And the Washing Up Rota Award Goes to…

You may not think our washing up rota warrants its own awards scheme. OK, it’s not the Oscars, but in its own small way it’s raising the standard of creativity and ingenuity not to mention, on occasions, lunacy! Think of it as a sort of Turner prize.

Your disbelief however will be well and truly suspended, once you see the more than worthy winning entry. The brief is wide open, but does encompass the somewhat challenging requirement that each mark, that confirms the week’s washing up has been completed, has to fit in an area 30mm x 20mm. Each completed rota sheet covers 42 weeks of washing up, so to sustain a creative idea over just short of a year takes some doing.

The awards are presented in reverse order with honourable mentions going to; Tom for continuing with his ‘expletive not deleted’ concept, admirably featured in all previous rotas – this time there was a tenuous link with his use of PISSPOT. For less regular followers of our washing up rota blogs (ok, there has only been one previous one), Tom’s rather anguished state of mind can be explained by the fact that he is required to do as much washing up as everyone else, in spite of the fact that he only drinks water and only uses one glass a week. Chris started promisingly with his Illustrator symbols but faltered at his third week declaring that it was just “too much effort”. It has to be said that there are those in the agency who suspect that Chris’ efforts were being put into our ‘toilet door’ competition, which is only held once every five years (or when we paint the agency, whichever is the later) but more of that anon. Nick should also be mentioned for his clever use of a play on the word ‘tick’ referencing both the graphic symbol used to indicate an item on a list has been dealt with and the foretelling of an imminent explosion.

However, it’s now time to announce the worthy winner (pause as the envelope is rustled and tugged at, because for some inexplicable reason, the card that went into the envelope easily enough, now resents the fact that the moment everyone is waiting for has arrived and refuses to come out) and the winner is…

Mark Jnr. Mark came up with a strong branding idea of using our agency extensive colour palette of ‘yellow’ and then finding seven ways of expressing it as follows; 1 – The agency’s pencil brand mark, cut from our business card. 2 – Our pantone brand colour Yellow U. 3 – A piece of our washing up sponge. 4 – Pieces of Lego. 5 – A mini yellowish Post-It note. 6 The middle of a lemon Magic Tree air freshener. 7 – The ‘W’ from the ‘Washing up rota’ heading.

Although being declared the winner of such an august award scheme is accolade enough, Mark Jnr also received a rare ‘Partners in Space’ Commemorative, in commemoration of the Apollo-Soyuz Space Mission, featuring a limited edition sterling silver coin, featuring all five astronauts, and two special day-of-linkup postage stamps, to acknowledge that he had gone where ‘no washer upper had ever gone before’ in his quest to hold the coveted award.