Manchester digital agency Stardotstar has won three prestigious industry awards just months after its office was destroyed by a fire in Manchester's city centre.
Stardotstar was the only North West company to win at the BIMA Awards which celebrates creative excellence and best practice in interactive design. Organised by the British Interactive Media Association, the awards are widely regarded as the UK digital industry's 'Oscars'.
The agency beat off stiff competition from the BBC, Channel 4 and MTV to take the BIMA 'Education & Training Award' for a road safety CD-ROM aimed at school children which it created for the NRSI (Neighbourhood Road Safety Initiative).
The CD-ROM also won Stardotstar the 'Government & Information Award' and the BIMA 'Kids Award', which recognises the most outstanding example of interactive design created for children.
Award winners were announced last night (Thursday 29th November) at a glittering awards ceremony in London. Stardotstar won in three of the twenty-two categories.
The award wins come after Stardotstar's office on Lever Street in Manchester's Northern Quarter was completely destroyed by a large fire in April 2007, which obliterated two buildings housing a number of small businesses. Following a period in temporary office space, Stardotstar has recently relocated to new premises nearby on Newton Street in Manchester's Northern Quarter.
The fire certainly didn't affect the agency's success this year – the BIMA awards are the third set of awards Stardotstar have picked up recently for its 'Safe & Sound' CD-ROM. It also won Best e-learning Project at this year's Big Chip Awards and was highly commended for Best Public Sector Project at the DADI Awards 2007.
Set up in 2001 by Gareth Langley and Gerard O'Brien and now employing six staff, Startdotstar has worked with a host of high profile national clients including Nowgen, 3i, Channel 4, BBC, GMPTE, Warburtons and AstraZeneca.
Gerard O'Brien, Managing Director at Stardotstar said: "The company has been going from strength to strength since we started six years ago, but I'll admit the fire was a real shock. You just don't expect to come to work on Monday morning to find your office and everything in it destroyed."
"But it hasn't stopped us at all. All our work was backed-up and from our temporary office we were able to continue producing award-winning projects. "
LINKS
Stardotstar
http://www.stardotstar.com
British Interactive Media Association
http://www.bima.co.uk/bima-award/0509131704/bima-awards-2007/awards-winners/
Digital Arts Magazine
http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/awards/
