Moving in the opposite direction of that last blog post, we have some great news to announce!

Last night, the Pre-Raphelite Online Resource pipping Channel 4 and Teachers TV to win a highly covetted BETT Award for best Digital Collection and Resource Banks.

The BETT Awards is an annual scheme that highlights exemplar digital products intended for the education marketplace. The BETT Awards is produced by Emap Connect, the organisers of the largest educational technology show in the world - BETT. The BETT Awards is made possible by working in association with Becta, the Government's lead agency for ICT in education, and BESA, the trade association representing the educational supply industry.

The site was primarliy designed for use in education, so to be recognised and awarded by BETT is a massive, honorable achievement.

We've said it before, but we'll say it again, this is soley the result of trust by the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery's project team in our ideas and decisions.

It is very rewarding to know that the site will be used for a worthwhile educational purpose.

Well done all.

 Fresh from the BIMA Awards win in London we arrived back to Birmingham to find an email from Microsoft waiting for us to say that the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery's http://www.preraphaelites.org website is featured on their cutting edge Live Lab's Seadragon showcase.

We'd like to thank Microsoft for all the support they are giving us - the showcase on the Silverlight site sent a whole lot of folks over to the multi-award-winning site and we are hoping that this one will create a lot more fans of Birmingham's stunning Pre-Raphaelite collection in the weeks to come.

This month Creative Review features a piece on Creative Communities. I was asked to offer my thoughts on the creative community we belong to, that is of Digbeth and the Custard Factory.

I outlined how the city of Birmingham and the Custard Factory were key factors in establishing us as a company, and we've stayed loyal through thick and thin over these past five years as others have moved on.

However the piece did focus on more my negatives than my positives. So to extend that article I've decided to post what I originally wrote to give a more balanced opinion of creativity around this neck of the woods.

We set TAK! up in Birmingham in 2004 primarily because incentives Birmingham offered. For a start it was (and still is) relatively cheap compared to other cities like Manchester and London. Unlike like those cities at the time, Birmingham had a fairly compact design scene. Our introduction to the local scene was fairly straightforward (considering we were new to Birmingham) with assistance of a Creative Space grant (mis-quoted in the CR article as the 'locate Birmingham initiative') from the council and Business Link WM — essentially that grant paid for our first years studio space which was a massive help. This buffer of a years rent enabled us to find out feet and more importantly find our clients.

Having said that, with the advent of Broadband internet our client base didn't need to be in the same city (or country) as us. Birmingham is fairly central however so visiting clients across the country is a fairly simple task — another key reason to move here.

However the main reason for moving to Birmingham was The Custard Factory complex. I was first made aware of The Custard Factory back in 1995 when a group of university friends went to visit the place and they came back highly enthused about the vibrancy and creative energy within the complex. Situated in Digbeth and allegedly bought for £1, The Custard Factory is a dizzy mixture of studios, bars, restaurants, clubs and independent shops. It's without doubt the pulse of Birmingham and the five years we've been here have been fun, exciting and inspiring. Our rent is fairly cheap all things considered and the building is large, quirky and raw. A bit like the Truman Brewery around 2001 when that started to get redeveloped. I think you can currently get a 3m x 3m basic painting space for about £30 a week.

Digbeth is a bit like Shoreditch in 1996, tatty, noisy and full of underground secrets. The area has some big plans abound from a vast extension to The Custard Factory to a park and various retail amenities. To be honest, it needs it but I hope it doesn't lose it's soul and become full of twats… like Shoreditch.

This combination of low cost, inspiring location and interesting people has allowed us to develop our company in the way we wanted — slowly and steadily. The low overheads meant we were never forced into churning out work to simply stay afloat. I'd say that was the single most important aspect to why Birmingham, Digbeth and The Custard Factory has helped us — it gave us time to develop ourselves.

The grants we received really helped us (and other companies in this area) get started. We got a 2nd grant after about 2 years to create promotional materials to attract new business. Right now we're discussing funding to help us work with a lead generation agency to attract new business from further afield. Creative company support is very well covered in the West Midlands.

