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.

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | 3 comments |

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.

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | One comment |

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.

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | One comment |

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

© chrisunitt for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | 22 comments |

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)

© chrisunitt for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | One comment |

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.

© chrisunitt for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | 23 comments |

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.

© chrisunitt for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | Add a comment |

• 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

© chrisunitt for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 34 comments |

Thanks to Mohammed Zahir at Birmingham City Council (Q1-5) and Kenny at Big Cat PR (Q6 & 7) for finding time to answer these:

1. How many applications were received for each of the categories?
   We had a total of 45 nominations from which we shortlisted 17 businesses across the various categories.
2. Will further information on the reasons behind the nominations be released?
   The shortlisting was based upon a rigorous assessment of each nomination in accordance with strict eligibility criteria, an application form and related financial information.  Each shortlisted company then had to make a 10 minute presentation to a panel. The quality of the applications from the shortlisted companies was good and the process was very competitive.
3. Has the Newcomer Award been dropped from the Awards? If so, how come?
   The newcomer award has been dropped 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.
4. With so many self-employed and freelance workers in this sector, what scope is there for the Creative City Awards to recognise the efforts of individuals rather than companies?
   The awards are designed to recognise and reward business success. Individuals registered as self employed  are eligible and have not been excluded.
5. Of this year’s 14 finalists, 4 won awards last year – what does this say about ‘the city’s diverse and vibrant creative sector‘?
   The 14 finalists are of a high calibre, successful businesses and indeed benchmarks for success within the sector.
6. Who is on the judging panel?
   Simon Jelley (MCL), Julia Higginbottom (Aquila), Mohammed Zahir (BCC), Lara Ratnaraja (Business Link WM), Joe McConnell (Biztv), Ian Danby, Arts Council, Carol Alderson (BCC), Shasta Rashid (BCC)
7. Who was responsible for designing the logo?
   Jason Liggitt at Big Cat’s design studio created the logo.

© chrisunitt for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | One comment |

Here are the Creative City Awards finalists, with thanks to Big Cat (who provided the list) and Dave Harte (who provided the links):

The Regional Outstanding Business Development Award:
Bubblequest Ltd
Internet Arrow
Digital Native Academy Ltd

The Birmingham Outstanding Business Development Award:
Electric Cinema
Substrakt Limited (blog)

Innovation Award:
Adwords Expert Ltd
LHM Media (blog)
IE Design Consultancy Ltd (blog)

Outstanding Market Development Award:
Fierce Earth Ltd (blog)
D A Recordings Ltd (blog)
Fused (blog)

The Best Brand Award:
D A Recordings Ltd (blog)
Violectra trading as Unison Strings Ltd
IE Design Consultancy Ltd (blog)

Creative Industries Award:
D A Recordings Ltd (blog)
Stan’s Cafe (blog)
Fierce Earth Ltd (blog)

The awards themselves are on 29 Nov.

Firstly, congrats to all the peeps nominated – no matter your opinion on awards generally, a bit of free publicity and a £2,000 cheque is reason enough to try and win one of these.  A few thoughts on the nominations though:

• Does SEO (Internet Arrow) count as ‘creative’ these days?
• Just how is business consultancy (Bubblequest) ‘creative’?
• Pay-per-click advertising (Adwords Ltd)? ‘Creative’? Eh?

3 of the 14 companies nominated (21%) have got me scratching my head and wondering why they’re there. No offence to the companies nominated, of course, but did the organisers not receive any more relevant applications? Is that why there’s only two nominations for the Birmingham business development award?

*Update* – Parboo (not her real name) has noticed that there’s been no announcement of nominations for the Newcomer Award.

© chrisunitt for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 20 comments |

Dave from Fireloop emailed to tell me about this and also said:

as we are a company the size of 2 people, we’d love to hear from any peeps out there, maybe running a similar size company, who thinks they might be able to collaborate with us on an ongoing basis.

We’d like to hear from anyone who thinks they might be able to work with us, whether they are designing, photographing, copywriting, coding, whatever it is, we’re simply wanting to meet people looking to do good work, really.

