Expect drinks, food (next door) and good times as we celebrate the launch of BDF 2024.

About the exhibition

Universal. Ambiguous. Ethereal. Tricky to articulate… Process – how creative work happens – is the focus of BDF this year, and by extension, of this exhibition. From installation art to brand design, from furniture and textile to digital interface and code, this diverse body of work (and eclectic group of practitioners) are connected only by this thread – they’re generously giving us a peek behind the curtain, to help us understand how it was done.

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Jessica Hische is an American lettering artist, illustrator, author, and type designer. She was one of the first of a new generation of letterers and the present-day flourishing of the lettering arts can in part be traced back to her emergence.

Annie Atkins is a Welsh graphic designer and prop maker for film and television. She is known for her graphic design work in The Grand Budapest Hotel and has gone on to work with director Wes Anderson on Isle of Dogs and The French Dispatch.

Louis Henry Mitchell is the Creative Director of Character Design of Sesame Workshop. He started working on Sesame Street in 1992. He designed Julia, the first Sesame Street character diagnosed with autism, both as an illustrated book character as well as translating the design to a Muppet.

Talks

Vernacular Spectacular – Annie Atkins
How I stopped designing like a designer and stepped in to the shoes of a 19th century sign-painter, in a hurry, in the rain.

Join Annie Atkins, renowned graphic artist for films such as The Grand Budapest Hotel and Indiana Jones, on this whirlwind tour through the highs and lows of designing in character.

THINK BIG!  – Louis Henry Mitchell
How I got to Sesame Street… and beyond

Crafting the Life You Want – Jessica Hische
Jessica Hische is a lettering artist and “avid internetter” who has been in a position of prominence in the design industry for nearly two decades. During that time, so much has changed. Finding your place in this world as an artist and maker has become more complex. Technologies are ever evolving. Platforms and what they ask of us are constantly shifting. The internet offered us an incredible opportunity for connection but it feels harder and harder to find your people, especially because it’s not always clear who is showing up as their authentic selves and who is “building a brand”. In this talk, Jessica will walk through ways she’s navigated all of these changes while trying to stay true to herself—from client work & kids books, to opening two brick and mortar stores. She’ll talk about promoting your work without commodifying every part of yourself, the power of embracing local community, and how to align new technologies with your values to live the creative life you want.

The post Process: Characters appeared first on Birmingham Design Festival.

Sue Murphy, currently the Senior Global Director of Brand Design at The Coca-Cola Company, overseeing some of the world’s most iconic and beloved brands. She has worked at some of the best advertising and branding agencies in the world including Wieden+Kennedy, Gretel, Wolff Olins, and Ogilvy, across different continents and markets, creating award-winning campaigns and brand expressions for clients such as Airbnb, Nike, Chobani, Amazon, and IBM.

Ren Rigby, Co-Founder & Chief Design Officer at Proto, is regarded as one of the world’s leading thinkers and designers in the field of branding. Prior to Proto, Ren served as the Global Head of Brand for R/GA where they led major innovation projects for clients including: Nike, Google, Walmart, Samsung, and a host of start-ups. They began their 20-year career at one of Britain’s most respected and awarded design agencies – The Chase – later working for Pentagram, True North, Landor, and Interbrand.

Founder and Creative Director of Christopher Doyle & Co – an independent design studio based in Sydney, Australia – Christopher Doyle is an internationally recognised designer with over 20 years experience. He has worked at some of Australia’s leading brand and design agencies. His work has won numerous local and international awards, been used globally as the basis for educational material, and appeared in feature articles for Desktop Magazine, Creative Review, and Grafik Magazine.

Talks

Leaving the door ajar – Christopher Doyle
CD&Co. Creative Director and founder Christopher Doyle will give a candid account into his personal experience of how ideas, and the process of how to have them, reshaped his thinking and reoriented his design career. He will also step through a selection of project processes and outcomes, and have an honest conversation about the messy and pointless search of the perfect process, the importance of access to design and the pressures we all face trying to make great work. 

Reinventions – Ren Rigby
Ren Rigby (formerly known as Mike Rigby) was once described by the legendary founder of R/GA, Bob Greenberg, as the most positive and talented designer on the planet.

But what happens when that positivity begins to fade? When the career that once fueled you becomes a drain? When you fall out of love with what you do?

Join Ren as they share the sometimes painful lessons from the daunting reinventions that have helped to sustain them, both in work and in life, and how looking back through the history of creativity helped to rekindle hopes for the future.

It’s a story of moving from a place of fear and burnout to self-acceptance and ultimately a life of deeper meaning. Spanning two decades, three continents, and multiple design disciplines, it is a lifetime of learnings that can help you along your journey from where you are to where you want to be and remind you to savor the moments that shape us.

How Did I Get Here? – Sue Murphy
Hear how somebody who thought they were nobody built a career wanting the job they didn’t have by zig-zagging between the two opposing worlds.

The post Process: Layers appeared first on Birmingham Design Festival.

