Forget Britain, the North’s got talent…

NDC2009This month we have a wee theme emerging around ideas and creativity. June is generally the month when all those hard working art/design/fashion/architecture/digital students get to put on their final shows and we get to go talent spotting.  We are not alone, as the design community also turn out to look for potential talent,  follow Alex Nelson of Elmwood as he reports back on what caught his eye this month

The design baton for this month’s banner was passed from the ubiquitous Nous Vous to  Dean Vipond who took our very open brief to do just what he fancied  and created the one you see now, we hope it puts you in the mood for all sorts of summery cultural shenanigans.   Let us know if you fancy getting involved in our banner design in future months.

The new Rose Bowl building at Leeds Met plays host to the forth Northern Design Competition, with well over 3o00 entries from emerging graduates across the North* the competition is fierce. Chair Wayne Hemingway, the chap who set up Red or Dead, and his fellow judges will most likely need a holiday (maybe in Boscombe by the looks of Wayne’s website)  after getting through all the entries.  We are glad to see that Thompson Brand Partners have put significant resource into supporting the graphic design category, despite the gloomy economic times. We cheekily asked them to smuggle us into the event but quite rightly they said NO! (despite the MD being one of our regular bloggers) However one lucky individual can so click here to WIN a seat at their table  at the at the very exclusive awards ceremony on 18th June. In order to win you must say why you should get to watch the cream of the crop! Closing Date: 13th June 2009.

Any culture vulture reader is welcome to pop along and enjoy the exhibition of all the shortlisted entrants, just get along to the Rose Bowl at 4.30pm. The first Five intrepid readers who turn up and locate  a lady called Sarah Pennock  can avail themselves of event related goodie bags, containing all sorts of wonderful stuff, including some surprise stuff from us. Go on it will be worth it!

Another fantastic opportunity for Yorkshire young designers to shine is the Sh! Awards. Now  in their seventh year the event was created in memory of Stuart Hocknell, a talented young designer at Brahm who tragically died of meningitis in 2002. Entries close on the 29th May with announcements of the winners at an awards ceremony on the 25th June

Our regular feature ‘Who would work in an office like this?’  will also open your eyes to a perfect marriage of art and design, making the very most of a very small space! Better still we can expect to read more from this company in the coming months as they come on board as our regular East Coast Culture Vulture

Finally, we will be asking questions throughout the month via Twitter and our online survey which will result in some delightful little surprises, so go on take five minutes and if nothing else enjoy the reward of feeling generous!

*North, in this instance, defined as from the Trent upwards