If that’s you then give him a shout – contact details will be on the Fireloop website.

© chrisunitt for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | Add a comment |

were created by Birmingham City Council to recognise and reward achievement from within the city’s diverse and vibrant creative sector

and, carrying on from last year, they’re open to all small, creative businesses in the Birmingham & Solihull area.

There are 7 categories:

1. Creative Industries Award
2. Innovation Award
3. Outstanding Business Development (Birmingham) Award
4. Outstanding Business Development (Regional) Award
5. Best Newcomer Award
6. Outstanding Market Development Award
7. Best Brand Award

and the deadline for entries is 17 October.  Good luck to any and all who apply – details and forms are on Birmingham Council’s Creative City Awards page.

© chrisunitt for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | Add a comment |

There are just two weeks to go for submissions to the 4Talent Awards – the deadline is 29 August 2008.

4Talent acts as a talent spotter for the various arms of Channel 4 and the awards:

tip exciting individuals with the potential to make a difference, as judged both by commissioners and the leading producers who supply them.

It’d be great to have some Birmingham winners again – last year Polar Bear, Chris Keenan and Nathan Hughes-Berry won trophies – so have a look through the categories and if one fits you (and as long as you’re under 30 and meet the other criteria) then get your application in.

© chrisunitt for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 2 comments |

This sort of thing’s getting to be old hat for Tindal Street Press, who had Catherine O’Flynn’s ‘What Was Lost’ longlisted last year.  Gaynor Arnold, on the other hand, has spent the past 40 years or so working as a social worker in Birmingham and took five years to write the novel.

Of course you may already be aware of all this – the Birmingham Post picked up on it first and the Custard Factory blog and BiNS both mentioned it.  Also, The Times have a short interview with Gaynor and the Guardian have also run a rather flattering piece entitled ‘Why Birmingham rules the literary roost‘.

© chrisunitt for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | Add a comment |

Ok, so it’s easy to be cynical about these things (and it’s open season on the Birmingham Post site – all the winners’ profiles are commentable), but there’s little sense in detracting from the recognition given to the following folks who work hard on the city’s arts & culture scene.

So, from CiB (hating the game, not the playa since 2007) hearty congrats go to:

• 18. Dorothy Wilson, Midlands Arts Centre
• 25. David Bintley, Birmingham Royal Ballet
• 26. Amajit Talwar, Punch
• 29. Graham Vick, Birmingham Opera Company
• 30. Soweto Kinch, Musician
• 35. Mark Ball, Royal Shakespeare Company and Fierce!
• 39. Sarah Gee, Indigo
• 43. Sandra Hall, Friction Arts
• 49. Stuart Griffiths, Birmingham Hippodrome

While I’m at it, the Birmingham meeja luminaries who would like to thank their friends, family, deity of choice, etc and so on are:

• 7. Sir Michael Lyons, BBC Trust
• 14. Jon Bounds, Blogger
• 15. Suzie Norton, Screen West Midlands
• 20. Steve Dyson, Birmingham Mail
• 28. Ian Squires, ITV
• 31. Jonnie Turpie, Maverick TV
• 41. Gurjeet Kaur Bains, The Sikh Times

The big list of movers and shakers is on the Birmingham Post website which, like I say, they’ve made an effort to do all nice so you can comment on how brilliant and deserving everyone is.

But feel free to vent your spleen in the comments here if you feel the need.

© chrisunitt for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 12 comments |

Arts & Business Awards

“Nominations are now open for the 30th Arts & Business Awards, designed to celebrate excellence in the field of arts and business partnerships and sponsorships”
Deadline for nominations is 30 May. Further information might be on their website but, frankly, if they want to deliberately hide it away I’m not going to look for it.

Open 08 West Midands

“Open is a biennial collaboration between Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and Wolverhampton Art Gallery, celebrating the vibrant talent of the art scene in the West Midlands and allowing regional artists the chance to show their work at these prestigious venues.”
The deadline is 28 May 2008. Follow the link for application packs and further details.

