• 383 Project have been nominated for Dadi Digital Agency of the Year (and would appreciate you voting for them)
• Made Media (my employers, no less) have been nominated in the arts and culture category of the British Interactive Marketing Awards

Arts Council England has made a seventh round of awards from its £40 million Sustain fund for organisations under pressure as a result of the recession.

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra:

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s application met the Sustain criteria as the Orchestra has been adversely impacted by the recession. As such, we have offered a Sustain award of £388,000 to maintain the quality of artistic output and resolve immediate cash flow problems caused by loss of development income and touring income.

Warwick Arts Centre:

Elements of Warwick Arts Centre’s application have been judged to meet the Sustain criteria. As such, we have offered a Sustain award of £215,000 to help the organisation with the adverse impact of the recession by maintaining the quality of artistic output and resolve immediate cash flow problems caused by loss of income from box office, trusts and foundations.

Spotted via Audiences Central.

In other news, the Arts Council get their website redesigned and then go hiding all their information in Word docs, PDF’s and Excel spreadsheets. Irritating.

Birmingham based designer Adam Duffy has won the Make Your Mark Young Brits Entrepreneur Creative Award for his company ‘Looks Can Kill’.

The 26 year old won the award just over a year after setting up his business, which sells customized shoes. Customers can have their own name, photo or slogan printed on a trainer and delivered in a few days.

Adam puts the success of the business down to the creative control the company has, and not having to wait months for new designs to be produced, which is the case in standard footwear production.

The company has received support from both Business Link WM and Creative Launchpad, based in the Custard Factory. They currently employ two staff, frequently use part time staff and are looking to take on a sales manager in the future. Last year their turnover was approx £60,000 which is expected to dramatically increase this year with a concerted sales push as Adam has ambitious growth plans and is currently in talks with a number of large high street retailers.

Make Your Mark Enterprising Young Brits is an annual award set up by British Council that has been running for two years. Winners received a trophy and cheque for £1,000 from Chancellor Alistair Darling at a recent ceremony in London.

The team, named DarkMatter Designs designed Boro-Toro, a platform puzzle game which uses an innovative control system using Wii technology.

Since leaving University two members of the team now work for RockStar North, the British games company behind the hugely successful Grand Theft Auto games.

Guardian writer and professional grumpy man Charlie Brooker wrote a hilarious and unfortunately accurate article on the British Games industry this week.

…despite being about 10,000 times more successful than the British film and TV industries combined, the British videogames industry continually balances a pathological inferiority complex with a wounded sense of pride. Quite why it still wants validation from these older, fading forms of media is a mystery. It’s like a powerful young warrior disgruntled at being ignored by an elderly and irrelevant dying king.

Although aerosolarabic (aka Mohammed Ali) travels worldwide to create new work he is still based in Birmingham. Recently he has painted murals in the city addressing the recent Gaza crisis and is known for painting murals highlighting the plight of the Palestinian people. Worldwide politics aside, Ali has been at the forefront of the discussing local graffiti politics, as mentioned in a post back in Jan ’08. On an international level he has managed to connect people of different communities through his art.

Overwhelmed at receiving the award, Mohammed Ali said:

“It’s an honour to accept a mainstream British Arts award. The art that I do is for everyone, it is universal. I truly believe that art enhances people’s lives and brings communities together and I hope that my work continues to inspire people from all walks of life.”

The awards will be screened on ITV on January 28th 2009.

A HUGE thanks

I’d first like to congratulate the other finalists who took part (list here) and say thanks to the organisers for making things run surprisingly smoothly. I’d like to thank everyone who supported us and made this happen – ‘us’ being Pete Ashton, Julia Gilbert, Danny Smith, Frankie Ward, Stef Lewandowski, Kate Spragg and myself, Chris Unitt.

There are so many of you but I’ve tried to keep track of everyone who spread the word for us (especially online, which is easy enough to track if you know how) and have listed as many as I could find below. However, I know there are many who I’ll have missed – feel free to take a bow in the comments.

The important bit

What this means for CiB can be discussed elsewhere.  In fact a few blogs, linked to below, have already started chewing the fat and drawing lessons from this.

For me, what’s immediately apparent is that to foster a loyal community of people who will go out of their way to support you, you must first of all be generous. Give freely and give often. Expect nothing and you’ll be surprised how many times over you will be repaid.

In that spirit I’d like to quickly mention Baldy’s Blog. Written by Adrian Sudbury until his death, this blog was another of the finalists in the Best UK Blog category and has been described briefly as:

Young local journalist/web editor gets ill. Complex leukaemia. Starts Blog to describe and explain the disease and treatment. Bone marrow transplant is successful. Post transplant complications set in. Proposes on Christmas eve to long term girlfriend. She accepts. Wedding plans begin in earnest. Fiancee leaves him. Broken heart. Leukaemia comes screaming back. Terminal prognosis. Campaign begins to teach all 17/18 year olds about how simple it is to be a bone marrow donor. Huge petition presented to Downing Street. Support from Gordon Brown, Alan Johnson, Ed Balls. Many media appearances nationally to push campaign. Dies 20 August aged 27. Campaign continues…..and succeeds

Please read the blog. It’s quite amazing.