But it's by no means perfect. The community aspects to the complex have slowly eroded over the 5 years we've been here. Before we arrived there would be quirky bars, skate ramps in nightclubs, barbecues for tenants every Friday in the summer and generally a stronger creative vibe. Over the 5 years it would seem that the remit for tenants to only come from the creative industry has slackened and I'm sure it's this that's killed the vibe quite a bit.

It could also be the state of the building — I know many companies as they have gotten bigger have moved out because the building is a bit shabby - don't mention the toilets. Often there's no heating and being above a nightclub does mean you have a noisy neighbour but personally I don't mind the noise or the events — those were one of the reasons we moved here, and still are here.

Front of house can be a bit sloppy at times and the local cafe / bar has all but given up on itself. Also I feel many Brummies are too blinded by the bling of the Bullring to even consider venturing down to the Custard Factory for some alternative shopping and culture. I've seen some great independent shops come and go over the my time here and it's sad to see such a quick turnover.

Maybe it's the area? Digbeth is a very unwelcoming part of town and at night the lack of people and lights can make it feel very dangerous — even though I've never had any trouble myself — I know some people don't feel safe at night here. Aside from some new build flats the area hasn't changed at all since we've been here even though much has been promised. There's a ton of factories, car dealers and a giant dual carriage way running right through it. Hardly inspiring. There's no cash points, no Post Office, no supermarket or any other essentials required for a creative community to thrive.

The Custard Factory complex is the jewel in a tatty crown.

If Birmingham City Council do something to address this the whole experience could be transformed dramatically. Key is to bring people to the quirky places that actually exist in this side of the city.

The Custard Factory is (slowly) sorting itself out; there's a popular Flea Market on Saturdays bringing in new crowds and Ideal skateboard shop now lives here with an indoor ramp that brings in a good new crowd. There's also a new venue called Space2 which hosts gigs, parties and even exhibitions. All positive additions.

A meeting with the building managers have confirmed change and there is currently a massive redevelopment happening at the front of the Custard Factory with a new wing being built.

I'm sure this this will be the start of the next wave.

By publishing this in full, I'm hoping it offers a balanced opinion of Birmingham's creative community centered around Digbeth & the Custard Factory. I would highly recommend any creatives to set up here as there is great potential for even better things and there is a lot of support to help you get started.

More new work annonucements. We're also super excited to be working with Capsule on their Home of Metal project.

“For too long Birmingham and the Black Country have failed to celebrate what is rightfully theirs, to claim the city and the region as the birth place of “heavy metal”.  Its time to start celebrating!!!

The 'Home Of Metal' project aims to create a digital archive of everything heavy metal from the 60s to now. An online library of images, interviews, stories and various pieces of memorabila dedicated to telling the story of Metal and its unique birthplace. Focusing on the innovators of the genre and those that continued to develop it: Black Sabbath , Led Zeppelin , Judas Priest , Napalm Death and Godflesh.”

Our task is to redevelop the site to allow metal fans to upload their personal archive of metal memrobellia. Ultimately this giant archive will form the basis of a permanent exhibition in Birmingham, no doubt a shrine to future metal heads.

Awesome!!

PS: The image above has no connection to metal music. Instead it's from airbrush artist Hajime Sorayama who worked on Heavy Metal magazine. More pics from the magazine here.

We’ve just been made aware of a wonderful review of the “Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource” by The Earthly Paradise and I have to say, we're pretty chuffed.

“It really offers a unique opportunity for art lovers across the globe to see these works "up close and personal" and I think the site will generate a lot of tourism once people see what the museum has to offer… Of course, nothing can replace the experience of seeing these works in person, but this new website does get awfully close.”

After all the prototyping, designing and intense data processing, it’s great to receive positive detailed feedback from the actual target audience; lovers of Pre-Raphaelite art.

Big smiles all round.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Neil Kinnish
+44 (0)121 288 2528

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DIGITAL IMAGE COLLECTIONS – FREEING ASSETS FROM ARCHIVES
Museum’s web app frees high-res images from database archive to be used by public, academics and educational institutions.

http://www.preraphaelites.org

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In today’s digital environment despite concentrated efforts, many artifacts and artworks are still unavailable to the public and educational institutions. Having previously sat in storage rooms, works are now often found as redundant high resolution scans on private servers. Some institutions have adopted powerful image databases to catalog their high resolution images, ensuring artworks and artifacts are correctly archived and accessible internally for curators. The next progressive step for forward thinking institutions is to make their digital collections accessible to all.

