In April Cheltenham housed its very first Design Festival. Spread over three days the programme showcased influential figures from the design industry. Set with a Friday day ticket I prepared myself in a sponge like manner, to be inspired. Talks covered all design disciplines, with speakers from an impressive line up of creative backgrounds.

I'd signed up for four talks throughout the day (with a convenient 1 hour lunch break for afternoon tea!). Simon Kavanagh gave us an insight into The KAOSPilots, a school positioned half way between a business and a design school. Their values are based on risk-taking and they pride their programme on being in the real world with an aim to bring out "positive social change through personal growth". Students present their big idea and lecturers support them (no matter how crazy they are). Extraordinary achievements included the Baisikeli idea where a student shipped Danish scrapped bicycles to Tanzania where they're repaired/rebuilt and sold, with all profit forming the foundation for the creation of a sustainable bicycle industry in Africa. He asked us what our big idea was, I couldn't quite answer. But the prospect of one idea transforming somebody's life was quite powerful and it reminded me that as a designer, we all have the potential to shape lives.

(image credit - Peter Stanners)

Not as design led as I'd expected, it became clear the event was about all aspects of creativity. It delved into processes, responsibilities, and innovation, it made us question our roles and what we can do with them. Design is just a small part of that collaboration. I also learnt, that it was okay not to understand what's going on all of the time! Nick Jankel, a life and leadership coach discussed chaos and where progress is concerned - it pays off to go deeper into the rabbit hole, for better results.

Each speaker had a different story, a different perspective but the one thing that remained consistent was the vision. Creative thinking affects our daily lives and also ensures the development of our future. From Simon Waterfall discussing the Sat Nav sucker marks on windscreens (that dramatically increased car crime in a matter of weeks), to Steve Haggarty explaining the cultural shifts in Chinese markets with youth culture and brands. 

I think it was safe to say I left feeling exhausted, but truly inspired. It's quite exciting to think that with perseverance, the right tools and platform - what one individual, or collaboration are capable of...

Last year a convo over a cuppa led to the exciting collaboration between myself and Birmingham Royal Ballet. Pointe Blank was born in May last year with a collection of works based on BRB's production of Coppelia, inviting 27 artists and designers to produce a piece of artwork to be exhibited.

With the success of the project I was pretty chuffed when Rob (my partner in crime at BRB) approached me back in December, inviting me to work on another Pointe Blank project with thorough support from all the company. It gave us an opportunity to really think about what the collaboration was about and what we were trying to do. The majority of the contributors had never been to the ballet before (me included) so we were really keen to tap into a new audience, the brief encouraging the designers to see the productions as a story, rather than a ballet. We felt that opportunities to collaborate were few and far between in Birmingham and with the use of a certain 140 character social media network we didn't have to search too far for talent!

This years production is Hobson's Choice. We were keen to keep the brief as unprescriptive as possible, allowing participants to be as creative as wanted to be. We filled the 27 spaces within a few hours with designers from Birmingham, London and Berlin!

We launched the collection on Monday 20th February at Birmingham Royal Ballet studios and it'll be exhibiting at 6/8 Kafe on Temple Row from 5th March. There's talks of a collaborative event with FAKE too, watch this space...

Art Map Wolverhampton is an integral part of Project Dandelion, a public art project that enables new art commissions and projects to take place across secondary schools in Wolverhampton. Supported by Centro, Substrakt were brought on board to work alongside the students to produce a printed map and website showcasing art and culture across the city for visitors and residents.

We began the project by visiting the King’s CE school for workshops with the students. Over the sessions we introduced the students to various stocks, inks and finishes. We took samples to spark debate and presented existing maps to engage in discussions, using the feedback to work towards our design. Within their lessons, the students were producing artwork in response to public art within the city, which we were to incorporate into the map.

During the research the students realised they were keen to produce something that stood out from the other tourist maps; we explored different folds, introduced them to Pantone swatches and looked at various ways of illustrating Wolverhampton in a clean simple form that would translate into print and web.

We collated the students’ research and mapped out places of interest and public art onto a vector-illustrated map. Using tones of grey with fluorescent red and green we ensured a bold contrast, the grey representing the industrial city and brights celebrating the culture and vibrant art scene.

The result was 22k A2 art maps; 24pp printed black, Pantone 803 and 805 onto 130gsm uncoated stock.

The accompanying website is based on the visual style of the printed map, and expands on the initial idea and concept of Art Map Wolverhampton. Using the online version people have more information available to them, such as bus routes, transport type accessibility, links to further information on other websites and easily accessed directions through Google Map.

