Created in Birmingham

Obsessionistas presents an exhibition of personal collections from across the staff and student community at the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design.

On show are a broad range of items representing twenty five different collectors and their collections, including Japanese guitars, vintage hairdryers, Spirograph sets, English delftware, Mickey Mouse ties and deely boppers

The exhibition’s on now and runs until 16 December. The photo above is of Jo Pond’s collection of brushes.

There’s something really quite nice about this. Obsessionistas is run by Graham and Helen Powell and started back in April. Their aim is to celebrate collectors and their collections, with around 80 highlighted so far – many of them from around the West Mids area.

• Birmingham Hippodrome – Boys Required For Roles In Oliver!
  “The producers are looking for boys who are aged 7 – 12, under 5 foot tall and have unbroken voices.     All children must live within a 45 mile radius of Birmingham to audition for these roles”
• BIAD : Events Calendar – September 2011
  Info about the BIAD Postgraduate Shows
• Music network night – connect the speedy way
  This has been going a few months from what I can make out. Next one’s on 15 Sept.

Amanda’s blog, Snowflake Blueprints, is a world of plushies (she takes commissions), poetry and hirsute lovers. She’s studying illustration at BIAD.

This is Sunny:

We Grow Cherries is:

a talent pool of graduates from the BA (Hons) Visual Communication course at BIAD, BCU. Our Visual Communication graduates span Graphic Communication, Illustration, Photography and Moving Image

Over at CMYKern James has been picking out his highlights.

The Typographic Hub is:

part of the Birmingham Institute of Art & Design at Birmingham City University; the Hub works to promote the history, theory and practice of typographic design

They organise an annual typographic symposium (16 March this year) and will be publishing a fair amount of typographically-related articles.

The website (built by Supercool) has had a fair amount of good attention from the likes of Hoefler+Frere-Jones (I’ve no idea who they are but 100,000+ followers on Twitter show’s they’re doing something right) and Gary Hustwit (who did the Helvetica and Objectified documentaries) among others.

Still don’t have an outfit lined up for New Year? Don’t panic yet! A team of MA Fashion Media students at BIAD have been busy in the run up to Christmas and New Year, coming up with an all you need to know guide to party outfits for the festive season.

Collaborating with local models and photographers, stylists Elca Jeffers, Caroline Ropper and Laura Beany have put together a shoot featuring their key looks.

Here’s a few of their suggestions:

Sequins and Metallics are a firm favourite during Christmas and New Year…

For a hint of shine and sparkle this festive season pull out that little sequin skirt, jacket or the full on metallic dress, pair with thick black tights and chunky heels and a fur jacket, coat or shrug. If that’s too much for you accessorise a plain dress with some shiny jewellery even mix and match gold and silver for that metallic effect.

Faux Fur

Faux fur collars, shrugs jackets and coats are a stylish way to keep warm and feel luxurious; they can dress up a casual smart outfit or give you the full glamorous look on top of your perfect evening outfit.

Tailored for the Lady

Funk up your old work jacket by rolling up the sleeves and placing a broach on your collar, then throw it over your favourite party dress, and there you have the most classic look of the season and future seasons to come.

The Little Black Dress “LBD”

Make a statement with your LBD and add oversized jewellery or go for that sophisticated look with dainty diamante pieces or even try the gothic look and team with black jewels, lace tights and bright red lips.

Curvy Corsets

Corsets can be reworked each season and look great with a nice pair of jeans for that casual smart look or with a pencil or puffball skirt which can create a unique party dress effect.

Hunting for haberdashery is also on their radar, listing tassels, diamantes, thinestones, lace, studs, ribbons and sequins as things to look out for.

They also suggest raiding your mum and grandma’s wardrobe to dig out vintage accessories, building your own look from the 1920′s to 1980′s, “these days even the 90’s are classed as old school”.

Photographs shot by Miles Thomas and Ryan Wicks, featuring models Jas Kaur and Tatyana Advani.

Aedas have teamed up with BIAD and Triumph Motorcycles for their latest exhibition, ‘Accessories’, which will launch with a preview show on 16 December at Aedas, Colmore Plaza.

The exhibition will feature pieces designed by MA Product Design Students at BIAD, who’ve produced a collection of 18 alternative lifestyle accessories inspired by components from the Triumph Bonneville T100.

‘Accessories’ will be on display until 20 December, and includes designs for cookware, furniture, audio equipment, household appliances and even pet toys. Triumph will also be awarding one student with a work place opportunity at the company

For more information on the exhibition, contact aedaspresents@aedas.com or take a look at this post on Beverley Nielsen’s Design and Innovation WM blog.

There’s a couple of Christmas parties coming up at the Hare & Hounds…

First is BIAD’s Christmas p-Arty on 9 December, which is £5 in with live music from Black Heart Generator and the Juneau Brothers, plus sets from dj Cassie- Philomena and a portion of poetry from Jodi Ann Bickley and the Mongrel S.Mutt.

They have only one request…

Dress code is no biggy but please leave your pikey mates at home. I’m sure no-one wants to be Santa skanking it out next to a Lacoste cladded pisstramp.

Too true.

