BIAD News - Spring 2009
The news section gives an insight into BIAD, the exciting city of Birmingham, and some of the projects and activities our students and alumni have been involved in. If you would like further information about BIAD and Birmingham City University please contact our Faculty Office on 0121 331 5800
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Flat Pack Festival
BIAD Graduates, Staff and students from the School of Visual Communication and the School of Art produced works which push the boundaries of cinema within the disciplines of animation, music, films, live scores, shorts, archive treasures, street art, flipbooks, independent movies, and installations.
Four ex-students from the School of Art created an installation trail for the Festival. They were individually commissioned to make video work in response to both the theme of early cinema and to the notion of an installation in a city centre shop.
Anne Guest appropriated the well known Hitchcock thriller, Psycho, employing contemporary text messaging to recreate the tension between Norman Bates and Marion Crane which leads to the ‘shower scene’ murder. The messaging gives the
impression that it is ‘live’.
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A Fountain of Knowledge
Birmingham City University is celebrating the work of its Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Associate Lynne Murray who secured a prestigious Business Leader of Tomorrow title – being only one of six KTP associates nationwide to be given the accolade at a national award ceremony.
KTP began in 2006 and is a Government funded scheme designed to help a business grow and develop by accessing the wealth of knowledge and expertise available in UK universities.
The company Holts Lapidary, which produces custom jewellery using fine gemstones, turned to the expertise within the Jewellery Industry Innovation Centre (JIIC), which is part of the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (BIAD), for assistance.
Holts Lapidary needed to be able to increase sales of gemstones and respond faster to its customers by providing them with the capability to trial jewellery designs without the cost of producing prototypes.
Lynne developed a computer aided visual system that allowed customers to view a virtual design on their own body in real-time 3D both in store and on-line.
Lead academic Gay Penfold, manager of the JIIC, said: “Lynne has exceeded expectations on the programme with her drive, vision and enthusiasm. Lynne was employed as a KTP Associate by Birmingham City University whilst delivering the programme, but is now Head of Design within the company that she set up.”
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Success at Interiors Birmingham
Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (BIAD) is once again celebrating success at the 2009 Interiors Birmingham trade exhibition. This year BIAD’s students and staff worked together to design, fabricate and install four trend pavilions which showcased new and exciting prototypes to engage the 50,000 visitors to the show.
Highlights of the exhibition included an environment created from vacuum formed high gloss coloured tiles, a customised Ernest Race Antelope Chair and hundreds of suspended origami glitter birds.
The project was a live industry brief set by Global Colour and UBM Live and brought together 150 national and international students from BA (Hons) Textile Design, BA (Hons) Product Design and MA Interior Design courses.
Organiser UBM was so overwhelmed by the standard of BIAD’s achievements that it has sponsored the trend pavillions to travel on to London as part of the lighting show ARC at Earls Court.
Narawut Charupawongse, an MA Interior Design student from Thailand who has been involved in the project, said “The experience of working directly with industry has been a great opportunity to acquire new skills and knowledge in relation to the design process in a live context”.
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Young Asian Designer of the Year 2008
2008 BA (Hons) Fashion Graduate Amina Ahmed has won the 2008 Asian Woman Young Designer Award. The award was given by the international publication Asian Woman Magazine. Amina’s Collection was produced as part of her Final Major Project.
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Facing Comedy
On show at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design's Gosta Green site until the end of March is Facing Comedy, a series of illustrations by Steve Stone that celebrates his interest in iconic comedians.
The exhibition comprises 12 large scale illustrations of comedy greats combining a fluid approach with mixed media that evokes the character rather than the caricature. Steve Stone teaches on the BA Hons Fashion course and brings his passion for graphic communication in to his role as a lecturer.
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School of Architecture Students Win International Design Competition!
Final year undergraduate students Jeremy Whall and Li Shung Yeung have been announced as winners of the 2009 Caring for Older People International Student Design Competition.
The brief called for proposals exploring the how the care home of the future might look, with the competition panel comprised of representatives from the Alzheimer’s Society, academics in the field of dementia care, BUPA, and DWA Architects, a practice specialising in care home design.
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Home of Metal!
Birmingham City University Graduate Lisa Meyer has been organising events ever since graduating from our BA (Hons) Fine Art course. Her company Capsule brings together artists and musicians from all over the world at a variety of venues within the region.
