Birmingham Design Festival 2024

Day 1

Some of the highlights include examples of vibrant and groundbreaking creativity and motion design by Dan Silverstone.
High quality with a strong value ethics from Johanna Drew. The power of teamwork with developed contrasting projects from David Moloney from Design Studio. Ground-breaking typography spanning many decades from Paul McNeil & Hamish Muir from MuirMcneil.

Combining humanity while embracing digital aspects of design with some of the major companies' work, including AI from Rachel Gogel.

Day 2

It started with attending a presentation on social media possibilities to maximise appeal and engagement. Distance from Lucy Street from Lugi Studio and an advocate for Adobe.

Enabling a flexible approach towards creativity and generating ideas and solutions with Tim Davidson & Amanda Gaskin from Seachange.

Presenting expressive illustrations and messages from Stephen Smith from the Neasden control centre.

Due to other commitments, my day at the festival ends with the development of a uniquely designed mobile device from Nothing phone from Angelisa Scalera, Lead UX & Product Designer.



Day 3

Because two booked events overlapped I started day three with a brief digest between both presentations. Daniel Eastock emphasises the point of humour with creativity. Followed by a detailed approach towards visual imagery for design & three-dimensional products from 3D designer Andrea Marshall.

The importance of written creativity and the emphasis on being flexible and adaptable is the subject by Neurodiverse creative Peggy Affriyie, senior writer from Ragged Edge.

Illustrator & artist Aurélla Durand presents a variety of eye-catching, expressive and vibrant without barriers.

Francisca Posada and Nick Eagleton from Saboteur presenting using creativity, breaking rules and creative barriers using different saboteur roles.

The closing part of the festival includes projects and insights from Christopher Doyle (from CD&Co), Sue Murphy (from the Coca-Cola Company) and Ren Rigby (from Pronto)

Portfilio surgery

Interactive Digital Portfilio

As part of the festival, anyone can share examples of their projects and work in a special appointment session. Because there was a gap in booked events, I decided to book a portfolio session at the festival. This was developed with the team at the creative design agency RBH. Using my specially designed interactive digital portfolio document, I shared different aspects of my creativity as well as the type of projects I have developed. Generally, the feedback was extremely positive.
This was the second time I've received positive feedback on my creativity at the Birmingham Design Festival in graphic design, visual art, and presentation. This was 12 months after sharing examples of my projects with the Design Council's Chief Design Officer, Cat Drew, in June 2023.

Find out about the interactive portfolio by selecting the link below

Birmingham City University
School of Art & Design degree shows

This annual event showcases the student projects from their courses. I had an exclusive tour during the Birmingham Design Festival, then visited the opening night a few days later. The Birmingham Design Festival team also attended and caught up with the Course Leader of Visual Communications, Jane Anderson.

My thoughts
I felt this year's event became much bigger and more vibrant than before. So there is no excuse for anyone to learn, be inspired and feel embraced for setting a positive examples in designing & creativity.

Special thanks to Dan & Luke from Birmingham Design Festival for their hard work in developing this year's festival. Also, special thanks to Jane Anderson from Birmingham City University for her support of my creative development for the second year in a row.

Linked with

Notice to editors
Keith Mckenzie
Keith is an awareness campaigner, a creative designer (Graphic design and digital art) and a salsa dancing participant

With a background in Art & Design (including Graphic Design & Digital art) and a participant in music-related film documentaries, events & record label project King Of the Beats including filming and behind the scene preparations.

Keith was educated at Hereford College of the Arts, the University of Northampton, Birmingham City University and Google's Digital Garage. Since 2000, he has developed over twenty years in providing awareness projects, campaigns and activities with the Awareness brand Plus Value Awareness along with Differences Originals. Also am involved with salsa classes in the local community as an assistant. I also have participated in major dancing conventions at Birmingham's NEC, including Motion City (created by Birmingham Latinmotion and London's ManboCity) during the summer and Latinmotion's NYE Fest during the New Year public holiday.

In 2022, Keith became a featured community participant for Birmingham who became part of special projects and campaigns to promote a positive legacy beyond hosting the Commonwealth Games