Birmingham Design Festival 2022

The three-day festival has come to a close for 2022. With over 80 speakers and several workshops across 4 sectors of the industry. Birmingham Design Festival was an amazing event for everyone to feel free and creative. 

Here is what some of our marketing team thought about the events: 

Gustavo 

There was a lot of looking back on this year’s festival. COVID has had a huge impact on how we structure and think about the work we do as visual communicators. Finding how our values and thoughts align with the content we produce has become a top priority within the industry. Especially with the reach that social media and web have (and will have) on our mental health, perceptions of truth, and our relationship with products and services. This festival has given me a renewed importance of being inclusive and accessible with our designs. Considering the environmental impact we have, in addition, how marketing campaigns shape our vision and relationships. There is a responsibility in design, therefore I’m eager to see how we can assume it to create more meaningful and impactful work. 

Sarah 

Firstly, this is the first time I have been to Birmingham Design Festival in person, after attending virtually last year. It was amazing to be in a space full of creatives, feeling the inspiration and excitement bounce around the building.  

I went to several talks about Creative Freedom including speakers such as June Mineyama-Smithson, Sarah Boris, as well as the founders of DixonBaxi. They all had valuable insights into the ever-changing industry. They were very open about their struggles and achievements throughout their careers. Feeling stuck or lost can be a very frustrating part of design (which is also very natural). However, having the opportunity to listen to these amazing creatives discuss their methods to overcome this barrier, allows you to feel understood.  

Therefore, I would highly recommend BDF to anyone! It is a chance to feel heard and communicate freely to those around you. The whole festival is inspirational and uplifting. Most importantly, it produces a warm feeling of acceptance and passion from just walking through the doors.  

Jordan 

Birmingham Design Festival was my first experience of going to a creative festival and I can happily say it exceeded my expectations. My first stop of the day was a Creating Chaos with Code workshop. However, looking back it wasn’t a great idea as I have a tiny amount of experience working with code. Although, this didn’t matter as I was well supported by the speaker Neef Rehman (neef.co)  I was able to increase my knowledge in code but most importantly had a great time speaking with Neef and the other participants.  

The rest of the day was packed with incredible talks from designers from all across different areas of the design community, even as a film maker I have taken so much away from the talks. BDF isn’t just for graphic design, but for the creative community to come together and share creative processes, practices, and ideas that will help breed new life into our own craft. The whole event was perfectly informal and friendly, it’s unfortunate that we will have to wait 2 years until the next one. In conclusion, if you missed out this time, make sure to go to the next one as it’s a great place to learn, get inspired and immerse yourself in Birmingham’s thriving design community. 

Missed your favourite talks? 

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! 

https://vi.to/hubs/bdf-2022/