital Designer at Inside Travel Group.

And the coveted paid design internship isn’t the only prize on offer. Students could win up to £2,000.

Finalists will be asked to present their work to a friendly panel of esteemed judges, including Bristol Creative Industries’ Membership Manager Alli Nicholas, before attending the awards ceremony.

Loom Digital is proud to announce that we have been named as one of the UK’s Best Workplaces for Development™.

New for this year, the UK’s Best Workplaces for Development List recognises companies making employee development a key part of their culture. Our inclusion on this exclusive list officially acknowledges our commitment to development and employee growth.

Over the past 15 years, we have introduced numerous new ways to solidify our commitment to employee development, including a no one-size-fits-all approach to progression.

Nikki Ellison, owner of Loom Digital, said, “We’re so pleased to have been listed 23rd out of 100 in the small business list for Development 2025! We’ve always believed that investing in our team is key for pushing us forward as an agency.”

This award is our second from Great Place To Work over the past year, as we also featured in the UK’s Best Workplaces™ 2025 list, revealed earlier this year.

We’re so proud of this achievement, and look forward to building on our culture and employee satisfaction in the upcoming year!

Reading Room is proud to announce that it has been granted a Royal Warrant by His Majesty The King as Suppliers of Website Development and Management Services. This is a mark of recognition for the services we provide to the Royal Household reflecting our long-standing relationship which is still ongoing today.

The granting of a Royal Warrant reflects Reading Room’s commitment to maintaining digital services with the highest standards of quality, security, service, and reliability. The Royal Warrant is a prestigious acknowledgment, awarded to companies and individuals who have regularly supplied goods or services to the Royal Household for at least five years.

Speaking about the recognition, Polly Lygoe, Managing Director of Reading Room, said:

Reading Room joins a select group of businesses that meet the high standards required by the Royal Household. The Royal Warrant is a well-respected mark of recognition and is held in high esteem both in the United Kingdom and internationally.

Reading Room remains committed to upholding the traditions of excellence and discretion that are associated with a Royal Warrant.

For further information about Reading Room’s digital services, please visit www.readingroom.com.

In November, we attended the Bristol Property Awards at Ashton Gate Stadium, after being nominated in the Workspaces category.

We are incredibly proud to share that we have once again won the award for Best Workspace in Bristol at this year’s Bristol Property Awards!

We have been finalists in this category three times, and with two wins under our belt, there really is no doubt that we represent the very best in flexible working in Bristol.

The judges had this to say: “Always a step ahead of the game – massively growing its membership and had its best year to date. A clear sense of what they’re trying to achieve.”

Thank you to our wonderful team who work so hard to make Square Works a success, and thank you to our members who form our incredible community. We can’t wait to see what successes 2025 brings for us at Square Works!

To find out more about us and to take a tour, contact us today.

saintnicks has won two awards at the prestigious Transform Awards Europe 2025 for their work with Ascot Racecourse.

Gold: Best Expression of a Brand on Social Media Channels
Bronze: Best Use of Copy Style or Tone of Voice

The Transform Awards celebrate excellence in brand strategy and execution across Europe. saintnicks’ work with Ascot Racecourse brought to life the brand’s creative platform, Elegance at Play – combining social-first storytelling, a distinct tone of voice, and thumb-stopping, jaw-dropping content that captured the attention of both loyal racegoers and new audiences alike.

“We set out to create a truly ownable brand voice and world-class social content that matched Ascot’s stature as an iconic British institution. To see that work recognised is a brilliant moment for the team and a testament to the power of brave, collaborative thinking.”

Looking to go further?

We are really proud to share that Varn has been recognised with a Highly Commended Award in The Small Business of the Year Award, at the prestigious Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence Awards 2024. This highly competitive category was open to organisations with up to £5 million turnover in their last financial year. It celebrates companies that demonstrate strong growth & resilience, plans for sustained growth and innovation, as well as customer/staff engagement, an ethical approach to business and strong business results.