Understandably, there are numerous challenges in achieving this goal; notably strict IT access policies, file size issues (high resolution scans are just not suited to standard html websites) and Digital Rights Management.

Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery (BMAG) faced these issues when they decided to publicly release their world-class Pre-Raphaelite collection, the largest in Europe. They already had a powerful image database system that cataloged previously unseen works but didn’t have a way to release them further. Fortunately they had a clear idea of what they wanted and the courage to pursue this goal. Together with assistance from JISC they appointed Birmingham-based digital agency TAK! Design after a five way pitch to design and develop a website application to achieve their goal.

Pete Nelson lead developer at TAK! notes, “We are all aware of the value of high quality content and many of the UK’s museums and art galleries are sitting on goldmines of digitized images and artifacts that could be utilized by schools, universities and the general public, but are simply not accessible. There are many stumbling blocks in getting these assets to a global audience, but if presented carefully they could benefit a huge number of people, raise the museums’ profiles and also bring in more visitors to see the artworks in person. It’s also about engaging users who would not previously be switched on to art history or likely to visit these institutions.”

Usability was a key issue–BMAG needed to know that, once released, the collection would engage all kinds of users with little assistance or technical knowledge.

Usability lead Dom Murphy explains, “There was the potential within the sheer scale of the site for users to easily become lost in process, never to return. Our goal at TAK! is to offer simple yet highly rewarding user experiences. We provided usability guidance and conducted a series of paper prototyping sessions where academics, students and everyday users were asked to explore a series of processes to see how they reacted and interacted. The results shaped the site into it’s current state. Improving interaction is an ongoing process and as such we expect to fine tune certain aspects of the site over the year.”

Key to the project’s success is the inclusion of a new technology developed by Microsoft called Deep Zoom which runs on their increasingly popular Silverlight free browser plug-in.

Neil Kinnish, Technical Director at TAK! championed the decision to use this software, “Deep Zoom allows views of artworks to be zoomed within the browser so that visitors can see individual brush strokes on the canvas. In effect the visitor is getting a closer experience of the work than in the gallery itself. This rich user experience is highly valuable in use as a learning resource. Deep Zoom essentially slices up the high resolution artwork and scales it many times so that the work can be streamed effectively over a standard broadband connection. In addition it means that, while the image is accessible to the user while online, it cannot be saved to their local computer which could present copyright infringments.”

The project also made use of other leading technologies to provide an engaging visitor experience. Lucene, a Google-like indexing engine was employed to provide lightning fast and effective searches across the entire catalogue, whilst .NET 3.5 and MVC were used to deliver a robust site framework. Perhaps the largest challenge was the importation of the data and re-processing it into a usable format, custom importation routines were built to handle this task specifically.

Kinnish adds, “This was pretty much an ideal project in terms of design and development. The client had an interesting brief and were keen to produce something above the ordinary. They were not scared to venture into new territory to achieve this end, and this has been key to the success of the site.”

JISC’s activities support education and research by promoting innovation in new technologies and by the central support of ICT services. Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery offer world class museums in the cultural heart of England. TAK! Design specialize in Art, Design and Development. They are an independent digital agency based in Birmingham, UK yet they work with clients big and small from all around the world. Their previous work within the cultural sector has earned several awards and recognition.

“TAK! have helped us create the largest online Pre-Raphaelite collection in the world” concludes Linda Suprdle, Project Manager at BMAG. “It’s a fantastic resource and provides an unparalleled level of access and quality to the works on display. Anyone with an interest in art should visit the site and discover the importance of the Pre-Raphaelites.”

If you would like further information about this topic, promotional materials or schedule an interview please contact Neil Kinnish on 0121 288 2528 or through the site.

Moudly Loaf is an independant company promoting contemporary illustration and design through the medium of men & womens fashion. They're based in the Custard Factory in Birmingham, but also have an online store full of nicely priced tee shirts and other treats. Hurrah for independants!

