Chip Shop Awards Announced

Chips and bottles of vinegar were the most highly coveted accolades at this year’s Chip Shop Awards in Edinburgh last week. Now in its fifth year, the scheme is an industry celebration of all that is innovative, ironic and outlandish in the world of design, advertising and branding. Triumphant winners in categories such as ‘Best Use of Bad Taste’ and ‘Best Use of Frustration’ took home a yellow ‘chip’ trophy, while runners-up got a ‘bottle of vinegar’. The Grand Prix winner was the National Galleries of Scotland, who took home a prestigious ‘blackened chip’ award for its Andy Warhol-inspired decoration of the museum building. Created by the museum’s in-house team, the striking Campbell’s Soup Can columns were installed during its summer exhibition, Andy Warhol: A Celebration of Life and Death.

Presiding over the Chip Shops was design guru Michael Wolff, who gave the chairman’s award to Lake for its postcard created for a window cleaning business, which reads, ‘If you can read this, I’ve done a good job’. Wolff said, 'These awards are about injecting some humour and disrespect into an industry that has the potential to be too elitist, too focused on celebrity.' He also commented on the high quality of the submissions which, he said, were 'a joy to judge'.