On Monday I went to the launch of the latest Pointe Blank project which featured illustrators creating posters in response to Birmingham Royal Ballet‘s latest production, Hobson’s Choice. You can tell I was there because I took a horribly grainy pic with my phone. That’s journalism, that is.

It’s the second time they’ve done this (last time it was Coppelia) and the folks behind it are Claire Hartley (who works at Substrakt and is largely responsible for the look of CiB) and Rob Lindsay who works at BRB.

It’s really impressive how they’ve managed to pull together work from some of the best illustrators in Birmingham – the collection’s worth seeing and is available in all it’s glory online at pointeblank.co.uk. Please go check it out.

I’m always surprised that there’s so little in Birmingham that brings illustrators and graphic designers together. There’s some great talent around. Something should be done about it, I reckon.

This month we got Boat Magazine, produced by a London design studio. In their words:

We pulled together the most talented people we know; writers, photographers, illustrators, musicians… gave them a blank canvas, and set them loose on the streets of Sarajevo. We had one goal – to tell a new story

I was flipping through and spotted a bit that said:

Designed/Art Directed by Luke Tonge

Bearing in mind I follow his Tumblr I probably should’ve been aware of this. I checked it was the right guy and, sure enough, at the back of the mag it says:

Luke Tonge is a creative (and Falmouth graduate) currently living and working in Birmingham, UK. As part of the influential FormFiftyFive his voice in the industry continues to grow. A lover of ice-cream floats, all things typographic, and Bill & Ted – he wears shorts all year round. Google ‘Luke Tonge’ to know more.

I bumped into him at the Pointe Blank launch (here’s his contribution to that project) and can confirm the shorts thing.

Oh, hang on, I’ve just spotted Jonathan Cherry was involved in this too. He’s a photographer from (last time I checked) Stourbridge and has provided images for an article called Manchester City, 4am.

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

The exhibition has been pulled together by Rob Lindsay at Birmingham Royal Ballet and Claire Hartley.

It features the work of (deep breath…) Ashley O’Brien, Ben Javens, Chris Henley, Christine Hughes, Claire Hartley, Crayonfire, Darren John, Dave Hughes, Gavin Auty, Harriet Grey, The Hidden Dingbat Collective, Ian, Caulkett, Jamie Littler, Jimmy Rogers, Jo Spencer, Katie Parry, Luke Tonge, Mezzetty, Middle Boop, Nathan Monk, Rachel Tighe, Ryan Dean-Corke, Sam Pierpoint, Sarah Ray, Simon Wild, Studio Family and Sweaty Eskimo.

It’s all online so go and have a look. There’s some lovely work there.

It launched tonight for one night only (I was there – that photo stands as slightly blurry proof), although there are plans to exhibit the prints elsewhere and maybe sell them online or something.

It always seems to me that the illustrators around Birmingham are a very talented but criminally underserved bunch. When they get together and do something it tends to be really very good – see also the Not My Type exhibition that we hosted at the CiB shop last year.

Still, a very well done to everyone involved in this.