Short Cuts Film submissions for ArtsFest

D’log reports that the Short Cuts Film programmers are seeking submissions but warns that the deadline for seeing and agreeing films is tight. I’ve not found any further useful information on this but D’log has the contact details so I’d start there if you’re interested. (Via D’log).

BSCI grant funding suspended

The budgets for Birmingham City Council’s feasibility and creative space grants is now fully committed. If this affects you, or you’d not heard of these grants and are interested then bookmark this page and check back in June. Appreciative nod to Simon Gray.

Changes to Grants for the Arts

From 20 May 2008 several changes to the programme run by Arts Council England will come into effect. Further info on the Arts Council England website. (Via Audiences Central News).

© chrisunitt for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | Add a comment |

If you’re under 30 and doing creative stuff go enter for the 4Talent awards. You’ve got until August so no big rush. Birmingham connection? They’re run by the 4Talent team at Maverick.

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | Add a comment |

The Muslim Writer of the Year 2008 awards ceremony took place on Saturday at the ICC, presented by none other than Jermaine Jackson. West Midlands winners were former Guantanamo detainee Moazzem Beg (Published Writer) and Kashif Choudry (Short Story)

Annoyingly the press release I was sent isn’t on the awards site or the council’s page so I’ve popped it online here.

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 3 comments |

John Akomfrah, whose 1986 directorial debut was Handsworth Songs about the fallout from the riots in Birmingham, collected his OBE last week for services to film. From the press release sent in by Pogus Caesar (who owns the photo above):

A founding member of the Black Audio Film Collective (1982-98), the legendary Black British film group, Akomfrah work has proved immensely influential on the evolution of black filmmaking in Britain and the USA, opening the way for many young black and Asian film makers to enter the film and television industries.

In 1987, Akomfrah won the coveted Grierson Award with his first film, the independently produced Handsworth Songs. Hailed as one of the most influential documentaries ever made and it garnered a range of International Awards. Handsworth Songs was also one of the first documentaries to be successfully released in British cinemas.

John is also a multi-award winning director with over twenty international film awards for his wide range of feature films, factual, programmes, documentaries and shorts covering a variety of musical icons such as Louis Armstrong, Goldie, Stan Tracey, Lauryn Hill. His films have also looked at inspirational black figures such as Martin Luther King , Kwame Nkrumah and Malcolm X.

John Akomfrah recently finished serving a six year term on the Governing Board of the British Film Institute; he is currently on the of Boards of both Film London and the London International Film School. He is also a Visiting Professor of Film at the University Of Westminster.

John saw a full retrospective of his work with the Black Audio Film Collective open at Foundation for Creative Technologies in Liverpool in February 2007. Designed by acclaimed architect and designer David Adjaye – architect of the new Nobel Prize Centre in Oslo – the Retrospective encompassed all the feature films and documentaries made by the collective screened in a specially designed gallery setting. The show received rave reviews in The Guardian and Frieze Magazine.

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 2 comments |

Some interesting fashion related stuff is establishing itself in Millennium Point right now with Matthew Boulton College’s Feed Studio hosting the finals of the PIN competition. From the press release:

Matthew Boulton College celebrated the launch of their two brand new specialist design studios, ‘FEED Studio’ and ‘Fashion Lab’ situated at Millennium Point with a showcase of talent, and the opportunity for two new young designers to win £20k between them. The launch took place within the Millennium Point Hub on Thursday 21st February.

‘PIN’ is a groundbreaking collaboration between Matthew Boulton College and Midland Fashion Showcase. The aim is to profile the fashion talent of the West Midlands via a fashion competition. The final of the ‘PIN’ competition culminated on the night with 12 finalists going head-to-head on the runway, presenting their Spring/Summer 2008 collections. A panel of six judges from within the fashion industry chose the two winners from the two categories, Jenny Hardcastle from Solihull, Birmingham won the New Designer award and Shamrez Marawat from Moseley, Birmingham won the Young Business award. Each winner received £10k to develop their business.

