BSME Awards winners

Last night at the BSME Awards dinner there were three design-related awards. The two art directors of the year were David McKenrick from Esquire (consumer) and Cecilia Lindgren from Architectural Review (business). Congratulations to both of them.

The third award was the Mark Boxer Award, made annually to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to magazine publishing in the UK. Boxer was a collosal figure in the British magazine industry during the sixties and seventies. He crossed from editing to designing (not forgetting a succesful sideline in cartoons), and the award is designed to honour people with similar influence.

The 2009 winner last night was Andy Cowles, Editorial Development Director at IPC Media. Without wishing to take anything away from previous winners of the title, it is great to see another person who, like Boxer, has straddled both design and editorial win this award. Cowles’ background is design – he has art directed numerous magazines both here in London and in New York – but he now oversees both design and editorial at IPC. Congratulations to him.

See all the winners here, along with amusingly distorted portraits.