Creative Edinburgh Awards: 2018 Winners Revealed

Girls Rock School Edinburgh, Turing Fest and indie publisher Charco Press were among the winners at this year's Creative Edinburgh Awards

Feature by The Skinny | 14 Nov 2018

The annual Creative Edinburgh Awards returned for their seventh outing this evening, with the best of the city's creative community celebrated in a ceremony and party at the Assembly Roxy. The awards straddle most aspects of creative life in the capital, and that's reflected in the diverse range of winners selected this year.

Creative Edinburgh's Commercial Award was snapped up by Scottish Design Exchange, a retail space that offers a sales platform and support to dozens of grassroots artists at stores in Ocean Terminal in Leith and Buchanan Galleries in Glasgow. The Leadership Award, meanwhile, went to Stacey Hunter, the driving force behind the Local Heroes design project. Local Heroes aims to elevate the conversation around Scottish design and designers through curation and exhibition across a variety of platforms (including a monthly column in The Skinny). 

The first edition of the Killtopia comic book series from Dave Cook and Craig Paton won this year's Creativity Award, both for the book itself – a bright, colourful and action-packed slice of cyberpunk – as well as Paton and Cook's ability to build up buzz around the first installment in what's set to be an ongoing series. The Start-Up Award went to new publishing house Charco Press; the publisher, which focuses exclusively on English translations of contemporary fiction from Latin America, was founded in September 2017 and has already seen one of its titles longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize. Tech start-up festival Turing Fest was the recipient of this year's City Award – the festival has expanded to accommodate more than 2000 attendees across its programmes.

Girls Rock School Edinburgh were awarded this year's Social Award – the organisation sets out to inspire and encourage women of all ages to form bands, put on gigs and get involved at all levels of the music scene via workshops and gigs. The Student Award goes to Sonali Misra, author and co-founder of online literary magazine The Selkie; the Collaboration Award went to Boobzapalooza, a project in aid of Breast Cancer Now combining the talents of illustrator Jennifer Colquhoun, jeweller Beth Lamont, and knitwear designer Kathleen Moodie; and dancer, teacher and choreographer Ashley Jack was the recipient of this year's Independent Award.

“Over the past seven years the Creative Edinburgh Awards have recognised creative practitioners based in the City and how they are building businesses through imaginative and meaningful work,” says Helena Ward, Creative Industries Manager at Creative Scotland. “This year’s awards continue that celebration and it’s great to see such a rich mix of creative practice recognised in this way. Our congratulations to all the winners, nominees and everyone involved.”

Read the full list of this year's nominees (winners in bold) below; for more information on Creative Edinburgh, visit creative-edinburgh.com

The Student Award
"For an outstanding student creative contribution or activity from a full or part time student engaging in a creative discipline. Sponsored by Edinburgh Napier University."

Mika Cook
Sonali Misra
Claire Moffat

The Commercial Award
"For an outstanding commercial creative contribution or activity from an agency, partnership, organisation, collective or company."

Kalopsia Collective
Yard – Lifted Over the Turnstiles, for DC Thomson
Scottish Design Exchange

The Start Up Award
"For an outstanding creative contribution or activity from a newly registered company (less than 3 years). Sponsored by Business Gateway."

More Yum Studio
Criton
Charco Press

The Collaboration Award
"For an outstanding creative collaboration between two or more organisations or individuals."

No Knives Better Lives – Balisong – Strange Town Theatre Company, Fast Forward and Youth Link Scotland.
Boobzapalooza – Kathleen Moodie, Jennifer Colquhoun and Beth Lamont
Emily Millichip x Francoise Lane (Indij Design)
School of Arts & Creative Industries (Edinburgh Napier University) & National Museum Scotland

The Independent Award
"For an outstanding contribution or activity from a professional individual. To enter you must be a registered creative business, sole trader or freelancer."

Jenny Hazel
Ashley Jack
Ruth MacGilp

The Social Award
"For an outstanding creative contribution or activity that benefits or contributes to a group or interest."

Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Virgin Money Street Events redesign
Girls Rock School
Sing in the City
Fork in the Road

The Creativity Award
"For a one off creative work or initiative. Financial gain need not be the primary motivator in this category. It could simply be 'art' or a creative work undertaken to explore or express new ideas or talent."

Jannica Honey – When the Blackbird Sings
Paul Gray – On the Outside
Card Shark Comics (Dave Cook and Craig Paton) – Killtopia #1

The Leadership Award
"For an outstanding individual for their leadership and contribution to their sector, or the creative industries as a whole. Sponsored by Barclays Eagle Labs."

Danielle Trudeau
Stacey Hunter
Joanna Baker
Alex Durussel-Baker

The City Award
"For an outstanding creative contribution or activity that has promoted Edinburgh nationally or internationally, or work that has incorporated or utilised an Edinburgh city space or cultural idea specific to the city. Sponsored by Bellfield Brewery."

Turing Fest
Pianodrome Community Interest Company
Imaginate
A Wall Is A Screen (Leith Creative)


The Skinny is media partner of the Creative Edinburgh Awards, and a member of The Skinny staff was involved in the judging of this year's awards.