Wine & Women: Ladies Wine & Design 1st Birthday

On Wednesday evening I headed out the the Ladies Wine & Design 1st Birthday bash. Ladies Wine & Design is an initiative to bring creative females together and you can read about it in one of my previous posts here. 

The event was hosted by The Biscuit Factory and we were greeted with a glass of wine on entrance (obvs) and give a name sticker with an assigned letter.  We then were taken through to the Factory Kitchen which is the restaurant section of the gallery. The assigned letter corresponded with the table we were to it at. This was a great way to get us interacting out of our usual 'friend groups.' 

We were introduced to the evening by founder of LWD Newcastle, Juli Vignette. She explained to those who had never attended a LWD event before what it's all about and the idea behind the events. Then we were told our first activity as to design a bottle of wine inspired by all of the women at our tables. We had to design the label, come up with a name & tagline, ingredients (strength, wine, sass and more amazing stuff!) and our target audience. This was such a fun and creative way for us all to get to know each other! 

We then had a little break for food (omg delicious) supplied by Factory Kitchen. Vegetarian banquet which was fit for a queen! I'll let the photos speak for themselves....

After food, we regathered again for our quiz! The quiz was in 3 parts of quotes, songs including the word 'lady' and then cropped images of famous women throughout the years. We thought we'd totally nailed this one and had it done super quick - only to find out we'd been given the answer sheet! All the women in the room found this utterly hilarious as did we. 

The winners of the table got presented with their prize of a lovely illustrated book called "Great Women in History." So appropriate and thoughtful! 

This was the end of the activities so we got a chance to network with the other tables, enjoy the awesome (female of course) @telstarrrrr ! There was women from all different areas of the creative sector of different ages which makes me so happy! Ladies Wine & Design doesn't discriminate on gender or occupation. If you're looking to broaden your creative network of lovely ladies, please check it out, give them a follow on Facebook & Instagram and try and get along to one of their next events. You'll have a blast - promise! 

Professional shots: Marion Botella Photography 

Female Force: Ladies Wine & Design Event

The life of a independent designer can be a lonely journey at times, so cultivating your own tribe and creative community can be important. Last Wednesday, I went along to my first Ladies Wine & Design Event.

I had heard about this event from other creatives, but was yet to get along for myself. Just after New Year, a friend/fellow creative - Ashley Willerton reminded me about this concept again! Initially I thought it was a new piece of info to my brain but then I'd remembered I'd seen illustrator, Laura Sheldon post about previous events. 

So when I seen the Facebook event posted online, I signed up for tickets as it is a small group so tickets are limited. Ladies Wine & Design is now a worldwide concept which was set up by graphic designer, Jessica Walsh. She had recognised there was a gap in the creative industry for female creatives. These creative meet ups help offer mentor ship and widen our networks. The initiative has spread to 130 countries and still growing.

This specific event was named "Making the switch to digital' with guest speaker Dani Stone from JUMP Agency. She shared hr jorney and that her original path as a graphic designer was a distant twinkle from where she is now in the digital world.

Her creative journey started as a graphic designer with a very tactile start using ink pens. Then when studying at university, the course was a lot more focused on digital design which she wasn't sure how that would sit with her style & techniques.

Her next step was as a junior designer in an agency and how that was combined with web design. She noticed there was a gap in the market and in her role for user experience. When building websites, this is an integral part of the design process. How we use websites depends on the reason we're using them, the journey we take and outcome we're trying to achieve. Dani explained that because of this, each project really is it's own path and not one website design is the same for this reason. So interesting!

We got the opportunity to ask questions and discuss the topic which was a lovely way for us to chat and network without pressure as we already had a topic.

Did I mention there was wine? Oh, and cheese? What could be better than wine, cheese and a small group of like minded ladies to chat with for an evening?! These meet ups are such a lovely way to get to know creatives in your area and just meet new people in general. Working and/or running a creative business as a female is a small minority so rising up through the male dominated work world, this really can help us to find our own voices. I've always loved networking, collaborating, getting in the mix so this was totally for me.

You can follow Ladies Wine & Design Newcastle over on Facebook & Instagram for more info on upcoming events...

 On my way home, I passed Castle Fine Art and had to take a minute to take in this neon Bowie beauty! They've always got quirky art on display and used to see the display change a lost as I would pass on my daily commute. I still remember seeing the Simon Claridge pieces just after mine arrived!

