Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Best of Manchester Awards 2009. The edgy, quirky and creative soul of the city, that’s been plucked by an esteemed panel of judges and assembled for your pleasure on the top floor of the Urbis.

The Best of Manchester Awards, launched last year, celebrate the city’s most innovative thinking in art, music and fashion. Open to everyone that lives or works in Manchester, its aim is to give recognition to boundary-breaking, genre defying work and to elevate the profile of those spirited creative types who are bubbling under the surface. It is judged by a impressive panel of experts including designer Peter Saville, Turner prize wining artist, Jeremy Deller and fashion designer, Wayne Hemmingway. Winners are rewarded with space in the high profile exhibition, lots of media exposure plus a fast track development package. Oh and a big fat cheque for £2000.

Sounds a bit poncey? Well yes, it is. But maybe that’s the point – you’re supposed to be challenged, irked and befuddled. Like the music you listen to as a teenager, your mum and dad aren’t supposed to get it. Besides, if you took them to the Urbis, they probably wouldn’t make it up all those stairs to the top floor anyway.

I went along to the launch evening and awards ceremony, not because I wanted to spend my evening sipping cocktails in the company of blunt-fringed fashionistas and stylishly scruffy graphic designers, but because I had seen the guerrilla campaign that the B.O.M.A. posters had inspired on the Awards blog.  Using the same typeface and style, some quick-fingered creative type had ripped off the awards posters and posted their own version around town.  They replaced their pompous quotations from Peter Saville and Mathew Williamson with some philosophical musings on love and loss. Clever, clever, clever. Subverting a poster for awards celebrating subversive art music and fashion. Lovely. The culprit is yet to be identified.

Tags: Art, Best of Manchester Awards 2009, Creativity, Design, fashion, Graphic Design, Innovative Thinking, Manchester, Music, Urbis

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