Last Friday, the Creative Digital Media group headed to Birmingham. Like Cardiff, this is another great, effervescent city with plenty going on. The original plan was to head to the Ikon Gallery, then down to Digbeth to the studio Fluid Design and The Custard Factory. Unfortunately Fluid had received a brief the previous night and the pitch to the client was the following day when we were in town! Understandably they had to decline us at the last minute, but have promised us a visit next term in which they will talk in great depth about their agency and the sorts of creative projects they take on. In the mean time though, I've taken a look at the blogs on their site. The first thing I noticed is the huge range of different creative topics of discussion from architecture to fashion through the environment, documentaries and bikes!
Obviously architecture caught my eye, and they have posted a blog about the Haçienda in Manchester. This music venue was the home of Factory Records which saw New Order [the reincarnation of late '70s band Joy Division following the suicide of frontman Ian Curtis] rise to fame to become one of the most influential electronica bands of the 1980s. Their 1983 single Blue Monday is still the biggest selling 12 inch single of all time. The Haçienda was created by Peter Saville of Factory Records and designer Ben Kelly in 1982 who created the iconic look by taking the FR label designs and putting them into a club. Putting Factory Records' mark on a building, gave it a home which, in turn, made the Haçienda instantly recognisable and the club itself was massively popular throughout the 80s. The link below is to a clip of the film '24 Hour Party People' [Director: Michael Winterbottom, 2002] and is great intro to the building with a bit of added humour.
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| The Hacienda Nightclub (now city centre apparentments) |
The contrasting colours and the whole design evoke fun! In my opinion people sometimes forget design is not all serious, and a club/music venue is where people go to relax, enjoy themselves, forget about their everyday lives. Ben Kelly's stark, raw interior brought the busy Manchester streets inside: “a city within a city”.
See Ben Kelly's writing on the club from his website.
The signs and colours within the Haçienda are reminiscent of natural warning signs. We use these colours/marks because we see them to mean danger, which then provokes a flight or fight response. This is so ingrained in our minds that they subconsciously warn us of potential hazards. Our obsession with patterns and seeing how some colours and shapes work together and others do not impacts on us whether we think about it or not. The factory Records label would probably have used these colours ecause they are eye catching and quickly recognisable. After watching the Code on BBC from a few months ago I have been thinking increasingly about human relationships with nature, the synergy of nature and how architecture is influnced and affected by this [but more to come on that in my next blog...].
As for the rest of the Birmingham trip, it was great to get out of the studio and find inspiration all around, but, if I am completely honest, I am never sure what I think about art galleries. I feel like an incompetant creative individual because I have a tendancy to race through them without thinking too much about what the artist has done! They should be seen as great resources for inspiration or at least ways of portraying ideas. I think perhaps practise is in order, a little like reading a book. The more you read, the more quickly you can take things in. If I visit more art galleries perhaps I will be able enjoy them at the speed I look through them. I found it more intreesting after we had a group chat with a curator abuot the artist and how they chose those particular works as a sort of supplement to the art. Bulgarian, Nedko Solakov, has been a prolifc artist for around 30 years and expermiments with potentially sensitive subjects largely in a humourous and childlike way. He is IKON's main exhibitor at the moment.
From a design point of view I found the IKON very interesting. I enjoyed the curved glass doors and the bare concrete walls softly lit with warm bulbs spelling out “IKON”. Simple and effective.
From a design point of view I found the IKON very interesting. I enjoyed the curved glass doors and the bare concrete walls softly lit with warm bulbs spelling out “IKON”. Simple and effective.
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| IKON gallery entrance (photos by me) |
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| Looking up from the foyer (photos by me) |
To add in a lift and stairs a very structural glass and steel aesthetic which takes you up on the inside of the gallery but on the outside of the original buildings means you can get up close the the exterior of these old buildings which are so much a part of Birmingham's Victorian history.
All in all the we enjoyed a crisp cold but sunny day out of the studio searching for inspiration in what is such a vibrant and fast moving city. Cannot wait to get back and see Fluid Design and hopefully get another chance to look at more of Birmingham.
All in all the we enjoyed a crisp cold but sunny day out of the studio searching for inspiration in what is such a vibrant and fast moving city. Cannot wait to get back and see Fluid Design and hopefully get another chance to look at more of Birmingham.
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