Pre Launch Event: Gin Cocktails & Sneak Peeks

Over the Summer, we hosted a little pre-launch research event of the jewellery collection. Hosted at the gorgeous YOLO Townhouse in the heart of Newcastle, tucked away on High Bridge Street.

Guests flowed in, sipped gin cocktails among other gorgeous drinks and got seated in the warm air on the sun terrace.

Guests were then talked through the brand and the inspiration behind this collection and materials which take front and centre in these designs. We showed the mood boards & colour boards which pulled the vision together. 

Our lovely guests got the first insider look at the collection before it launches this month. They then filled out a feedback forms and gave us their honest opinions on the pieces. Honesty, that's all we asked. And that's what we got. Some insightful opinions and some very kind comments in there too! 

Everyone left with a KF bag full of goodies for their time. Thank you to everyone who came along and contributed! We'd love to host more of these events in the future, since this one was a great success. 

Photography: Amelia Read Photography

CREATIVE FUSE: Cake 13 Future Fashion

For those of you that follow me on instagram may have seen I was at the Northern Design Centre in Gateshead yesterday. I was there for the Creative Fuse Cake 13 Event. Every month, Creative Fuse host a Cake event (which of course includes coffee & cake), which covers a different topic each time. This time, the focus of the event and the speakers brought together was the future on the fashion and creative industry.

As you can see from our content and designs, we are inspired a lot by science and so this was right up our street! The guest speakers were Jen Barrett from This Is Creative Enterprice (TICE), Sally Smallwood founder of clothing brand Wreckreation and Raymond Oliver who is a chemical engineer and Professor of Interactive Materials at Northumbria University. 

Before the talk, there was an exhibition of a few North east creatives which we got to speak to. These included Trendlistr - a vintage online marketplace, Moth Studios - a taxidermy accessories & gift company who also run workshops, work by fashion students at Teeside University and Valeriia Savina - a fashion student at Newcastle College.

Jen from TICE spoke about how education can be evolved from the industries we now have to educating the youth as to what jobs may exist in the future when they are ready to into the working world. She was highlighting the important of ambient marketing and the fact that 70% of millennials would rather spend their money on an experience rather than a product. She also mentioned that with every trend the industries show, there is counter trends which are in turn a side effect of the original trend. With the tech fuelled lives we live lead now, we may try to resist and begin to lean to more heritage brands and things that encapsulate more tactile techniques and processes. 

Jen also highlighted the importance of cross collaboration for the future of the creative industry. Bringing events and experiences together and brands collaborating more is something we can be educating today's youngsters about. 

Sally was next up and she introduced her brand Wreckreation. Her brand creates custom built clothing for self proclaimed warriors. She strives to empower people through her designs and is inspired a lot by motor cross which can be seen through her colour ways, but she's also inspired hugely by philosophy and the way humans think. Her early sketches show the the muscle build up of the human form which was then translated into trouser panels. 

She has created the 'Super Charger' jeans which are panelled jeans that are lined with LED strips. The light reflects electrical impulses that we all carry inside our brains. She then explained that we all have this, so we have to power to shine outwardly and the Super Charger jeans were born. She collaborated with CPI to help make this design a reality! 

The last speaker, Raymond Oliver is a very inspiring man and mind. His background in chemical engineering is now fuelling his position at Northumbria University with a focus group of students he is working with. He spoke about fashion through the ages and in his opinion, fashion has no past or future but is relative to the present time. Neither is more advanced, as again, its relative to the time it was designed and produced. Interesting concept, right?! Raymond also thinks there shouldn't be a difference between the arts and science and instead should be working and collaborating more. We couldn't agree more!

He then went on to explain how, with the research in chemical engineering, it will be possible to create fabrics which react similarly to mad made fibres like elastic but with natural molecules from the sea etc. And apparently, sugar will also play a big role in this sustainability journey. This will allow the industry to create fabrics which can be reused and recycled. With today's culture of throw away fashion (playstation generation of tinder and fast food), we think this is much needed and so beneficial to the environment! 

After the talk, it was on to the cake part of the cake event. Of course, we obliged in this part (rude not to, right.) This gave us a chance to have a really good look around at the exhibition and network with some lovely people. 

We have known about Moth Studios for some time now and always see their workshop events on facebook, but never had the pleasure of seeing Sharene's work up close. But yesterday that changed! Gorgeous mix of colours, textures and attention to detail. 

It's great to see local designers doing their own thing and setting the path for others to follow! Moth Studio's is very unique and offers classes which I haven't seen anywhere else in the north east.