Jenny Hardcastle believes she is more than a designer and a dressmaker…she is a sculptor of fabric. Jenny presented her collection Timeless at the event. Her feminine silhouettes evoke thoughts of Grecian romance and 1930’s elegance, which combine to create shapes that will last forever and become what can only be described as….Timeless. Jenny was overwhelmed stating ‘This means everything to me – it’s the start of a new life and a new career’. For more information about the collection visit www.timelessbyjenny.co.uk

Shamrez Marawat presented Balian, a menswear brand that utilises avant-garde sportswear tailoring techniques with subtle military influences. His collection was inspired by the philosophy of the ‘tension of opposites’ which in this case is war vs. nature and is displayed by using military cuts and muted colours. Shamrez was thrilled to have won, ‘I feel this whole ‘PIN’ journey has been incredible and a real catalyst to drive my business. I’m honoured to be a part of the creativity in the Midlands.’

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | Add a comment |

Above is one of the photos from John Davies show, The British Landscape, which has been shortlisted for the prestigious Deutsche Borse Photography Prize. The Birmingham shots were commissioned by Birmingham Central Library in 2000.

The Birmingham photographs form part of Davies’ larger project, Metropoli, which documented the changing face of the post-industrial city scape in the UK. They also feature in his book and exhibition The British Landscape, which was first shown at the National Media Museum, Bradford. This exhibition is currently on show in Paris. This latter work, a series of panoramic black and white photographs, taken between 1979-2005, document the changing post-industrial British landscape.

The Library collaborated with Davies in 2000 by commissioning a series of photographs of Birmingham. Some of these images were subsequently shown in the exhibition Something Old, Something New at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in 2001 and subsequently featured in the book, World City: Birmingham and its People Portrayed. The Library hold a set of 17 prints from this series.

The exhibition runs at The Photographer’s Gallery in London until April 6th. Details in this PDF.

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | Add a comment |

Missed it at the time, but Envy and Other Sins won that Mobile Act Unsigned compo in December getting them a contract with A&M. Cat Bray at 4Talent did a nice big interview with them. Well done, chaps!

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | Add a comment |

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | Add a comment |

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2007. | Add a comment |

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2007. | 4 comments |

The panel received over 100 entries for the awards and in most cases 3 entries were shortlisted, as in the Digital Design category that Birminghamusic.com was in. It was quite fascinating seeing some of the amazing designs and projects that were emerging from local businesses and in one case the award was given to two winners, as the panel simply could not name one to be better than another.

The Digital Design category was one of the last to be announced and left us nervously sitting on the edge of our seats awaiting the panel’s decision, when they announced that the winning project received some flattering comments from the panel, including -
“Locally empowering. A fantastic model.”
“Looking inwards and outwards, it promotes the city and is encouraging entrepreneurship”
“A good example of collaboration”

Then it was announced, the winners are….Birminghamusic.com.

The others shortlised in the category were Aston Computer in the Home: Aston Pride IT and Real Time Information: WMPTA/Centro.

So what’s the BDI?

The BDI (Birmingham Design Initiative) is made up of 22 professionals from the business, education and design related sectors. Their goal is to raise awareness of the importance and value of outstanding environmental / product design in the West Midlands. This is the 10th time the BDI Awards have been held since 1989, and commemorative plaques dating back more than a decade still take pride of place in design practices across the region.

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Here’s the Birmingham contingent:

• Polarbear (poet)
• Chris Keenan (photographer)
• Nathan Hughes Berry (commedian)

This compromises the bulk of Ten4 issue 8 which you can pick up from the usual places or order online.

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© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2007. | 3 comments |

I didn’t realise this but the competition took place in the coach station itself which seems an inspired idea. As Chloe says “it was probably the most unusual place I have played in. There were coaches coming in and out all the time and people were dancing as they queued to get on. The atmosphere was amazing.” Hmm. There’s a potential here…

Since I’m old enough to be her dad I wouldn’t want to inflict my judgment upon the music but going on the MySpace it seems pretty good.

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2007. | One comment |

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