Currently Capsule is running the project Home of Metal which celebrates Birmingham and the surrounding West Midlands area’s heavy metal heritage. Bands such as Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest and Napalm Death all originate from the West Midlands area. Capsule’s site Home of Metal aims to get visitors to upload images and stories to create a permanent collection which celebrates the legacy of a genre. For further information visit www.homeofmetal.com or to find out more about up and coming gigs and concerts in Birmingham visit the following websites:
www.o2academybirmingham.co.uk
www.necgroup.co.uk/whatson
www.thsh.co.uk
www.wolvescivic.co.uk
www.barflyclub.com/birmingham/whatson
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Portfolio Preparation Tips from our Experts
Preparing a portfolio for interview is often a daunting task.
Here’s a few ideas from our experts to make the process easier:
The portfolio is a visual showcase of experience and ability - try to show an element of your personality through the work that you choose to include.
Make work easy to navigate through. The portfolio should tell a story, it should have a good beginning, middle and an end and lead easily from one piece of work to the next. This will also make it easier for you to talk about the work when it comes to your interview.
It is much better to have 20 varied pieces about which you find it easy to talk than 30 indifferent drawings.
If your portfolio is in digital format ensure that it is user friendly. PowerPoint is usually recommended.
Examples of idea generation and the creative development are essential.
Try to illustrate knowledge and capability concerning basic artistic skills and topics, rather than just finished projects.
Evidence of pure drawing (life drawing, observational etc.) ability is extremely valuable as this expresses your raw talent.
If you choose to show 3-dimensional work and are unable to bring it along to interview ensure that the work is photographed well. Make sure you are able to depict a sense of scale, texture, material, colour and context.
Sketchbooks are an excellent way of demonstrating the process and not just the end product, as they give a feel for your thought process as an artist.
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History in the Making
A large number of BIAD students are currently undertaking a live industry project with the Natural History Museum (NHM).
image © Copyright David Iliff 2006
The MA Design Management course students, many of whom are international students, have been researching and defining a brief to design innovative, sustainable products for the NHM brand. These students will make a formal presentation to the undergraduate design students currently studying BA (Hons) Textile Design and BA (Hons) Product Design, who will then go on to develop concepts for potential products. Keep checking our website for further developments at www.biad.bcu.ac.uk
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60-second Interview
Name: Anna Brandt
Country of Origin: Poland
Course Studying: BA (Hons) Fashion Design
Most positive aspect of your course so far: “Great contact with the tutors and their eagerness to help and talk.”
Sum up in 40 words how good everything is: “I like the course and the people, the Uni's facilities are great, too. Birmingham is a diverse, developed-but-green and strange-in-a-positive-way city. After a month I feel settled and hoping to enjoy my time!”
What do you miss from your home country?: My family (my lil' sister!), my friends, real bread, milk and butter, grandma's apple cake, driving a car and the TV.
What did you forget to bring?: Nail clippers, slippers, hangers.
Would you recommend BIAD and Birmingham City University to friends back home?: Yes, It's a good place to do your Degree!
Any other comments: Seeing autumn in UK (the beautiful skies) from my halls window on 8th floor is like watching landscape paintings. Oh and by the way - love shopping in Birmingham!!!
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Product Designers selected for International Show
Mai Honda from Japan and Charlotte Arvidsson from Sweden both celebrated success as their designs were chosen to be exhibited at the prestigious TENT show during London Design Week. Both students are in their final year of the BA(Hons) Product Design course at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, Birmingham City University.
Mai Honda’s chair was the UK winning entrant, and Charlotte Arvidsson’s table the UK runner-up in the LG Hi-MACS international design contest.
Both designs were fabricated in the UK by BSF Solid Surfaces, strategic partner for LG Hi-MACS. BSF managing director David Bailey was so impressed by the quality of all the students’ work from Birmingham City University that he agreed his company would also manufacture the second design by Charlotte Arviddson.
Product Design Tutor Malcolm Hastings said: "this has been a great experience for all the third year Product Design students working so closely with such an internationally renowned company. It has involved the students making presentations in the UK, Geneva and Milan, and has given them all a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate their professionalism. It is a real credit to the hard work of both Mai and Charlotte that they were selected to be exhibited on the LG stand at TENT".
Mai’s designs will go on to be exhibited in Prague and Belgium later in the year.
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