#PMTBrum 2018: Learning To ROAR

This month has seen some things swirling together building on last year's super fun yet intentional PMT initiative, headed up by Alison Baskerville. On Saturday 10th March, we once again put the Intersectional Womxn's Day fueled event on at Impact Hub Birmingham, welcoming people to the space to celebrate the magic of womxn and non-binary people in the city and beyond. From weaving to boxing via a zine library and lots of cake, PMT once again told a story through a series of interventions around the themes of art, body, work and love.

ICONOGRAPHY: March

It's hard to believe we've almost rattled through the third month of the ICONOGRAPHY series already, but nevertheless these old geezers are coming to the end of their reign, as it were. Here's a bit about this month's icon - our perfectly sculpted Queen Liz - unveiled in 1967 and rolling through the postal service ever since.

Pocket Film Festival II

After working on Pocket Film Festival's visual identity last year, I'm delighted to see it back for a second round! Unseen Cinema and Flatpack: Assemble united once more to bring one-off screenings, exhibitions and events to Stafford. Continuing with the original pocket-sized matchbook film kit design, the organisers simply wanted a refresh of the colour palette to show it was a new programme for this year, but also drawing on the fact that the design had become recognisable in the community from its first outing back in 2017.

Val/gal/pal-entine's Day

Before jumping on a plane to Tokyo (erm, as you do) I just about dropped some V-day inspired designs onto the Byng Inc. online shop! They celebrate the wide range of love(s) we can experience in our lives to build up a more multi-dimensional picture beyond the heteronormative hallmark romance often found blowing sickly kisses at us around this time of year. 

Building on the back of lots of fun temporary tattoo pop-up parlours, these first official #byngink sets are inspired by 4 of the Greek words for different types of love.

LUDUS: playful love
EROS: sexual passion
PRAGMA: longstanding love
PHILIA: deep friendship

ICONOGRAPHY: February

Well, it won't come as much surprise to your lads to know that my desktop background still features our Che. Not to worry, you'll have a snazzy new design to play with soon, just in time for Easter. First up though, here's a bit about why J-Lo features in the ICONOGRAPHY series, as well as the February desktop artwork for y'all to use.

Wellbeing & Work: The Work-Life Paradox

"Shake the Inverse's hand and the exact opposite of your life will flash before your eyes. When the Inverse shook Businessman's hand, Businessman saw himself as having a work and going to life. The experience was so intense that he retired the next day." - Taken from All My Friends Are Superheroes, by Andrew Kaufman.

In our pursuit for some answers when it comes to how to be well in the modern world, a lot of us have been known to use the phrase work-life balance; the elusive point at which the different intersections of our lives seem to make sense together; a point at which we have it down. It shines like a formula of grand design that means we get enough time to ourselves and our loved ones, but also work hard and fulfil our dreams, in seemingly equal measure. Across various conversations and attempts of my own to reach this kind of equilibrium, the question of whether a work-life balance can exist at all (beyond the instagram accounts of yoga instructors and food bloggers, perhaps) has begun to puzzle me. Like, a golden snitch of our day-to-day existence dancing just out of reach.