Our award submission included the story of our growth as we’ve scaled from a small team of specialists to a team of 28 experts, in a challenging market. We also explored in our entry how we have innovated across our search expertise, developed our VarnFest events and reimagined the workspace with our woodland office. We were also proud to highlight to the BBEA our intentional approach to diversity and inclusion, giving back to our community and clients.

Tom Vaughton, CEO of Varn proudly shares that, “Being recognised in The Small Business of the Year category at the Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence Awards 2024, is a proud moment for me and the team. The process of compiling our award entry, made me reflect on the last few years, how Varn has grown, how fortunate we are with our team and how much I’m personally enjoying the journey. I now realise, this is really quite something after running Varn for over 14 years.”

If you would like to find out more about the Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence Awards or have any questions for our team, please get in touch and you can contact us here.

Bristol creative agency SIM7 has swept the board this awards season, scooping three prestigious international prizes for a brand campaign which ‘redefines executive education marketing’.

The trio of awards, all won for the IESE Business School’s Real Leadership brand campaign, include first place in the Brand Campaign category at the Digital Communication Awards, Best Integration of Purposeful Marketing at the CMI Content Marketing Awards, and a ‘Búho’ award for Brand Strategy at Educafestival.

Each welcomed entries from around the world. Fierce competition for the top spots came from Ketchum, MSLGROUP, Weber Shandwick and a rollcall of other major global agencies.

Says Professor Dr. Ana Adi, Chair of the Jury for the Digital Communication Awards 2024, “IESE Business School’s Real Leadership campaign redefines executive education marketing. Through digital platforms, it boosts global visibility and underscores the school’s core human values, cleverly critiquing the past decade’s ‘hustle’ mindset. This campaign establishes a new benchmark for the future of leadership training”.

Campaign rationale
The brand campaign takes an honest, authentic and human approach which was conceived as an antidote to the clichéd ‘business speak’ creative that has dominated the sector in recent years. Assets include OOH adverts deployed across the world in Europe and Latin America, a major podcast, landing pages, brochures, Google Max ads, campaign videos and more.

Oriol Gil, IESE’s Brand & Content Senior Manager says, “The world of MBA and executive education is changing fast, with a more nuanced audience profile and expectations. SIM7 created a major campaign for us that pushed the boundaries of our brand guidelines and created a completely new strategy”.

Results
By using an authentic narrative and tapping into the genuine concerns and
motivations of business leaders, it resonated with IESE’s core audiences and has delivered substantial results in the form of awareness, enquiries and admissions. Its main campaign video has attracted 3+ million views, and season one of its podcast consistently ranks in the top 30 of the Spotify/Apple leadership and management charts.

SIM7’s Simeon de la Torre is proud of the campaign and the recognition it has earnt, “ As an agency that works with higher and business education clients around the world, winning these three awards is a huge honour for us. We knew from the start that this had to be a campaign with cut-through, and that pure creativity wasn’t enough.

“It was a huge strategic branding exercise that brought together all our skills in messaging, design and positioning, which ultimately spawned something really different with a big dollop of humour and heart”.

SIM7 is a Bristol-based creative agency that works with clients around the world in sectors including education, property, technology and more: sim7creative.co.uk

Founded in 2017, the agency uses language to empower design and drives growth by creating brands, campaigns and strategy. SIM7 currently employs six people, has increased its turnover significantly in the past 12 months and is set to build its international client base even further
in 2024/25.

Werkshop Weekender (formerly known as Werkhouse) is finally back! This year they’re changing it up, and the torch for hosting has been passed on to Halo.

The weekend, where future designers, copywriters, and strategists are given the chance to connect with the industry and get a taste for agency life first hand through a real brief, is happening in Bristol on 16th and 17th November 2024.

As Halo takes over the mantle, they are continuing to dial up the focus on diversity and inclusion. The weekend is open to anyone over 18, no matter their previous experience or education, and all applications are being judged blind.

