Plus Design festival set to get under way

Birmingham’s Plus Design festival will start tomorrow, opened by keynote speaker Ian Anderson, founder of graphic design group The Designers Republic.

The four-day graphic and typography event, now in its third year, will host a series of workshops, exhibitions, lectures and events focusing on the theme of ‘hybrid’.

Jeff Willis, of graphic design duo Perks Willis Design, will speak on Wednesday, followed by graphic designer Jonathan Bambrook – known most notably for his album cover design for David Bowie’s Heathen – on Thursday.

Satirical cartoonist Steve Bell will be speaking on Friday. ‘It will be not so much about technique as about the way I work through caricature and political commentary,’ he tells Design Week.

Caroline Archer, who heads the Plus Design board, commissioned two pieces for the exhibition. She describes Plus Nonplus, by Tim Donaldson, as a ‘monumental 3D typographical work, which will be built in situ’. It will built over two days and use 12m2 of paper.

A second installation, Between Lines by Wok Media, will see an installation using 2.7m ‘letter bands’ made from stainless steel.

Archer has designed a headstone for John Baskerville, creator of the Baskerville font and born in Birmingham in 1757, and Gabriel Hummerstone will carve the lettering onto the stone during the festival. This will be unveiled next year and placed in the Birmingham cemetery where Baskerville is buried.

Plus Design festival takes place from 5-8 November at Fazeley Studio, Digbeth, Birmingham.