Every year the Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award works with an artist or designer to create bespoke prizes for the shortlisted musicians. I was thrilled when design curators, Local Heroes, got in touch to commission me to create the trophy this year.
The SAY Award has become one of Scotland’s most popular and prestigious music prizes. Wielding a £20,000 prize for the winner, 9 runner-up prizes of £1,000 each and a unique trophy designed by the commissioned artist.
This was the first year the SAY Award was hosted in Edinburgh so the brief was to take inspiration from the city and specifically the Salisbury Crags - dramatic cliffs located in the middle of the city centre which truly makes our city unique. I mimicked the textures found within the Crags by carving and chiselling plaster which I then translated into the concrete objects. I took colour inspiration from Scottish landscape too - deep grey-blues and forest greens dropping into a natural sand tone, creating interesting details where they blend together.
When Local Heroes founder, Dr Stacey Hunter visited my studio to discuss possibilities for the design, she was quite keen to add in something exciting and unexpected - we decided to try to add a UV element. I started to experiment with different UV materials and ended up with little UV crystals fused into the textured edges of the concrete. I think this element really honours the excitement of the awards and the energy and talent of the nominated musicians. 
The design commission was sponsored by Edinburgh based distillery Sweetdram. I was lucky enough to get to visit their very aesthetically pleasing space during the project and we shoot some images there with photographer, Eoin Carey.
The winner of the Scottish Album of the Year 2019:
Auntie Flo - Radio Highlife
Read more about the SAY award, explore and listen to the incredible shortlisted albums here.