New Fringe accolade - for the comic with the best poster

It's often joked that Edinburgh is a festival of posters and flyers more than anything else.

And now the dominance of marketing has been underlined with the launch of a new Fringe award honouring the best comedy posters.

The winner will receive £500, thanks to sponsors Fold7, a London advertising agency, whose executive creative director Ryan Newey will judge the entrants.

He said: 'We've decided to get involved with the Comedy Poster Awards this year so we can sniff out any exciting new talent and make a small tribute by recognising the acts who advertise themselves best.

'For an unknown comedian the poster has to do a lot of work and we thought it worth putting some up on a wall and saying well done.'

Prizes (with £300 for runner-up and £200 for third place) will be handed out at a bash hosted by Russell Kane during the Fringe. He said he was 'buzzing to be the poster boy of the poster awards'.

The awards were founded by TV producer Gina Lyons, who said: 'I had the idea while chatting to comedian Harry Deansway at last year’s Fringe. I was cracking up at his genius poster [the back was the back of his bald head, above] and I told him if there was an award for posters he would take first place. So I created one.'

Entries close on August 13. Click here to take part.

Published: 2 Jul 2014