Bristol’s answer to Dragons’ Den returns!

Last year was Sift Media and BusinessZone.co.uk’s first as sponsors of the Bristol Design Festival and as part of our involvement we supported the entrepreneur of the festival competition. But rather than a standard prize giving, we wanted to do something different. We sat about brainstorming and a few hours later, The Pitch, our take on Dragons’ Den, was born.

Held at the Old Fire Station, six entrepreneurs pitched to a panel of business experts with Nicki Stewart, founder of Bridgwater-based Diverse Hampers, emerging as the overall winner.  

In 2009, we were keen to make The Pitch bigger and better and I think we’ve definitely done that!

From a one-off Bristol event, this year the contest is travelling to five cities with a grand final in London where the champion will take home a massive £50,000 business support package including one-on-one mentoring from former Dragons’ Den panellist Doug Richard!

We haven’t forgotten our roots though. The Bristol Design Festival was where it all began so we’re delighted to be kicking off The Pitch 2009 in the city on Tuesday.

Taking place at eOffice on Wine Street, just around the corner from festival HQ at the Old Fire Station, six of the South West’s finest up and coming entrepreneurs will pitch to some of the region’s biggest success stories.

On our judging panel will be:

• Dale Vince OBE, green business legend and founder of Ecotricity
• Pat Wood, founder of Bristol-based t-shirt company Truffle Shuffle, popular with celebrities including Paris Hilton
• Emma Summers, boss of Juice Recruitment, a company with offices across the South West
• Lois Cook, co-founder of Angels Den, a network which connects investors and entrepreneurs
• John Peperrel, operations director of Lovington’s Ice Cream who also made an appearance on Dragons’ Den

And the new business talent pitching for the top prize are:

• Carolyn Newton, founder of Bristol’s Whale Bags, a reusable bag company which donates 5% of its profits to marine conservation projects
• David Webb, co-founder of Swindon-based Vibe Gum, a unique provider of energy boosting chewing gum
• Stuart Hibbert, co-founder of Swindon’s icomplete, a one stop online business solution to help small businesses save time and improve their image
• Norman Shaw, creator of ExtactTrak, an Oxford company providing anti-theft and security products for tracking and recovering valuable lost or stolen items
• Julia Lowe, founder of Illminster-based Farm Toys Online, a retailer of farm themed toys and gifts for children
• Matthew Chiles, founder of The Bath Pig, producers of English cured chorizo

Amid all the doom and gloom of recession, the Bristol heat – and the four other regional events – will demonstrate how the UK’s entrepreneurs are fighting back with good old creativity and innovation.

I wish all our contestants the very best of luck.  Revisit this blog later in the week when I’ll reveal the South West winner.

Posted by Dan Martin

A new kind of fire in the station this Sunday

Having spent the early throws of Sunday morning nursing the effects of a few drinks too many the previous evening, the BDF exhibition at the old Fire station was entering it’s third day showcasing some fantastic and diverse work; which incidentally turned out to be the best hangover cure I’ve come across for a good while.

And fantastic and diverse doesn’t really sum it up either, I’m in need of several more adjectives to really convey just how strong some of the work coming out of Bristol seems to be, but then I had faith it would be anyway.

So where to begin?

Having missed the launch party at the old Fire station on Friday night (I made it to the Lanes though) I was keen to see what was in place at the exhibition. After walking around for a while and taking, fairly shaky pictures on my phone it became apparent that I’d like to use this post to showcase a few of my own highlights from the exhibit. I’m particularly passionate about typography as well as traditional graphic design so exhibitions that I liked the most embraced a lot these things particularly well.

Grafikea – please use a coaster

There has already been a great post about the Grafikea tables so I won’t bore you by re-hashing what has been said already too much. That said I really liked some of these entries. Considered, humorous and experimental approaches were the order of the day with some nice examples of typography, technology and good old fashioned ‘out of left-field’ avant-garde  efforts. Below are the ones that stood out for me, just be sure to use a coaster if you plan on buying one, wouldn’t want to ruin it with coffee stains now would you?

