Designer Maker West Midlands is running a couple of Seminar Discussion Days at the Arts Council offices on Granville St.
The events are aimed at supporting mid-career makers wishing to engage in discussion on ideas for new work and developing new markets. The intention is to provide an opportunity for debate, the exchange of ideas and the practical working up of plans for new work and new markets.
21st Jan sees “In Conversation with Leading Practitioners” with “In Conversation with Curators and Gallery Professionals” following on 11th Feb. No mention of cost so I’m guessing they’re free though booking is essential as numbers are limited. Full details including speakers. via D’log
TAK! Papercrafts for the festive season for you to download and make!
Newtasty – an illustration / design company to investigate in the new year…
Boxer are a creative design agency based at Fort Dunlop whose web presence is a great example of the sort of thing I’ve been banging on about recently. Their corporate face is all slick and professional while their nascent blog, Soak It Up is a mad pile of bonkers that makes my head spin in the best possible way grabbing inspirational stuff from around the web, linking to useful resources and telling little stories about life in the business.
And then while writing this I come across another designer with the site / blog dichotomy going strong. Mark Murph’s Surely? site is still being constructed but his blog is gaining good traction telling you pretty much all you need to know about where he’s coming from.
To be honest most of the design agencies in Birmingham get the blog thing because they’re in the business of knowing how the internet works. But this can work for you no matter what field you’re in. I’d particuarly like to see Birmingham’s Fine Artists doing blogs like this alongside their portfolios. Let us know what’s happening there, people.
Boxer tip from Jon
Still on the subject of the Plus+ Festival, 383 Project have posted up some photos of their rather impressive stand.
“See how we’ve grown” indeed!
Couple of things from Sam and George at Stereographic.
They’ve released a series of limited edition prints for sale from their site.
And in looking at that I belatedly noticed their video of their fantastic stand at the Plus+ festival is up.
The Graphic Auteur – Expressive Graphic Design is a show at the BIAD Department of Art on Margaret St curated by David Osbaldestin and Paul Slocombe.
The Graphic Auteur presents a diverse range of creative approaches and graphic responses, to contemporary graphic design and politics. Through a series of personal issue-based communications and expressive graphic design. second year students from the BA (Hons) Visual Communication course, become both author and designer, taking responsibility for the ethical direction of their messages, leading to the emergence of a personal style and graphic signature.
The private view is tomorrow evening (Tuesday) at 5.30 and it then runs until the 16th.
Illustration above by Laura Davies taken from this gallery.
My partner in bloggery-crime Stef Lewandowski explains what he’s up to at great length. In short, 3form is now just him and it’s all about the ideas.
Post journalist Joanna Geary is interviewing Trevor Beattie soon and is soliciting questions from the public on her blog. Beattie was responsible for inflicting FCUK on us but let’s not hold that against him. Too much. Questions about branding Birmingham will no doubt occur.
The Flair Designer Maker Fair takes place at Light House in Wolverhampton on Saturday November 17th from 10am – 3pm.
Festive Flair returns for another Christmas season offering some of the region’s best contemporary and unique craft and designer wares. Soak up some festive cheer and stroll around over 40 stalls in the courtyard of the historic Chubb Buildings with a glass of warm mulled wine and buy hand-made craft pieces from high quality makers. Flair, Light House’s regular Designer Maker Fair aims to showcase the creative talent within the region so come and enjoy this original shopping experience, meet the designer makers themselves and find something delightful for everyone on your Christmas list. Admission free. All welcome.
The Birmingham Post’s interview with designer Michael Wolff (who did a very interesting Q&A at the Plus festival) appeared online on Monday. The hook is his opinions on Birmingham’s branding which he describes as “like a bus stop without the details of the bus service”. The article goes on to get responses from Debra Davis at the council and Dave Hodgson from Marketing Birmingham.
Stef Lewandowski was the roving photographer at Plus and has started posting his very many photos online. Here’s his set with 171 shots so far and he’s asking people to add their own photos to the Plus Flickr pool, something I would endorse as a good idea. Check out the slideshow.
Top: Pacman Plus. Bottom: the Stereographic stand.
The Fine Art of Saying “Hello” was a presentation given by TAK! to young illustrators on how they might promote themselves. In a smart piece of meta-promotion Dom’s put the PDF of the talk online so everyone else can benefit from it.
This act is an example of something I’m very much in favour of – that by sharing your skills and knowledge you not only benefit the community of which you’re a part but you show yourself to be an important player in that community. Added to this, the sharing forces everyone to up their game as common sense becomes common knowledge, pushing that community above other more closed off ones. Small companies and individuals get this. If only it would peculate to the bigger orgs then maybe Birmingham could become the powerhouse it deserves to be.
Anyway, the talk was part of a Creative Alliance program of sessions and produced 7×7, a series of seven inch circular flyers where artists illustrated song lyrics. A bunch of these were on the flyer table at Plus and I picked up three by Joe Rogers, Karoline Rerrie and Ruth Radcliffe.
Considering the quality of work on display at Plus the fact that these just jumped out and said “take me now” is credit indeed.
The Plus International Design Festival starts today in Digbeth. Lots of exciting things are happening from talks to tours, more than I could attempt to summarise here so have a look through the site.
Of particular interested to this blog, though, is the Exposition where many of the agencies from Birmingham and the region will be on show giving a good snapshot of where we’re at. And while the Conference is aimed at industry-types with ticket prices to match the exposition is only a fiver to get in. (Free if you registered already.)
Also worth checking out are the Public Lectures which are also a fiver each including Michael Wolff on Friday. Three of them are “lunchtime audiences” running from 1-2pm, perfect for those working in the Custard Factory area but unable to do the whole festival.
And then, on Friday, there’s the Big Plus Party featuring, amongst other things, the launch of Blink magazine. Here’s the invite though you need to RSVP to get on the list.
See you there!
John Bounds goes for a walk and a long chat with Ben Waddington who’s running the Type Tours this week around Birmingham.
“The type-tours aren’t just about signs that are ‘printed’, the Digbeth one in particular will be as interested in hand painted notes and other letter-forms. You can talk about theory, but often you can only guess at the intended purpose of so much of it – in a way the tours will be a conversation. If people want to disagree with me, that’s okay.â€
Type Tour of Digbeth – 17, 18, 19 October, 12.30 – 14.30pm
Baskerville’s Birmingham – 20 October 12.30 – 14.30pm
City Centre Type Tour – 21 October, 12.30 – 14.30pm
All priced at £10
I can’t find where they start from but will keep you posted.
Later: Ben writes on the BiNS blog:
The Digbeth tours start at different times during the day Wed 17 Oct – Fri 19 Oct, from the Wild Building, Floodgate St. The City Centre tours are Sunday only, 10 30 and (I think) one thirty. They start from the Baskerville monument outside Bask House. The Digbeth tour is “rougherâ€. hand painted signs, self made metal signs, all sorts really. City Centre is a bit more polished; terracotta, engravings, stone &c., then dips into JQ industrial zone. Also a Baskerville tour on Sat 12 30 from outside Museum, Chamberlain Sq. Each is £10, via www.youplusus.net, booking advised / essential. Already booked up? Leave your name and I’ll do some more tours to satisfy any demand.
