British Sign Awards 2020 to run under independent banner

The British Sign Awards will this year run under an independent banner - previously they have run under the auspices of ISA UK (formerly BSGA), which earlier this month announced it would be launching a new awards scheme.

Ray Hirst, who launched the awards in 2013, said: “They have so far been run under a trade association banner and, while we would have been content for the relationship to continue, this will no longer be the case.” He added: “British Sign Awards already has everything in place to continue with the success it enjoyed in 2019, including its own website, a large and growing social media following and effective and accepted award categories that reflect the diverse skills of the sign industry, plus an easy, free and fair entry system.” Hirst said a number of sponsors have already confirmed that they will continue to support the event in 2020 and added that the new, independent status of the awards offered some extra benefits too. “Previously many people in the sign industry had the perception that the awards were the preserve of association members or that the members enjoyed an advantage. This was never really the case because we went to great lengths to ensure that judging of entries was anonymous and fair. However, the perception did exist and it was a problem. Now, as totally independent scheme, we believe we can reach out to a much wider cross section of the 4000 or so sign and sign related businesses in the UK.” The British Sign Awards will launch its first call for 2020 entries shortly and entry will be open until September.