It's built on Wordpress to manage the content, Google Maps API 3 to generate, style and control the map & locations, and is responsive to the browser size & device being used. This means users on larger screens will see a scaled site, with larger images, larger maps and more info on screen, where as small screens still get to view the site at a scale more appropriate to their display. It also works with mobile, meaning people can take an optimised version of Art Map Wolverhampton with them to the art locations instead of, or as a companion to the printed map. www.artmapwolverhampton.co.uk

We first worked with Rare games earlier in the year designing vinyls for their new Birmingham office, so when we were approached in September to help out with their press day we were keen to get involved.

October was to see the worldwide release of Kinect Sports: Season Two and Rare were set to hold a press day on 8th September, inviting UK, European and American journalists to preview the game. Rare HQ, Twycross, was to be transformed, each new sport having its own area - stylised with artwork, character cuts outs, lights, bars and even an igloo!

Substrakt worked with Rare producing assets, large-scale prints and vinyls for each individually themed room spread across the site - in the building, marquee and igloo. Some of the deliverables included twelve 5ft character cut outs, large logo wall vinyls, material banners, designed flags and magnetic signs for the golf buggy.

During the installation, Andy and I also got a cheeky play on the darts and baseball, top stuff!

Thanks to Rare for the photos!

Pointe Blank is a collection of original images inspired by the story of Coppélia. In a first-of-its-kind collaborative project for Birmingham Royal Ballet, 27 artists and designers have been invited to produce individual pieces of artwork based upon the tale of toymaker Doctor Coppélius, and his attempts to breathe life into his most prized creation.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been working on a rather exciting personal project with Rob Lindsay from Birmingham Royal Ballet. Rob got in contact at the end of April to discuss a collaborative design project he’d been thinking about, so over a good cup of tea we sparked off some ideas. Often people decide a show isn't for them as soon as they read the third word of 'Birmingham Royal Ballet presents...' But sometimes people will take a chance if they already know the plot of the piece. They're not actually coming for the dancing, they're coming for the story. Rob wanted to reach the ballet out to a wider audience, collaborating with other creatives to design something around their recent production, Coppélia. Birmingham Royal Ballet were 100% supportive.

"The appeal of Coppélia for such a project was that it’s got a lively and colourful story, but one that’s not already been told in hundreds of different ways, like Cinderella or The Sleeping Beauty. Even as a ballet, it’s not quite crossed over into the public consciousness in the same way that The Nutcracker or Swan Lake has. So it meant – or at least I’d hope that it meant – that the artists could interpret the story with very few visual preconceptions." - Rob Lindsay, Birmingham Royal Ballet

After a few meetings we’d cracked a concept and entitled our project Pointe Blank. I put together a list of artists and designers I admired or had previously worked with and we wrote the brief. We explored options for a physical exhibition too, an opportunity to bring the creatives together, as opposed to an online presence only. The brief given to the contributors did not require them to present Coppélia as a ballet, only that ideally, they include some reference to Birmingham Royal Ballet. Production images were available, but not initially provided in an attempt to keep the brief as unprescriptive as possible.

We launched the collection at the Hippodrome on Monday 13th June to the artists and invited guests. It was a great evening with my friend Nat tickling the ivories and Lewis being our photographer. David Bintley, the director of Birmingham Royal Ballet did a speech too – it was great to hear his genuine support and excitement over our project. We also launched the collection online that evening and received over 2000 views on the Tuesday alone!

www.pointeblank.co.uk

Artwork shown above from Substrakt's Ryan and Claire :)

We’ve been busy working with Rare, the games designer that produces Kinect sports, as well as legendary titles such as Banjo-Kazooie and Perfect Dark, on the interiors of their Birmingham and Twycross offices. Rare opened a new testing and production facility in Fazeley Studios last year and soon became our neighbours. With their 10,000 sq ft office space and the 25th anniversary rebrand they were keen to implement their new look.

Using a pattern of simple graphic shapes with bright hues we mapped out a series of locations for the designs that flowed around the interesting shapes of the studio space.

During the project we were invited to Twycross to revamp their reception area. Working alongside the Assistant Art Manager at Rare we produced large scale wall graphics and implemented the new identity in the space.

Last month I was invited to be part of B-Hive, sitting on the graphic design judging panel. B-Hive sees students and graduates from Birmingham’s universities and colleges pitch themselves and their work to the City's leading creative agencies, with the goal of securing themselves a four-week work placement. With myself, Lee and Jim all joining Substrakt straight from university a 3-4 years ago, we were really keen to get involved as we know how difficult the industry is, and how tough the competition can be! A four-week paid placement is an invaluable opportunity for gaining experience in a real studio environment.