Pawel ‘Pav’ Grochola is supervisor and Lead VFX artist for Sony Pictures Imageworks. He was recently part of the effects team for the Oscar® winning animation film: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and his credits include over 29 feature films and numerous awards.

Eva Cremers is a 3D Artist and Animation Director from The Netherlands, known for her tongue-in-cheek and playful artwork. Her distinctive graphic CGI style combines with her unique design sensibility to create charming, joyful worlds of fun. Eva boasts a growing client list including Nike, H&M, Samsung, Apple and the New York Times.

Oscar and Emmy-Nominated PES is the creator of some of the most widely viewed stop-motion films of all-time including Fresh Guacamole, Western Spaghetti, Submarine Sandwich, Game Over, Human Skateboard, KaBoom! and Roof Sex. On his YouTube Channel alone, PES’s films have been viewed over 1.4 BILLION times.

Talks

The Transformative Magic of Stop-Motion Animation: Manipulating analogue materials frame-by-frame – PES
Academy Award nominee PES shares specific details of how he creates in-camera effects in his films by manipulating common materials through the art of stop-motion animation. PES discusses the tricks he uses working with analogue materials, and how he teases new life out of them frame-by-frame. As a photographic-based animation technique, stop-motion (more so than other forms of animation) is bound by physical limitations in the real world – real objects, real lights, real world problems. The artist discusses how these limitations can lead to creative problem-solving that can delight and captivate viewers. You’ll never look at familiar objects the same way again.

Creating Computer Graphics with Artistic Intention – Pav Grochola
This presentation explores the fusion of art and technology, focusing on the techniques used in Spider-Verse films while incorporating broader art theories. Divided into three parts, the talk explores inherent properties of different mediums and processes, contrasting 3D animation vs 2D art techniques. It also highlights the importance of linework and the balance between procedural and handcrafted approaches in digital art. The second part discusses the role of information gaps in stimulating audience imagination, drawing from theories of perception in still art, animation and film. The presentation concludes with personal work examples to reinforce these concepts and illustrate the application of artistic intention in computer-generated imagery.

Designing Fun – Eva Cremers
Step into a joyful 3D world, where Eva shares her journey of accidentally becoming a successful 3D artist and director.

Exploring the intersection of imagination, technology and commercial brands, she comes armed with an honest talk filled with insights and fun!

The post Process: Movements appeared first on Birmingham Design Festival.

Our theme for 2023 is ‘Imagine’ and we’ve invited 8 of the finest designers from around the world to share a journey through their creative mind and process on stage in front of 800 people – the biggest single event we’ve ever put on.

Leading into the day of talks we’ll be hosting a day of workshops at Birmingham City University featuring some of this year’s speakers and a few familiar faces, pop-in for one or make a full two days of it with our Conference Pass, with prices from just £75!

From pictures books to master builders, Dreams to artificial intelligence we’ll be covering multiple disciplines and backgrounds across the two days in a celebration of design that takes some of the best bits of Birmingham Design Festival and distills them into a focussed two-day event.

Tickets are on sale now! We can’t wait for you to join us and stayed tuned for more announcements over the next few weeks.

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Where does Imagination take us? We’ve invited a host of exceptional speakers to share a journey through their creative mind and process. From pictures books to master builders, Dreams to artificial intelligence we’ll be covering multiple disciplines and backgrounds across 8 hours of unmissable talks you won’t have heard before.

BDF Conference takes the format of our festival evening events and mashes them together for a one day extravaganza celebrating design in all its forms.

Tickets are on sale now! We can’t wait for you to join us and stayed tuned for more announcements over the next few weeks.

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‘GENESIS’ is the brainchild of local artist and friend of BDF, Imbue. During the evening attendees have the opportunity to be active participants in the work – with the creative freedom to make their own mark on a variety of otherwise mundane objects…

Sponsored by Posca, with a DJ set and drinks from Wine Freedom this is an evening not to be missed! Whatever your artistic ability, come and help us kickstart BDF in a fun and relaxed atmosphere.

The first 100 people to enter the space will receive a Mystery Bag created specially for GENESIS by Imbue!

The post Genesis: An interactive installation by Imbue appeared first on Birmingham Design Festival.

Ashleigh Jadee – Is there Freedom in Music Videos?

Ashleigh Jadee will discuss her journey within the music industry, touching on how she has found directing music videos for both signed and independent artists. This talk will be full of real life experiences, as well as a guideline on how to manoeuvre within the music world.

Kate Dawkins – Playing With Light and Dark

Kate is a double BAFTA-winning designer and creative director who turns pixels and projection into spectacular immersive experiences.

She has worked on high profile projects for some of the biggest global brands, including the giant 360˚ ‘Audience pixels’ for the London 2012 Olympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies, MTV European Music Awards and Elton John. With a passion for analogue and digital, her work is based on visual storytelling and sits at the intersection of design and technology.

Kate will be talking about her influences, key moments, processes, and the challenges associated with this kind of work.

Graham Wood – How music sets images free

A few of the projects where I’ve felt most unfettered

Gaika – Talk details coming soon

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