The aim of the exhibition is to re-tell the stories of Bearwood through cartoons, people, landmarks and architecture. My work will combine all these elements to create bright, fun and unique illustrations that will capture Bearwood in a never before-seen way. The work has all been thoroughly researched with assistance from the local history society.

“If you have muso facebook friends and you live in Brum, you’ve probably seen Lewes Herriot‘s work. Lewes is a man of multiple talents, which he cheerfully and resolutely refuses to shout about. As well as playing in a pretty damn successful band and having an exhibition throughout August at Birmingham’s Digbeth Warehouse Cafe, Lewes has been delivering catchy and stylish posters for Brum promoters This Is TMRW for some time now.

They’re lovely. They get nicked. That’s the trouble with great poster designs. ”

Read the rest of the interview on Robin Valk’s website Radio to Go HERE.

The Stirchley Sessions are a series of four untutored drawing sessions using a clothed portrait model running on a monthly basis in the relaxed and informal environment of The British Oak pub in Stirchley.

These sessions cost £7 per person per session and will be taking place from 7.00pm – 9.30pm on the following dates:

• Thursday 5th March 2015
• Thursday 2nd April 2015
• Thursday 7th May 2015
• Thursday 4th June 2015

Please note that these life drawing sessions are for age 18 years and over only.

Book your place through Eventbrite.

Here’s their first event:

Indent invites you to join us in a drawing workshop where we will be exploring fragility and the positive effects of limitations. All materials will be provided although we encourage you to bring along one other material of your choice. The artwork produced will be made into a zine and exhibited at a later date.

They tweet: @indent__

After weeks of sifting through a dizzying collection of submissons, we’re delighted to announce the winners of Inkygoodness & Created in Birmingham’s Glug Birmingham Poster Competition – Louise Byng and Laurie Ramsell.

A fun, playful and inventive competition entry, the creative pair ticked all our boxes with their playful DIY aesthetic.

We received some fantastic entries, but Louise and Laurie’s design was unlike anything else! Their clever interpretation of the theme makes great use of the limited colour palette, whilst combining hand made and digital image-making to produce a fun and playful design that really stands out.

– Lisa Hassell, Director of Inkygoodness

Louise and Laurie took inspiration from Birmingham’s cultural and economic landscape for their winning design: “How [Birmingham] looks now; what it is becoming known for; and how that may have shifted since the original crest was conceived. With start-up companies and innovative independents now a huge driver for the city’s contemporary status, says Louise.

We approached the design as a collaborative project, recreating the City of Birmingham’s crest physically and applying its dual representation of arts and industry to the creative sector. Our reworked motif depicts creativity as a personal expression and philosophy, but also a trade and a craft – something that resonates with Birmingham’s values and rich history as a city.

The assemblage itself is low-fi and involved bringing together cardboard, staples and paint into a photographic set-up, keeping much of the construction visible in order to share this with the audience, encouraging a playful DIY approach to design rather than hiding the process away.” continues Louise.

It was a lot of fun to make, and as artists in the early stages of our careers it’s great to be recognised by glug in our home city; to share our impression of Birmingham with a wider audience.

The creative pair are now in the throes of preparing a short presentation to join our Glug speakers on stage to share the process behind creating their winning artwork. 2nd prize goes to illustrator William Wright who designed this snazzy pencil design. William receives a goodie bag of art prints and illustrated zines, plus a pair of tickets to attend Glug Brum on Thursday evening!

Our shortlist includes 23 artworks hand picked from our entries earlier this week. Selected exhibiting artists are (in no particular order): Ian Aparici, Scott Williams, Sophie Kozlowski, Adam Moore, Ngu Ngok Chin, James Baldry, Jenny Sjodin, Bethany Raistrick, Georgia Fenton, Chantal Caduff, Rhiannon Sanderson, Súa Agapé, Fiona Hall, Mouni Feddag, Katie Tomlinson, Lesley Imgart, Jimmy Rogers, Amy Kilner, Liam Anslow, Daniel O’Brien, Raj Dhunna, Nick Tyler, Adam Corns & Graham Johnson.

Attendees will get the opportunity to pick up their favourite Glug Poster design as a limited edition print courtesy of our exhibition sponsors Ripe Digital – priced at £15 each.

We’d like to thank everyone for taking part in our first Glug Birmingham competition – we received over 100 entries and selecting our shortlist was a (fun) challenge. We hope you can join us on Thursday evening.

More Notworking than Networking™

Glug Birmingham will launch on Thursday 20th November at Boxxed in Digbeth, Birmingham. Early bird tickets £7.50 / Standard tickets £10 – available via eventbrite. http://www.glug-birmingham.eventbrite.co.uk. Visit http://www.glugevents.com for full details.

The next Birmingham Urban Sketcher’s sketchcrawl will be on Saturday the 18th October to coincide with the 45th Worldwide Sketchcrawl.

Start at the Ranger’s Lodge Edgbaston reservoir – plenty of parking on site and the bus number 80 from Birmingham City Centre or the 8C from Five Ways Railway Station stop a short walk away.

Half way meet at the Reservoir cafe at 12:30 (they close at 1).

Finish at the Belle Vue cafe bar grill on Icknield Port Road (across the road from the Midland Sailing Club) at 4pm.