On 11 December, Chicks Dig Jerks are hosting their Xmas bash with a few local bands including The Velvet Texas Cannonball, Ignoramuss & Tim Lowe, Filthy Habits and Stinky Wizzleteat. Tickets are £5/£3 before 11pm and all night if you make the effort with your Christmas themed attire.

Art of Ideas kicks off towards the end of this week, the four day event will celebrate the cultural life of Birmingham, with a series of talks, exhibitions and related events held at various galleries and institutions around Birmingham.

We’ve already mentioned a few of the associated events such as The Witching Hour and In Conversation with Brian Griffin and Stuart Whipps, so here are some of the other highlights…

12 November: Grand Union Event,
7.30pm – late

Launching the new Grand Union Editions, patrons scheme, plus an artists talk will be given by Jamie Shovlin on his current exhibition, Hiker Meat, along with Mike Harte and Euan Rodger.

Places must be booked, so e-mail Grand Union to reserve your spot.

12 November: What is an art collector?
6.30 – 8.30pm at Ikon

13 November: The Future of Public Collections, Collecting and Spending £1m.
6.30 – 8.30pm at Ikon

13 November: In conversation with… Paul Hedge (Director of Hales Gallery, London)
3 – 5pm, New Art Gallery Walsall (free event, no booking required).

14 November: Brokerage, Endorsement and Representation.
3 – 5pm at the Lecture Theatre, BIAD, Margaret Street

Unless stated otherwise, e-mail or call 0121 248 1200 to book your place for these events.

Artists Clinics

Art of Ideas have also teamed up with Business Link West Midlands to deliver a series of development workshops aimed at new and emerging artists. They will look at how artists can increase their income through alternative routes to market.

mac: 12 November, 11am – 1pm
Wolverhampton Art Gallery: 18 November, 10am – noon
mac: 19 November, 11am – 1pm

Places for this must be booked, e-mail or call 0845 113 1234. Places are limited.

To tie in with the Face to Face exhibition we told you about the other week, Collecting Contemporary Photography… In conversation with Brian Griffin and Stuart Whipps, is taking place on Tuesday 9 November at 6-8pm.

Pete James, Head of Photographs at Birmingham Central Library, will be discussing the ways in which Griffin and Whipps create, make, exhibit and sell their work to institutions and private individuals. The library holds one of the ‘national collections of photography’, and has recently acquired work by both Griffin and Whipps to add to this growing collection.

The event will be taking place in the lecture theatre at BIAD, Birmingham City University, Margaret Street. To book your place e-mail katja.ogrin@artsandbusiness.org.uk or call 0121 248 1200.

If you’ve already been, or are planning a visit, to the current Face to Face exhibition at Snow Hill, you can also leave your own review on the Facebook page. If the existing ones are anything to go by, this exhibition is well worth a visit.

I’ll admit I’ve slightly lost track of what’s going on where and when.

More Canals Than Venice has the list of BIAD shows.

We’ve mentioned Birmingham Metropolitan College’s show for the Diploma in Professional Photo Imaging. There’s a show called We Are The New DNA at the FEED and fashion labs at Millennium Point too, but I can’t find any info online (see photo of poster below instead).

What have I missed?

Also, if you’re doing a few of these shows you might want to check out clichespotting.com.

Nidhi Gupta left BIAD last year with an MA in Surface Design. Her ‘Undiscovered Waste’ collection is on show in the window of the Created in Birmingham shop until 3 May:

Undiscovered waste is a unique idea based on reusing waste. An Innovative collection where waste meets Indian traditional craft, fused together in such a unique manner which brings out an experience like never before to all its art and craft lovers. To have this experience, step into created in Birmingham anytime till the 3rd of may and have a look at this exclusive collection”

Some interesting comments from BIAD‘s Prof Chris O’Neil in the Post regarding how Birmingham’s creative industries could be best supported, including:

it isn’t just about investing in the creative industries, it’s about creating a home where the creative industries want to be. I think it’s about the environment and the infrastructure, creative industry and entrepreneurship – you can’t contain it, you can only create a place where it can flourish

One for the font-worriers this (and I know there are a few who read this blog). UKType are organising Typographic Horizons at BIAD on 18 November 2009.

The programme includes a fair amount of local talent (I’m no expert in this area but I recognise the names of David Osbaldestin, Smile, Ben Waddington and the Baskerville Project) with some international flavour added by Henrik Birkvig from the Danish School of Media & Journalism and John D Berry from Microsoft Typography in Seattle.

It’s £25 for most folks, £15 concessions. Here’s the full programme and you can register here.

Speaking of Smile, they went to visit Airside recently and written it all up on their blog. Well worth a read. This quote from Jamie Wieck stood out:

“We’re now a design company competing with advertising companies that have design and digital design subsidiaries. They know how to talk… some call it strategy, others might call it hot air, but either way we have to learn a bit of that now in order to compete.”

I’ve been seeing flyers for Clickity Clackity Anarchy all over the place, so someone’s doing a good job of promoting it:

It’s on at BIAD on Margaret Street from 12 to 22 October. More info on More Canals and the Clickety… Facebook Page.