Creative Bath Awards Winners
News
Local makers and businesses celebrate creativity at the 2026 Creative Bath Awards
Friday, 15 May, 2026Nominees from Bath Spa University and other Bath-based companies came together on Thursday to celebrate the creative talent the city has to offer at the 2026 Creative Bath Awards.
Held at Komedia in Bath, the 2026 Creative Bath Awards celebrated the most high-profile creative, tech and cultural businesses and individuals in the region, highlighting and supporting local creative and tech companies, sharing creative excellence, and shining a spotlight on Bath as a leading creative city.
Creating the Award
Award winners received trophies designed by BSU third year BA Product Design student Joel Morton. Joel’s winning design was inspired by the city’s wayfinding system developed by Pearson Lloyd. Explaining further, Joel said:
“Many [previous award designs] drew inspiration from Bath’s most iconic architectural landmarks. While I admired these references, I became increasingly interested in the quieter and often overlooked aspects of Bath’s design culture. It struck me that the Creative Bath Awards are not simply about celebrating the ‘big names’ of the city, but about recognising hidden talent, thoughtful creativity, and the people quietly shaping Bath’s creative landscape.”
Joel collaborated with the West Yorkshire-based design and fabrication company Solidlux to produce the awards using recycled and other sustainable materials. The trophies feature a palette incorporating Bath stone, green tones to reflect the Creative Bath branding and bronze-inspired finishes that echo the wayfinding system and symbolise Bath’s architectural and historical heritage.
Summing up the experience, Joel said:
“The project has been an incredibly formative experience. Developing the award pushed me to engage with fabrication, communication, material sourcing, and production in a much more professional capacity. It has given me far greater confidence in my ability to operate within industry and strengthened my enthusiasm for pursuing a career in design.”
A big night for BSU
BSU and BSU-backed projects received a record number of nominations in several categories, including Creative Arts, Creative Event, Creativity for Good, Creative Student, Digital Technology, Marketing Campaign and New Creative Business.
BSU’s Communications and Brand Development team joined with partner Bath City Football Club to take home the award for Best Marketing Campaign for the stylish Third Shirt project, which saw the Romans take to the pitch wearing a BSU student-designed shirt and was launched with a photography and social media campaign featuring fans, players and BSU students.
The judges commented:
“This campaign brilliantly united Bath City FC and Bath Spa University, delivering a bold, collaborative third shirt launch with flawless execution.”
Lucy Stone, Head of Communications and Brand Development at BSU said:
“The Creative Bath Awards are always a wonderful reminder of the incredibly high standard of creative businesses, organisations and individuals we have in our city and local area. We are delighted to have won our awards for the University, but almost every winner and a huge number of those nominated are either BSU alumni, staff, students or connected to BSU in some way. It just shows the strength of our creative and civic connections and engagement, and this will only continue to grow as we further bring to life our Strategy 2035 as a Professionally Creative university for the future.”
The BSU-backed Emerge creative residency programme scooped the award for Creative Arts, highlighting their innovation across art, design, performance, music, and creative media, empowering young artists and championing collaborative, creative spaces.
BSU cultural partners Theatre Royal Bath and Music Workshop took home two awards each in the Creativity for Good, Sound, Creative Event and ACE categories. Several BSU alumni and students also received awards, rounding out what proved to be a big night for BSU.
Congratulations to all of this year's nominees and award recipients!