Everyone welcome, just bring a sketchbook and something to draw with.

See more from Birmingham Urban Sketchers on their blog / facebook / flickr group.

Everything is coming together for Thursday’s Glug Birmingham MIDLAND MASTERS launch at Fazeley Studios, curated by Created in Birmingham and Inkygoodness.

Not only are we excited for the seven inspiring speakers, live drawing, screen-printing, magazine launch, BBQ, cakes and bar, but we’re really really looking forward to the pop-up art market, featuring all kinds of great Midlands-based designer/makers.

(I’ve already got my sights set on prints for my new studio!)

Here’s a handy visual of what to expect:

• Codswallop Collective (Art prints)
• Working Clasp (Jewellery)
• Hero of Switzerland (Art prints)
• LizzLizz (Comics)
• PROVIDE (Clothing & Accessories)
• Bethany Thompson (Art prints)
• Sam Pierpoint (Handpainted shoes)
• Belle Tragedie (Prints & cards)
• Karoline Rerrie (Prints & cards)

We have one place available in our pop-up market due to a cancellation – if you want to have a stall please contact hello@inkygoodness.com today Monday 18th Aug (stalls are free of charge for our Glug Brum launch)

Tickets for Glug Birmingham are priced £7.50 and available on eventbrite: www.glug-brum.eventbrite.com and don’t forget your free Spot*Light after-party ticket!

First 100 Gluggers through the door gets an A2 Screenprint designed by Alex Fowkes, printed by White Duck Screenprint. 

With just over a week to go, momentum is building for Glug Birmingham: MIDLAND MASTERS, an event curated by Created in Birmingham and Inkygoodness, in association with Glug, hosted at Fazeley Studios.

You may have already seen our promotional beermats and flyers around and about, as well as our beautiful (even if I do say so myself) riso print programmes, printed by Hato Press. The poster inside has been designed by headline speaker Alex Fowkes – pictured above) with the programme design by me.

There’s a fair bit going on as part of the evening event so we’ve broken it down for you:

Seven inspiring speakers:

• PROVIDE (Matt Nation) Starting from the bottom (and we’ll probably be here a while)
• Hero of Switzerland & FRUKT (Dan Button) Doing a Hobby for a Living
• Waste Studio (Norm Hayes) Apple P Cuppa Tea
• Studio Output (Alun Edwards & Chris Allwood) New Challenges
• Well Made Studio (Gemma Germains) No Friends in Business
• Alex Fowkes Process is Just as Important as Product

Nine stalls in our pop-up market:

• Codswallop Collective (Art prints)
• Brothers of the Stripe (Prints & originals)
• Working Clasp (Jewellery)
• Mike Stimpson (Photography)
• Hero of Switzerland (Art prints)
• LizzLizz (Comics)
• PROVIDE (Clothing & Accessories)
• Bethany Thompson (Art prints)
• Sam Pierpoint (Handpainted shoes)

Live drawing from Brothers of the Stripe, taking place in the Fazeley Studios courtyard (where you’ll find the BBQ too)

Live t-shirt silk-screen printing from Waste Studio.

AMMO Magazine special edition launch party.

FREE screen print, designed by Alex Fowkes, printed by Whiteduck Screenprint (for the first 100 guests to sign in!) as well as tasty treats from Paisley Immy.

All of this will be taking place at Fazeley Studios, 6pm-11pm. To finish, we’re holding an after-party at Spot*Light, 10pm-1am.

Tickets are available on eventbrite, priced £7.50.

(There’s a free drink with your ticket too, not bad, hey.)

Hope to see you there!

The next exhibition at The Moseley Exchange features work from local illustrator Natalie Ann. The exhibition is a celebration of her brand new picture book ‘That’s a Nice Hat!‘, “the story of an owl who is the envy of all the crowd because of his stripey red hat.” Natalie has both written and illustrated the book – aimed at young readers.

Alongside illustrations from That’s a Nice Hat! Natalie is also presenting some of her other works, many of which are previews of future publications.

The launch night is tomorrow night (Friday 4th July) from 6:30pm. There will be a chance to buy copies of the book before it is available online and in stores, as well as exclusive prints, cards, gifts and other novelty fun items.

The exhibition runs from 4th July – 4th September (so not to worry if you can’t make the launch night – if you’re already booked up with Digbeth First Friday.)

You can keep up to speed with Natalie’s work over on her website, facebook page and twitter.

For more information about The Moseley Exchange – what’s on / co-working space etc – visit their website.

The University of Wolverhampton opened its doors last weekend to friends, family and the general public to celebrate the work of their students. This has been a tradition in their building since 1969 with over 8,000 students taking part to date. The degree show is on until Saturday 14th June.

The Birmingham Institute of Art and Design Graduate shows are also on until Saturday 14th June with dates and activities varying across location and subject areas, please check the website to find out more. With the main subject areas spanning art, visual communication, fashion & textiles, 3D design, architecture and jewellery – there is a lot to go and see.

Staffordshire University’s annual Art and Design show opens Friday 13th June and will be open to everyone until Saturday 21st June. The show is a celebration of a range of work across their Art & Design courses. To find out more about ‘Show & Tell’ please visit their website.

We hope that the graduate shows for University of Worcester and Coventry University went well and wish all the Art & Design students the best of luck! We look forward to seeing your work.