The candidates came from the fields of digital, PR, graphic design, marketing and advertising, with a placement up for grabs in each discipline. All briefs followed the same campaign, each having their own objectives. Entries had be whittled down to 12 students who presented their ideas to our panel, including designers/directors from Orb Creative, Viva Aspire, Seal, Tomorrow People and Chosen. Think Dragons Den - with less dragon-like dragons.

The overarching campaign ‘Eat Birmingham’ was to position Birmingham as gourmet capital, communicating its diverse culinary offerings whilst improving perception scores of the city with great restaurants and bars. The graphic design brief was to unify it under one umbrella identity; a name and logo mark that can easily be displayed at participating restaurants to promote their contribution to Birmingham’s culinary diversity.

The level of work was really impressive from the students, five of which were given two two-week paid placements at two of the agencies involved. We went to the presentation evening in Zellig at the Custard Factory where the winners were announced. We are pleased to have Joseph Heeley (BCU) who will be joining us in June and Nathan Matthews (Met) in July who both impressed me with their unique approach and direction on the brief.

Photos courtesy of B_Hive, Taste Birmingham artwork by Joseph Heeley

Having previously worked with Mark Rose and Andy Williams we were approached by the former Capita Lovejoy directors to give their new venture an identity. In our first workshop we developed a name for the new planning and design practice; assessing their skills, background, target audience and brainstorming their key values as a company.

Design, development, delivery, derive, detail, depth were a few of the key words we came across – all beginning with De. We found the prefix De is often used to indicate removal or separation that we felt was quite appropriate to this new company - branching off from Capita. We explored various visual directions and felt that hyphenating the De could be a strong asset to the visual identity, following with some of the above key words across various media. During development we were drawn towards the name Define: “To determine with precision; to mark out with distinctness to ascertain or exhibit clearly”. We explored the colon mark as it often follows the word Define preceding a definition, set as two equal circles it lent itself to an interesting abstract element that could be implemented across the identity in a bold yet simple visual way.

As a new company we believe it’s important to invest time in all the small details, in this case - embossing, foiling, fluro ink and a subtle animated background on the site. We are currently working on the full website and introductory brochure.

On Monday I took part in Covers Wars at The Queen of Hoxton, London as part of Yarnfest. The challenge was to illustrate our interpretations of the book Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi. Having not previously read the book I spent the prior three days speed reading all 284 pages (go me!) and came up with a few ideas where I would have 20 minutes to illustrate at A2 scale on the night!

"YARN is a brand new festival celebrating story and storytelling – showcasing film, theatre, music and literature and providing a platform for mixing them all up! It’s all about fun and exploration, devoted to letting the imagination run wild."

Representing AMMO Magazine I took the stage against three talented illustrators: Jamie Littler from Soupa, Robyn Boyden from Paperfox Press and Hidden Dingbat Collective. For the first ten minutes, the author Hanif Kureishi read out excerpts from the book whilst the audience watched and listened. It was the fastest 20 minutes of my life... Thanks to Jim and my friends for support :) On the judging panel was the author, Jon Gray and Miriam Rosenbloom from Faber & Faber. It was a great night and lovely to meet such talented people, congratulations to Hidden Dingbat who won with their fascinating paper cutting techniques!

Creative Careers Festival organised by Bright Space was a two-day event for 13 – 18 year olds. The creative and cultural sectors offer a multitude of opportunities for interesting careers, although there seems to be a lack of information and guidance out there, therefore these pathways become unclear. The aim of this was to highlight careers in the creative industries offering workshops, demonstrations, seminars and networking opportunities.

We were approached to work with Bright Space to create an identity that would engage with young people and we produced a brand, website, flyers, banners and a 54 page event brochure. The event took place at the Mac, Birmingham last Friday and Saturday and attracted over 1000 attendees. Some involved organisations included MADE, Rare (Microsoft), 4Talent, The Rep, THSH, Fused Magazine and Substrakt.

On the Friday afternoon I was sat on the Young Creatives Panel in the Hexagon Theatre alongside Emily Jones (Town Hall Symphony Hall), Annabel Clark (Blogger / Flatpack Festival), Courtney Salmon (Music video producer) and Matt Windle (Poet). The aim was to give young people a chance to talk to those who are already working in the creative industries but close to their age group. The panel lasted an hour and we were asked questions about our experience, routes and aspirations for the future. Tips and advice, that as professionals we can often take for granted. Very informal, we shared answers and openly discussed opinions based on our individual experience and journeys. Coming from all different backgrounds it was a great insight to hear about all the amazing stuff happening in Birmingham and it reinforced how important it is for us all to work together and collaborate as young creatives.