Middle of March see’s the third iteration of the Flatpack Film Festival run by the inspiring 7inch Cinema peeps. There's a whole host of great stuff being shown around Birmingham highlights for me have got to be:

• Style Wars & Bombin'
• Beautiful Losers (wow been wanting to see this for ages) 
• Points & Slashes (by the same people who designed the ace festival identity & site)

In our constant quest to relieve the world from yet another portfolio (and website!) created in Wordpress, we're proud to present Colourbox, the portfolio of Joe Rogers. The website features the ultra-sweet drawing application — Pixelbox.

View Colourbox >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
View the Pixelbox gallery on Flickr >>>>

Birmingham city council has admitted to distributing a leaflet which shows an urban landscape of  Birmingham… in Alabama. I have to admit, I've googled the weather forecast for 'Birmingham' on several occasions and been shocked with the hot temperatures it forcasts… only to realise I'm actually looking at the US namesake.

Read the BBC news article.

Thanks to Joe for sharing the link, and this link.

This Saturday (28th June) myself and Chris Keenan will be performing at the 7 Inch Cinema 5th Birthday Shindig. For any Birmingham based cats who have not been to a 7 Inch event before this is a great chance to see what they're all about. Expect fine music, obscure short films and tons of inspiration.

If you're coming down to especially peep me & Chris doing a Super 8 ambient soundtrack then try to come early; we're on around 7.30 / 8ish. (I'll be posting the set up on here next week.)

A view from our meeting room this morning... check the car underneath! 

Cut to the chase — SXSWi really blew me away. I cannot recommend the event enough. I only managed to attend 2 days, by the time I had to leave on the Monday I was seriously gutted; a glance through the program for the final 2 days revealed dozens of very interesting talks and events. Fortunately, many of the events are available to download as podcasts from the SXSW site. Wish I could have caught this — at my new favourite Texan billiard hall.

And that really gives you an idea of how great SWXWi really is. It is the most exciting and comprehensive event I've personally attended. What impressed me highly, was the sheer diversity of the schedule and quality of content. A previous conference I attended last year kept referring to web design from 2001 as being ‘back in the day’ and the term Web 3.0 was dropped on several occassions. Yawn.

SXSWi wasn't like that at all — it was refreshing to attend an event with such an open attitude from both the speakers and the audience. Not once did I feel it was trying to be too cool for school, or self referring.

So I've come away from SXSWi utterly inspired and excited at the future for digital media and for the future of TAK!

I'd like to notably thank the SXSWM team who I went over with. Everyone was really friendly and let each other do their own thing whilst at the same time re-group and share experiences and thoughts. Digital Central and Stef Lewandowski who organised the trip should be commended for their enthusiasm and commitment to getting 7 differently skilled individuals together to document their findings. I'd like to thank Stef in particular as he had the foresight to create the SXSWM central reserve for us to use during our time at SXSWi which proved invaluable whilst over there. Really great stuff.

Each of us will certainly bring back something unique from SXSWi and this will ultimately raise our own and Birmingham's offering.

The last talk I attended was hosted by Peter Kirn and Joy Mountford entitled Data As Art. This talk would prove to be the most inspirational talk out of my time at SXSWi.

I'm a big fan of Edward Tufte and simplifying data through graphics and visual art. I'm also really into generative art and using Maths to create visual graphics. This talk showcased some of the best in the field.

On a simple level representing data visually not only makes something which is impossible to understand into something very easy to understand. See this video clip to view the flight paths of aircraft over the United States over a 24 hour period. Millions of numbers through visual interpretation becomes easy to realise and understand. (Lets put it this way, I was shitting my flight home after seeing this!!)

To see some of the videos from the talk, click the image above or here.

After Joy demonstrated several experiments that she had worked on at the Yahoo Research Labs, Peter took over and gave a basic intro to Processing — a program used by many to visualise data.

He also demonstrated creating audio with Processing with a small application which converted his spam emails into music. He joked how laptop musicians are often referred to as 'checking their emails' whilst performing live. So he decided to make music whilst checking his emails. Nice.

Perhaps the best way to further explain what this whole scene is about is to check out some of the key people in the field right now. These are...

• Ben Clemens
• Aaron Koblin
• Doug Fritz
• Michael Chang