Last friday, while Sue enjoyed her birthday at home, Nathan and I took a trip to our old stomping ground at BIAD for our second presentation since graduating. This time we were invited to talk to students on the professional practice module. We felt all prepared, and were actually looking forward to it, until we arrived and were told that the presentation would be made in what we think is the uni’s largest lecture theatre, as apposed to the average-sized classroom we had expected. Nonetheless, with rather sweaty palms, we went ahead with our plan and it seemed to go down well. We spoke about the hurdles that we have overcome as a company since starting, and what to expect as a newby to the industry. Nath had a course to run off to at lunch, which left me all alone for the afternoon’s question and answer session. I was handed a bunch of questions scribbled on scraps of paper, but I didn’t have nearly enough time to answer them all, so I have picked out a few of the unanswered questions bewlow: Q: SMILE, why did you start your own company straight away after leaving university? A: With the current financial climate, it was clear to us that competition for any jobs in our sector would be very high, so with nothing to loose we jumped head first into industry. We had worked together on university and commercial briefs while studying, and we knew we had a very special working relationship, so it seemed the natural progression was to continue with SMILE, and we’re glad we took that risk!! Q: Are you all workaholics? A: In a sense yes, we all love what we do, and that is the driving force behind SMILE, but at the same time we know how to have fun, and how to let our hair down. Hence the reason why we have recently acquired a studio pool table!! Q: What is your greatest weakness? A: I was dying to answer this question, but unfortunately we ran out of time. My biggest weakness, and fear is public speaking. 12 months ago I would have actively avoided any kind of public speaking, let alone presenting in front of a fairly full lecture theatre. But I am living proof that it can be done. I still get butterflies at the thought of public speaking, but with every experience it is getting better, so my advice to any students feeling the same way is have a go, you might be pleasantly surprised!!

Last friday, while Sue enjoyed her birthday at home, Nathan and I took a trip to our old stomping ground at BIAD for our second presentation since graduating. This time we were invited to talk to students on the professional practice module.

We felt all prepared, and were actually looking forward to it, until we arrived and were told that the presentation would be made in what we think is the uni’s largest lecture theatre, as apposed to the average-sized classroom we had expected.

Nonetheless, with rather sweaty palms, we went ahead with our plan and it seemed to go down well. We spoke about the hurdles that we have overcome as a company since starting, and what to expect as a newby to the industry.

Nath had a course to run off to at lunch, which left me all alone for the afternoon’s question and answer session. I was handed a bunch of questions scribbled on scraps of paper, but I didn’t have nearly enough time to answer them all, so I have picked out a few of the unanswered questions bewlow:

Q: SMILE, why did you start your own company straight away after leaving university?

A: With the current financial climate, it was clear to us that competition for any jobs in our sector would be very high, so with nothing to loose we jumped head first into industry. We had worked together on university and commercial briefs while studying, and we knew we had a very special working relationship, so it seemed the natural progression was to continue with SMILE, and we’re glad we took that risk!!

Q: Are you all workaholics?

A: In a sense yes, we all love what we do, and that is the driving force behind SMILE, but at the same time we know how to have fun, and how to let our hair down. Hence the reason why we have recently acquired a studio pool table!!

Q: What is your greatest weakness?

A: I was dying to answer this question, but unfortunately we ran out of time. My biggest weakness, and fear is public speaking. 12 months ago I would have actively avoided any kind of public speaking, let alone presenting in front of a fairly full lecture theatre. But I am living proof that it can be done. I still get butterflies at the thought of public speaking, but with every experience it is getting better, so my advice to any students feeling the same way is have a go, you might be pleasantly surprised!!

In preparation for the launch of Created in Birmingham shop next week, I have been out taking a few photos which I might get printed as small prints or post cards. While out I took some random shots of different style windows. And I liked them so much I thought I would start a little series. So for the next couple of weeks at least Thursday joiner post will be slightly different while I expand my collection. I might start some other series of other random objects while I’m at it (lamp posts, doors, house numbers etc. If you’ve got any ideas let me know!).

If you’re into this kind of stuff, and have any work of your own, especially Birmingham based, drop into the studio and we’ll see about getting some into the shop.

Check out my gradient toast (aka gradioast, (courtesy of Sue!)). I know this is really rather geeky but thought it was worth a mention that even our toaster is getting into design!

Check out my gradient toast (aka gradioast, (courtesy of Sue!)). I know this is really rather geeky but thought it was worth a mention that even our toaster is getting into design!

Ok Guys, here it is at long last! Our guide for work to be submitted for the Created in Birmingham shop. We wanted a topic to give the work some kind of consistency. After much deliberation, we chose ‘Love Brum’. We at SMILE love Brum (that’s why we chose to stay here), but we feel that it sometimes gets some bad press so now is your chance to give our city the credit that it deserves. If you’ve got some work that you think would sell in our section of the shop, and it’s linked in some way to Birmingham then please send it across to us. Or, even better, pop in to the studio and show us what you’ve got.

Ok Guys, here it is at long last! Our guide for work to be submitted for the Created in Birmingham shop.

We wanted a topic to give the work some kind of consistency. After much deliberation, we chose ‘Love Brum’. We at SMILE love Brum (that’s why we chose to stay here), but we feel that it sometimes gets some bad press so now is your chance to give our city the credit that it deserves.

If you’ve got some work that you think would sell in our section of the shop, and it’s linked in some way to Birmingham then please send it across to us. Or, even better, pop in to the studio and show us what you’ve got.

Want to get your hands on SMILE stuff?

As you may be aware from Nath’s post yesterday, Created in Birmingham will be running a retail unit in the Bullring shopping centre. We will have a section of the shop to sell some work of ours, and some of our favourite pieces from other people.

Now„, we’re working on a brief for contributors to follow, as we will only have a limited space so need to be selective. But, we are not sure which pieces of our work we should include. So, is there any piece of our work that you would like to be available in the shop? Anything you might have seen on our website, or on our blog, or anywhere else for that matter!!