As a result of our win, and in Adrian’s memory, I’ve donated £50 to Leukaemia Research. What’s more, as soon as I can arrange it, I’m going to do something I’ve always told myself I couldn’t and give blood. I can’t tell you how much I’m not looking forward to that.

Right, that dealt with…

On with the thank yous!

The following good people used their Twitter accounts to spread the word. Apologies to anyone using Twitter who got hacked off with the number of messages flying around.

7breaths_ abbycorfan AdFundAl AlbertoNardelli AlexBermingham Alfie alncl anamilgram Andy383 andylockran annettenaudin anthonyherron Azeem_A b33god benga benjaminbrum BenjaminEllis benrmatthews bhampostjoanna bigdaddymerk BirminghamJazz blacklooks boofie BostinBloke bounder brianfitfriends brucel brumcityuni brumeastside campbellX CapsuleFilms carocharlton CathElliott catherinepope catnip chrisunitt citizensheep ClareWhite cmbainbridge coupde craig_fots createdinbrum crispeater crowdSPRING cyberwebmedia DanielBigCat danux davebriggs daveharte davidjstringer DavidLouisDsign davidnikel deplorableword digibrum_si digitalyw dilyan_damyanov discodrive Documentally dougald dracos dstrawberrygirl dubber duncautumnstore Ed_Hart editorialgirl edrussell ellielovell Enduring Essitam eunice007 ExpatBama exsanguinator FionaHandscomb foodiesarah frontrowphotos gabysslave garymuircroft gavinwray gecal genzaichi getgood giagia graphiquillan gtoss hackneye hanuman HarryJA helenbyrne hmobius Ianhlhm ianshepherd ihatemornings iheartjoan InBlogs jacksunday jaynehowarth jezs joannageary john383 johnbradford johnmostyn johnpopham jonhickman josiefraser kanter karenstrunks karlbinder karmadillo katchoo KatieSpragg kcorrick kerryfused kincowbag kristianc laurenceexigent lee_jordan leekemp leight leonardomorgado lexiconmark LightHouseMedia Lil_asha lisibo LittleLaura Lizlxer LloydDavis lowcarbondiary lylebignon m4rcuk marcreeves markmedia marksteadman martinwake martinxo matgb mediaczar MerseyMal midge_uk mikedunn Mizgrimalkin msemaj MyJQ mykitchenstore neil_raygun nickcarson NinaGleams Nosemonkey parboo paulbradshaw paulhenderson peteashton pezholio pigsonthewing podnosh politicspenguin practicaleq procrastinatrix puffrichie qwghlm regengirl ReTweetTrends rhubarbradio RichBatsford richpayne88 robotvsdinosaur RussL sambeckwith SamShepherd shanitomorrow sharl shuckle SickTrumpet sidlangley simonhowes sixball Sizemore sleepydog SoullaStylianou star_one stef stevechapman141 stevebridger stevegerrard SteveKubrick StevenTuck strix_aluco stuartfowkes sue_atkins supercoolkp taratomes TessyBritton theaardvark thestage tom_watson tombeardshaw Tweejay twofootedtackle urbancomms urbanfly Viscount_one winkysmileyface Yak101 yiannopoulos zurichstudios

Blogs (and other sites) that supported us:

Birmingham: it’s Not Shit
Pete Ashton
Podnosh and an earlier links round-up
Spaghetti Gazetti
The Deplorable Word
Graphiquillan
Joanna Geary
Parboo
White Like Milk
Citizensheep
Catnip
Chris Unitt
Nosemonkey
I So Wish (and again)
Digbeth is Good
Daily Mail Watch
Bob Piper
Nunovo
Bluemilkshake
Feeder
Rumproast
Dougald Hine
Blue Gal
Banditry
John Mostyn
Queersighted
The Sharpener
Pickled Politics
Film Forum West Midlands
The Stirrer
Medialens forum
Peter Bacon
Who Needs The Sea
Karen Strunks
Anthony Herron
Daniel Davies
Hanuman
Indymedia Ireland
Indymedia UK
The Birmingham Post
Liberal Conspiracy
Ógra Shinn Féin
Ordo Paginarum
Paul Henderson (great pic)
Never Trust A Hippy
Hippodrome
‘I’m Voting for Created in Birmingham’ Facebook group
Ewan Spence
Laura Whitehead
Local Democracy
Skyscraper City
Democratic Underground
Kebablog
Moseley Free
Amortize (another good pic)
Drum & Bass Arena
Rachel Gillies
Parboo
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst
Stumpy Moose
Haloscan.com
Clare Edwards
John Popham

By the way, CiB doesn’t necessarily endorse or condone the views espoused on a few of those blogs.

Thanks also to the Birmingham City Council webteam (screenshot), everyone at Culturedeluxe, the Birmingham Bloggers, Birmingham Social Media Cafe, Fierce, 4Talent, THSH, 7 Inch Cinema/Flatpack Festival, Creative Republic, Bostin, Gigbeth, BBC Birmingham and everyone who voted.