Jess Bradley – adorable illustrations

I’m a big fan of the work the Gavin Strange does so these illustrations which were just inside the door caught my eye straight away as they had a similar look about them. Jess says she is influenced by Japanese character design and I can really see why as these drawings embrace everything that’s great about this style. Movement, cuteness, fun and vibrant colours are big features of what has been produced here and I can see these drawings transferring across  into game and multi-media design. – sorry I couldn’t find a link for Jess

Tom Redfern – super kick-ass posters

I loved what Tom is doing here, it’s smack-bang up to date and just draws you in from across the room. I thought Tom’s work, although graphic heavy, used some nice typography and his simple logo was my favourite from the exhibit. His work was also steeped in personality, which really came across and was refreshingly un-appologetic with its presence.  This is something that I feel is done well a lot of the time online, but print designers so often miss the mark. And his business card was solid magenta, which I love 🙂 – monkeygraphik.com

Fiasco Design – More tasty posters

Spin 180 degrees from Tom’s stand and you’ll see the work from Fiascodesign. Again, I was instantly drawn in to this stand and from what I could see fiasco are super-good illustrators but also work with photo manipulation, and do a bloody good job of it too. I highly suggest they put a few of the comments left in their book onto their website as people were being super positive about what was on display and I understand totally as to why. – fiascodesign.co.uk

The Summary Bit

If you get the chance to get down to any of the Bristol Design Festival events this year then do. The exhibits are good and there is something there for everyone. Defo take a camera too, my iPhone doesn’t do much justice to how good the work is that’s on display. And yea, if you’ve had a drink or two the previous evening and you want to blow the cobwebs out with some excellent and exciting art and design, then you can’t go far wrong.

– written by Pete . Made with love and powered by caffeine

Grafikea – the good, the bad & the WTF?!

Along with a couple hundred others, I thoroughly enjoyed the Bristol Design Festival’s launch party last night, however, I was taking a specific interest in the Grafikea entries. As in previous years, the standard was excellent with some ingenious and occasionally subversive uses for a simple LACK Side Table from your friendly blue and yellow purveyor of Scandinavian style.

For those that haven’t seen Grafikea before, the rules are quite simple. You purchase a table (as on the right) and then, according to the official rules:

Let your creativity run wild and modify the table.

And that’s pretty much it.

The results are quite astounding.

Before the prizes were announced I took a walk around the entries and a few leapt out at me. Apologies for the photos, I was using my camera phone, I’m sure better quality press-pics are available; even better, get down to the Old Fire Station and see for yourself! 🙂

One of the first that caught my eye was a very Bristolian scene of the SS Great Britain sailing under the Clifton Suspension Bridge, all on a coffee table! There were even a few fishes in the Severn that younger visitors seemed particularly entranced by.

I later discovered that this table (together with another 5) was designed and made by the ASD classes at Kingsweston School. This particular one was from Oak Class.

There were a number that had been decorated with graphics and very well executed designs (as you’d expect) along with the quirky and fun. I quite liked the ‘Coffee Table, Coffee Table’ and ‘Table to Die For’. On the quirky and subversive was this inverted table-come planter. Another table that caught my eye was ‘Exhibit yourself’ which had completely deconstructed the table and turned it into a pole-dancing platform!

There were only a couple that didn’t really do anything for me. One had some licorice allsorts spilled across and lacquered, another with digestive biscuits, I also wasn’t entirely convinced by the loud speakers & Mp3. Just my personal opinion.

The WFT award this year definitely went to ‘Shadows of a Table’ – you have to go along and see this in person! No photo can do it justice,part Alien, part Necromicon it positively broods in the corner looking down on the other tables and viewers alike.

And the winners are: (these are the official competition winners in two categories, Junior and Grafikea)

Junior

	First Prize went to this entry from St Bede’s Catholic College. Transforming their table into a weird and ferocious monster. This is right by the entrance so keep an eye out at ankle level!
	Second Prize went to Delectable from Lime Class at Kingsweston School. I had a long chat with one of the Specialist Teachers about the ASD Unit and how all the kids had contributed to designing their tables. In total there are 6 tables from Kingsweston showing creativity and ingenuity. In addition to Delectable & the Bristol Bridge, there are 4 other tables from the other classes in the ASD unit. I’ll let you find them in the exhibits, suffice to say that you have to look at the identification cards to know they’re from Kingsweston, the quality is that high.
	Also from St Bede’s this beach scene obviously captured the imagination along with Third place. Perhaps the title of ‘You Scream, We Scream’ helped.

Grafikea

	First Prize went to a stunning entry from Helen Ward; Entomology. Each of the butterflies is cut from coloured paper and laid out as you might expect in any Victorian collectors house or museum. My apologies to Helen for the poor quality photo, please visit the exhibition to see the exquisite detail that has gone into this table and also take a look at her website for more images and additional background on the artisan paper and history behind the butterflies. [Updated with a photo from Helen’s site that actually shows the table rather than some dark shadows under blurred glass!! 🙂 ]
	Second Prize went Cork from Jack Patient, a fun table surrounded by colourful corks.
	This entry, entitled ‘Production Line Error’ from Dave Stannard won Third Place. A quirky mix-up between a table and chair.

Congratulations to everyone that took part, all the tables are available to buy from the artists so head down to the Old Fire Station for the opportunity to take home some local art!

By John Bradford