Through a 45-year chronological look at his own artistic archive, James highlights the key moments both big and small, that guided his path, often only becoming clear in hindsight. He shares how early influences, side projects, and persistent curiosity ultimately shaped his creative identity.

“Looking Back to Move Forward” explores how creativity is cumulative, why personal work matters, and how revisiting the past can help reveal a path into the future.

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This session explores the growing intellectual property risks facing designers, agencies and creative businesses – from copyright infringement and brand misuse to the legal grey areas emerging around generative AI tools and creative workflows.

The event will open with a talk from specialist creative industry lawyer Steve Kuncewicz, followed by a panel discussion with creatives and industry voices exploring how the sector is responding to these challenges in real time.

Expect practical insight, honest discussion and a chance to unpack one of the biggest shifts currently facing the creative community.

Please note: This event is located away from the main BDF hubs, by Snow Hill Station.

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Creativity is not just about producing strong visuals, but about staying adaptable and ready to evolve alongside an industry that never stands still.

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In a creative landscape increasingly shaped by automation, frictionless workflows and digital perfection, Imperfect Worlds explores the growing cultural pull of craft, tactility and human-made storytelling.

Chris Randall, Creative Director of Second Home Studios, takes audiences inside the realities of running a contemporary multi-discipline animation studio where stop-motion, VFX, puppetry, CG and mixed-media techniques collide. From miniature sets and physical materials to motion control, compositing and experimental pipelines, the talk looks at howimperfection itself hasn’t just been a creative tool, but a necessity for world building.

Drawing on projects including the BAFTA-nominated preschool series Tweedy & Fluff, alongside commercial and experimental work developed at the Birmingham-based studio, Chris will unpack why audiences will always connect with things where the artist’s hand is visibly on show.

Expect behind-the-scenes process, production experiments, unfinished tests, creative failures, and a candid look at the messy realities behind hand crafted image-making.

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He will outline his latest project, “Dead Pianos” which will use lessons from the knife project to engage people in ideas around creative reuse and adhocism in formats as diverse as jewellery, sculpture, music and experimental performance.

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Working across furniture, objects, and interiors, they combine material knowledge with hands-on making to create purposeful, distinctive work. Their approach balances experimentation and craftsmanship, translating ideas across scales, from finely crafted pieces to spatial environments.

Through commissions, installations, and public engagement, their work reflects a commitment to thoughtful design that responds to people and context.

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In moments like this, clarity becomes precious.

This talk explores the great communicators who have helped people make sense of change: thinkers, makers and public figures across every field who use creativity to cut through complexity. Across speeches, books, diagrams, films, websites and campaigns, we’ll look at what they have in common — and what they can teach us about turning confusion into understanding, and understanding into action.

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Expect plenty of animated slides, a few attempts at adapting to an ever changing industry in motion design and a very open chat about a designer’s mental health spiral & recovery.

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‘Cold War Steve’ aka Christopher Spencer is a prolific political artist from Birmingham who has made surreal, satirical and hilarious photomontage his weapon of choice for a decade. His acerbic output has included multiple exhibitions, five books, two giant billboard installations at Glastonbury, a TIME magazine cover, a shortlist for the Design Museum’s Design of the Year Award and a feature length documentary.

Nellie Scott is the director of the Corita Art Center, which is dedicated to preserving the legacy of Corita Kent (1918–1986) – a nun-turned-artist, educator, and advocate for social justice. Also known as Sister Mary Corita, she was a pioneering pop-artist with an innovative approach to design and education. The Corita Art Center in downtown Los Angeles, California preserves and promotes Corita’s art, teaching, and passion for social justice, serving as a resource and archive on her life and work.

Led By Donkeys was founded in early 2019 when four friends, motivated by the “thermonuclear hypocrisy of our political overlords”, started going out at night to paste up guerrilla billboards of the leading Brexiters’ historic tweets. Mixing art and activism, they have created some of the most memorable images of our political age, and continue to protest. In a rare public group appearance expect insights into their process, thinking and design decisions!

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