The UK’s leading used car retailer, CarShop – which recently opened a new flagship store on Enterprise Way, has pledged its support of Nottingham's young, creative talent by announcing its headline sponsorship of this year's Young Creative Awards.
This annual event, which has been a fixture in the Nottingham calendar since 2009, nurtures, promotes and celebrates the city’s best and brightest. In that time, its winners have gone on to design dresses for Beyoncé, perform on Glastonbury’s Acoustic Stage and become published authors.
CarShop has chosen to mark this special occasion through collaborating with Kate Sharp, the talented winner of last year’s Graphic Design category for the 19-24 age group, after being so impressed with her recent Nottingham postcode series back at the start of the year. In the months that followed, Kate worked closely with the CarShop team – taking inspiration from this series – to design her very own, distinctive car wrap for one of the store’s courtesy cars.
The wrap features most of Nottingham’s well-known landmarks including Nottingham Castle and the Robin Hood Statue, the Trent Building at the University of Nottingham, Nottingham Contemporary, Wollaton Hall (bats included!) and the Council House on Old Market Square – each drawn in Kate’s own unique style.
This has been done to reflect CarShop’s heritage in the city, with it being the birthplace of its parent company – Sytner Group – back in 1968 when brothers, Alan and Frank Sytner, founded the company and bought BMW Nottingham to operate from before expanding to other areas of the UK.
Kate’s design is eye-catching, using bright and cheerful colours that have been taken from the logos of both CarShop and the Young Creative Awards. When asked about her award and the wrap, Kate said: “Winning a Young Creative Award in 2020 was a great feeling of achievement. In the past year I've had the opportunity to take part in informative workshops and exciting commissions, including this car wrap for CarShop. Illustrating for a car wrap was not something that I had ever considered but it turned out to be a fun and interesting project to work on.”
The awards are free-to-enter and open to all those aged between 11-24 who live, study or work in Nottingham. There is a total of 11 categories to enter, which include creative writing, dance, design & architecture, digital & animation, fashion & textiles, film, graphic design, music, photography, theatre and visual arts. Entries are open until April 21st.
Nick Lawford, Project Coordinator at the Young Creative Awards, said: “We are delighted to be working with CarShop to celebrate the creativity and innovation of Nottingham's young people. The Young Creative Awards is only made possible through the support of sponsors such as CarShop, who also help us to invest in former winners like Kate and to provide further opportunities for the next generation of young creatives. Every year the judges are so impressed by the breadth of creativity demonstrated by entrants, and we can’t wait to see the amazing work submitted for this year’s competition.”
“It’s brilliant to be working with Kate, Nick and the team at the Young Creative Awards”, added Carla Pallester, Brand Experience Manager at the CarShop Nottingham store, “As an employer that takes great pride in hiring young, ambitious and creative young people, with all levels of experience under their belt, this partnership is very significant to us. The younger generation have been so badly affected by the coronavirus crisis, and the number of opportunities available to them have dwindled. But we’ve seen first-hand the talent that exists here and will do all we can to show our support and make a difference to both people and the community. We will continue committing to, and investing in, the city of Nottingham for years to come.”
The CarShop Nottingham store opened on December 3rd, 2020. It has been operating through its Click & Collect and Buy & Finance Online services throughout the third national lockdown, while its doors have been closed to the public, but it is looking forward to safely re-opening them on 12 April.
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