A little about G87″:

Born in Birmingham, UK. I have been interested in art and design from a young age. always picking up a pen and doodling on anything in my path. Inspired by anything that catches my eye. The name comes from a shortened nickname “Ginge” and the 87 is the year i was born. I create G Type’s that i paint/stick/slap/draw anywhere i go. Always carrying cans and pens in my van finding new spots to get up. Now the G has become my thing. Apart from hitting the streets with my work, recently I have been creating 3D prints which are available at my shop.

He set up a Tumblr pretty recently but also has plenty of stuff on Flickr to take a look at too.

The show is a series of 12 paintings inspired by Ghostpoet’s debut album Peanut Butter Jam & Melancholy Blues.

Some of Lee Crutchley‘s work is now up at Brewsmiths. I’m not sure how long for though.

An exhibition of illustration inspired by fairy tales with artists and illustrators all with connections to the midlands. Featuring new work from James Bourne, Lee Crutchley, Herman Inclusus, Lizz Lunney, Mark Long, Mr Millerchip, Luke Pearson, Sarah Ray, Paul Roberts and Steven Silverwood.

On Monday I went to the launch of the latest Pointe Blank project which featured illustrators creating posters in response to Birmingham Royal Ballet‘s latest production, Hobson’s Choice. You can tell I was there because I took a horribly grainy pic with my phone. That’s journalism, that is.

It’s the second time they’ve done this (last time it was Coppelia) and the folks behind it are Claire Hartley (who works at Substrakt and is largely responsible for the look of CiB) and Rob Lindsay who works at BRB.

It’s really impressive how they’ve managed to pull together work from some of the best illustrators in Birmingham – the collection’s worth seeing and is available in all it’s glory online at pointeblank.co.uk. Please go check it out.

I’m always surprised that there’s so little in Birmingham that brings illustrators and graphic designers together. There’s some great talent around. Something should be done about it, I reckon.

Papergirl Birmingham has teamed up with billboard art project 48Sheet.

an ongoing series of posters designed by graduates for the purpose of passing on advice and inspiration to first year students

but I’m not sure I’d twigged that there are a few contributors from around Birmingham, including Ben Javens, Jonny Costello (whose poster is below), Lee Basford and Luke Tonge.

Simon Peplow and Yee Ting Kuit both studied in Birmingham too. Let me know if I’ve missed anyone.

(Spotted by Helga Henry)

Fast Food Dreams is an exhibition by Kristian Jones. You can see it at 6/8 Kafe today.

His work has also recently been featured all over Common, my favourite Mancunian bar.

UPDATE: Fused Magazine points out that the exhibition is on for the next six weeks.