And so the Sh! Awards return for their eighth year in 2010, organised and judged by some of the top digital agencies in the north of England, this has to be one of the least known, but best creative student awards around - maybe they’re keeping a little too quiet about it!?

“That’s all good, but why dedicate an entire post to it?” I hear you say… well, because we won it last year of course!

For those of you who don’t know, the Sh! Awards stand for the Stuart Hocknell Awards, a designer for Swamp who sadly passed away from meningitis in 2002. The awards aim to raise awareness around meningitis, and of course some nice big donations, too!

In the past the awards have been split into several categories, however, this year they are completely opening it up to try and entice a wider range of creatives…and the prize? Nope, not a silly pencil; A 6 month paid placement in one of the judging agencies!

This is what Swamp, the organisers of the event have to say about it:

Pitch your work to influential creative directors, meet with top agencies, show off your work in an exhibition and, as if that’s not enough, win a 6-month paid placement.

There isn’t a brief, you don’t have to pay to enter, and the list of agencies you’ll be presenting to couldn’t really be better: Brahm, Swamp, MadeByPi, Motus, Indigo, and Elmwood. So, if I was a student in Yorkshire on any type of creative course this year, I’d get right in there and enter my best work, because you just might win a prize that will set you up for life!

By Chris Skelton