News in Full
From the Midlands with love.x
12/02/2008
From the Midlands with Love: not a Bond movie remade into a bleak drama by Shane Meadows, but a showcase of the finest graphic art and illustration coming out of the West Midlands.
Notion Studio's sister company Media Content Lab felt that too much of the design world’s attention is focused on a handful of London companies, so decided to do something about it. We put together a postcard book featuring the artwork of graphic designers, illustrators, web designers and character designers based in the West Midlands.
The best computer artists from across the region were invited to submit their work before a final selection of the top designs were chosen to go into the book.
"We felt that too many of the big publishing companies and advertising agencies were ignoring the Midlands", said Media Content Lab’s Suzanne Neal. "So we decided to put something together that would show them there is real talent here!"
The postcard book is due to be sent to over 100 of the country’s top PR, marketing and advertising agencies as well as publishing companies and reputable agents at the end of January '08.
Charlee Sully, whose Usual Studio has a postcard design featured in the book, commented, "We see the promotional postcard book as an original tool to help us promote our work and establish the company. As an outcome of this increased awareness, we hope to receive publicity, increased enquiries about our work and more commissions."
Participants included 10 of the region's brightest computer artists;
- The Usual Studio – www.theusualstudio.co.uk
- TAK! – www.taktak.net
- Supercool – www.supercooldesign.co.uk
- Spit-fire creative – www.spit-fire.co.uk
- Simon Peplow Illustration – www.simonpeplow.blogspot.com
- Morse-Brown Design Limited – www.morsebrowndesign.co.uk
- MeeNoKawaii – www.meenokawaii.com
- Louise Carrier – www.louisecarrier.co.uk
- Debut – www.debut-design.co.uk
- Stylus Design Consultancy Limited – www.stylusonline.co.uk
If you’d like to receive a copy of the postcard book please email your full name and address to info@mediacontentlab.co.uk or call 0121 204 9886.
New AFWM Website Launches
04/01/2008
The dawn of the new Animation Forum WM* website is now upon us, and with it comes lots of funky new features to help animators based in the West Midlands communicate with each other, show off their work, find out what’s going on in the region and (hopefully) find work!
So what does that mean? Well as well as a complete new look, new features include:
- A profile page for each AFWM member
- The ability to upload links to your showreels or work (on YouTube)
- A robust member search, meaning you can find the person you need and get in touch with them through the website
- A far-more user-friendly News & Events section
- An RSS feed
- And um… a fully animated snail!
Due to the ludicrously minimalist Quick Sign-up form on the old website, unfortunately we do not have enough information to transfer all current Animation Forum members across to the new website.
All current members should have received an e-mail confirming whether or not we had enough information to transfer them across to the new website (the required fields are: Full Name, E-mail Address, Job Title and Professional Description).
If you’ve been successfully added to the site, well done on being spottable on the ol’ Internet! You will receive an automatic e-mail with log-on details once your profile is online. Please feel free to log-on to ensure your profile is up-to-date and correct, adding profile pictures and showreel links along the way!
If we haven’t been able to add you to the new website; don’t panic! Simply input your details using the new joining form on the brand new website. It only takes a minute, and could one day lead to animation work!
*Animation Forum West Midlands is a business network for the regions animation industry, managed by Birmingham City University’s media department.
Visit: www.animationforumwm.co.uk