We’ve been here before. Think! was shortlisted in the Creativepool Annual Awards in 2023 and again in 2024. Both times, we came away empty-handed.
So, third time lucky.
Our work for Standard Patent Glazing, Designing for specification: a future-ready website and library for architects, has won bronze in the Web category at the Creativepool Annual Awards 2026. This one feels particularly good.
You only have to spend a few minutes looking through the Creativepool Annual shortlist to understand the level of work involved. Across this year’s awards you’ll find agencies including AKQA, Interbrand, Design Bridge and Partners, Huge, VCCP, VML, Edelman, Publicis, SomeOne and The Romans, alongside work created for brands such as Google, PepsiCo, Nike, Audi, Mercedes-AMG, Toyota, Samsung, Tiffany & Co., Volvo, Lidl, Coca-Cola, Tesco, Absolut and Amazon.
Creativepool itself has more than 400,000 members and 27,000 companies within its global creative network and described the 2026 Annual as its biggest awards programme to date.
In other words, this isn’t a small regional awards programme. It’s a global competition run by one of the largest creative industry networks around.
The best comparison is probably our own category.
In Web, we were shortlisted alongside Huge, AKQA, Mud, Novagram, Browser London and Richard Chapman Studio with projects including Huge’s work for PepsiCo, Google and Chrome, alongside AKQA and a strong field of independent studios.
Let’s remember we are a small independent agency in Whitefield, Manchester. They are some fairly big names.
So yes, we’re very pleased with this one.
The winning project was created for Standard Patent Glazing, a business with more than a century of expertise in patent glazing systems. The challenge wasn’t simply to give them a nicer website. Architects and construction professionals use the SPG website to make decisions. They need quick access to technical information, drawings, specifications and performance data.
Our job was to make that process easier.
We rethought the website around the journeys architects and specifiers actually take, creating clearer routes into product information, technical guidance, drawings and downloads. Alongside it, we designed a premium nine-brochure specification library housed in a slipcase, giving SPG a physical resource designed to live in architectural practices rather than disappear into a drawer.
And it’s being used.
Since launch, the website has generated more than 3,000 high-intent interactions, including 1,399 specification downloads, 696 technical and product PDF downloads and 43 brochure downloads.
That matters more to us than creating something that simply looks good. It has to work.
The Bronze wasn’t our only recognition at this year’s Annuals.
Our Agecko ‘Waste reimagined’ rebrand was shortlisted in both the Branding and Graphic categories, while the Standard Patent Glazing project was also shortlisted in Graphic as well as Web.
Think! itself was shortlisted for Small Agency of the Year.
The Branding shortlist alone included work from AKQA, BBC Studios Creative, Interbrand, Design Bridge and Partners, PepsiCo Design & Innovation, SomeOne, Coley Porter Bell and Pearlfisher. Again, not bad company to be keeping from up north in Manchester.
We’ve always been fairly pragmatic about awards. Clients don’t appoint us because we have another trophy on a shelf. They appoint us because they have a problem that needs solving and ultimately the work needs to deliver something.
However, awards such as Creativepool do give us a chance to see how our work stands up alongside agencies and in-house teams from around the world.
The 2026 judging panels included senior creative and marketing people from organisations including BBDO, Saatchi & Saatchi, Ogilvy, Disney, Electrolux and BrandOpus.
Having made the shortlist twice before and come away empty-handed, finally picking up a Bronze makes this one considerably sweeter.
Paul Grogan, Founder and Creative Director at Think!, said, “We’ve been shortlisted in the Creativepool Annuals before and come away empty-handed, so finally winning one feels pretty special. When you look at the agencies, brands and quality of work involved, you realise how difficult it is just to make the shortlist, never mind win.
What I like most is the project itself. The work for Standard Patent Glazing wasn’t about creating something flashy. It was about taking a business with more than 100 years of expertise and making that knowledge easier for architects and specifiers to access and use. It solved a genuine business and user problem, and the results back that up. That’s the kind of work we enjoy doing.”
So, after 2023 and 2025, we finally have a Creativepool Annual Award to bring back to Whitefield.
Definitely worth the wait.
View the Creativepool Annual 2026 winners
View the Standard Patent Glazing award entry
Award-winning brand strategist, creative director and self-confessed typographic perfectionist, Paul Grogan is the founder of Think, an award-winning Manchester-based branding, digital transformation and marketing agency. With 28 years of experience, he helps organisations clarify their brand, improve customer experience and generate growth through branding, website transformation, digital marketing and AI-ready digital experiences.