In case you’re interested, here’s some post-award discussion:

Nosemonkey
Pete Ashton
The Daily Dust
The Exile
Enduring America
Neil Clark

The short had it’s first screening at a 7 Inch Cinema event back in September. Ian gave some context to the film:

Codswallop is based on a series of postcards Greg McLeod sent to his son, and it’s similar in atmosphere to their Spamland shorts. Some nice mucking about with splitscreen and stereo sound too, so we’ll have to make sure we don’t get our left and right mixed up.

Also, Ian Ravenscroft interviewed Greg McLeod for 4Talent and they discussed Codswallop.

If you want to see the short for yourself, go along to The Victoria on 14 March for the next Animation Forum WM event, Shorts on Walls (always recommended), taking place as part of the Flatpack Festival.

Here’s the film’s trailer:

It’s a heck of an achievement, so all the best to the Brothers on the night (8 Feb).

(Via Louis from Dice Productions)

Someone has kindly nominated Created in Birmingham for the award of Best UK Blog in the 2008 Weblog Awards.

It’s a public vote and we’re up against a few of the big politicos – as I type this we’re in 2nd and a Spectator-hosted blog is winning – so any support (votes, forwarding, re-blogging, re-tweeting, etc and so on) would be gratefully received.

It was about this time last year that CiB won the MediaGuardian Award, so I’m hoping I don’t let the side down in the award-winning stakes, especially as I’m passing the reins on in a few weeks. Speaking of which, I should also say that Pete Ashton’s blog has been nominated too, and rightly so.

Johnny Doom from Kerrang Radio! Hoorah!

The final standings for the nominees are as follows:

1. Johnny Doom
2. Paul Murphy
3. Barbara Nice
4. Little Chris
5. Adam Smith/Steve Zacharanda
6. TWM Driver
7. Helga Henry
8. Pogus Caesar
9. Roshan Doug

Head over to Birmingham: it’s Not Shit for all the info and a nice message from Mr Doom himself in the comments.

• Digital Native Academy Ltd – The Regional Outstanding Business Development Award
• Electric Cinema (vid via Pete Ashton) – The Birmingham Outstanding Business Development Award
• LHM Media – Innovation Award
• Fierce Earth Ltd (vid via Pete Ashton) – Outstanding Market Development Award
  (with a Special Commendation Award in the same category presented to D A Recordings Ltd)
• IE Design – The Best Brand Award
• Stan’s Cafe – Creative Industries Award

Fine winners all (with deserving nominees in all categories) so hearty congrats to all involved.

That’s the official business done, so now I’m going to get on my soapbox and talk about what I see as pretty fundamental problems with the Creative City Awards concept. My top 3 nominees are:

1. The emphasis on financial performance
2. Stagnation. Half the winners had won Creative City Awards before. Do the awards celebrate the city’s diverse and vibrant creative sector or the usual names?
3. Only 45 nominations across 7 categories were received and the Newcomer Award had to be withdrawn. I don’t know which to be most embarrassed about

The initial emphasis on the business side of things is understandable. Until last year the awards were only open to companies that had received support under the Business Support for the Creative Industries programme, so that was fair enough. That’s why the awards are for things like ‘business development’, ‘best brand’ and ‘market development’.

The emphasis is supposed to have shifted though – as Coun Neville Summerfield said (at 10 mins 50s), the awards are intended to serve as:

a fitting platform to publicly recognise the work that is being done by creative companies in Birmingham and the wider region

Which seems an almighty stretch given the restrictions in place. As Stef said “wouldn’t a better name for the event be the Creative Business Awards?“. That seems realistic at least.

The thing that really racked me off on the night (I was a guest of the Birmingham Post) was Neville Summerfield’s statement (at 6mins) that:

the Creative City Awards received over 40 submission entries, which is a great testament to the strength and depth of creative business in the city

Over 40? Across 7 categories? Is that all the city’s good for? As I discovered last week, the withdrawl of the Newcomer Award was:

due to the limited number of nominations and the fact that the nominated businesses had not been trading long enough to provide evidence of performance

If we’re relying on what the Creative City Awards tell us then that’s a shocking indictment of the city’s creative scene. Happily, we’re not and the lesson from this is that you should always apply for awards – there might be hardly any competition.

Still, despite all that, I do believe awards ceremonies of this type serve a useful purpose (and I only criticise because I care). They act as a focal point for the sector, bring people – both within the sector and outside it – together, provide a neat package that can be promoted outside the region and are a showcase for the winners and nominees.

I’ll end by quoting the wise words of James Yarker of Stan’s Cafe who has written about their latest success on their blog:

It’s easy to be cynical about awards (I have been many times myself) but if you take them in the correct spirit they can do a useful job for you. I hope that more arts companies may take our place next year. Although the awards are focused in a business direction it feels important that the Arts continue to be represented otherwise the City’s Creativity is in danger of being assumed to consist merely of Digital Solutions to clients various marketing/distribution/communication problems being found almost exclusively by young-ish white men sat in front of spanking new white macintosh computers.

Let’s put ourselves about a bit – the city would be too sterile without us