Emily Crompton Talk

I went to a really interesting talk that Emily Crompton did who works for URBED, which stands for Urbanism, Environment and Design. They believe in designing for the public and getting involved in your area. They also have ethical aesthetics, she talked about the building that Choi Jeong- Hwa created using a thousand doors from people of his area, letting art engage with the greater population. I liked the idea that Conway&Young had, to record where all empty shops are so that other creative people can put use to them. This worked as a good way to bring art to people that don't usually see it. I also liked the idea that she used in one of her projects as an architect, to create models for the public to interact with so that they could design what they wanted. This worked really effectively.

Fashion Fringe Road Show

Fashion Fringe is an annual award show thats supports up and coming designers through mentoring, studio space, financial support and a catwalk show at London Fashion week. Leading up to the fashion shows Colin McDowell organised different talks with designers in the major UK cities. Matthew Williamson came to Mnachester to do an interview with Colin. A lot of the interview was about how he became a designer, including a placement with Zandra Rhodes, and worked for Monsoon where he got to go traveling to many different cities; his inspiration for all his work a long with nature. Some things that he said I found quite useful like when he said about adapting your work for the country it is aimed at, and dont be temip with anything you do, the greatest designers do what they want and believe in. He also spoke about the Butterfly Home Collection he is now designing for Debenhams which I didn't know about before, these are clearly inspired by eastern countries. They were interesting but did not inspire my project.

Andrew Brooks talk

This talk was very interesting as he spoke about how important it is to get connected with Manchester and as an artist/ designer to get your work and ideas seen by the public. He told us about the companies such as Crowdfunder and Kickstarter that help fund unknown artists to get exhibition space. Also different artists studios such as

• Islington Mill Studios
• Rogue Studios
• Hot Bed Press- these concentraite on printing
• Black Media

He also told us about the Skyliner blog that he works on with another artist.