Werkshop Weekender

Werkshop Weekender brings together professionals from some of the best studios in Bristol and Bath, with curious individuals looking to enter the creative industries. Participants are divided into squads to tackle a real life brief from a client in the charity sector, developing ideas and communicating their concepts, with the support of assigned team leaders and on hand professionals.

Applications open on 2nd September and close on 1st October, but if you for any reason need more time to finish, please contact Halo at werkshopweekender@wearehalo.co.uk and they’ll do what they can to accommodate you.

The Werkshop Weekender team has made it clear; the weekend isn’t for those with experience. It’s for those with an interest in communications, design, and commercial creativity. They aren’t looking for professionals, they’re looking for those with a curious attitude and drive, who want to gain insight into agency life.

Go to the Werkshop Weekender website to find out more and to access the application when it opens.

We are thrilled to announce that Varn has been selected as a finalist for The Small Business of the Year Award, at the prestigious Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence Awards 2024. This is a real honour and a testament to the hard work and dedication of our entire team.

The Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence Awards are the UK’s largest awards programme celebrating the best of British business. These awards welcome and celebrate businesses of all sizes, from entrepreneurial start-ups and SMEs to well-established key industry players in the FTSE 100. Being selected as a finalist in this prestigious awards process is an incredible milestone for Varn, particularly as this year there has been an unprecedented number of entries.

The Small Business of the Year Award is a highly competitive category open to organisations with up to £5 million turnover in their last financial year. This category celebrates companies that demonstrate strong growth & resilience, plans for sustained growth and innovation, as well as customer/staff engagement, an ethical approach to business and strong business results.

Rob Wilde, Managing Director of Varn proudly shares that, “Being named a finalist for category of The Small Business of the Year Award at the Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence Awards 2024, is a fantastic recognition of the hard work and dedication of our wonderful team at Varn. We are truly honoured to be acknowledged alongside such outstanding businesses and are excited for what lies ahead.”

The winners will be announced at the Awards ceremony, to be held at Grosvenor House Hotel in London, on 12th November 2024. Being part of this esteemed awards process is a remarkable achievement for Varn. We are immensely proud of our team’s efforts and delighted to part of the awards process, as we eagerly look forward to the next stage of this journey.

If you would like to find out more about the Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence Awards or have any questions for our team, please get in touch and you can contact us here

Mostly Media, the Bath-based media planning and buying specialists enjoyed recent success at the Independent Agency Awards scooping not one, but two awards.

Hosted by the Alliance of Independent Agencies at the leading worldwide marketing and digital festival ‘MAD//FEST’, this prestigious award ceremony celebrates the finest work across the independent agency sector.

Firstly, for the third time in four years, Mostly Media proudly received the Best Use of Media award, this time for their work on behalf of the UK charity, Crohn’s & Colitis UK.

Secondly, Mostly won the coveted Freedom Award for Client Service, a testament to their exceptional culture and dedication to clients.

Head of Digital Tom Marshall who led the team’s digital campaign commented: “It is a fantastic achievement for such a wonderful cause. To receive the recognition for both Best Use of Media & Client Service was really special, and so well deserved for all the amazing planning and strategic work from the CCUK (Crohn’s & Colitis UK) team, they were amazing to work with on this campaign, so a big thank-you to them for trusting us with this project. Special mention also to the Mostly Team for their brilliant strategy, planning, implementation, and optimisation work – 250,000+ symptom checker completions & delivery of the campaign message to potential sufferers of Crohn’s & Colitis is out of this world!”

– **2023**: Best Use of Media on behalf of Cawston Press | B-Corp™ (FMCG / Brand)

– **2024**: Best Use of Media on behalf of Crohn’s & Colitis UK (Charity / Performance)

– **2024**: Freedom award for Client Service on behalf of Crohn’s & Colitis UK (Charity / Performance)

Based in Bath, Mostly Media is an award-winning top-20 independent media planning & buying agency that prides itself on scaling businesses at pace through media strategy.

Founded on the principles of creativity, agility, and client-focused service, Mostly Media has a proven track record of achieving exceptional results for a diverse range of clients.