Barcelona Street Style: Leeds in Barcelona

Dom from Dom, Dick, & Harry.
Fashion designer Ariadna & photographer JohnDave Beer and Rachel from Marketing LeedsGiuseppe from ICS and DomTwo students
Stacey from HebePhotographer from LelookTwo guestsJulia from Marketing LeedsA guestTeacher from IEDCarole Lelook's shoesGiuseppe's DJ's face glittersTeacher from IED and his boyI took these pictures at our recent Leeds in Barcelona event, during the panel discussion at IED. I love shooting people in a fashion school, everything was just so painless, the people are well dressed but effortless, and they welcome cameras, it made my work so easy! 

Leeds in Barcelona: The Showcase

Last month we headed out to Barcelona for Leeds in Barcelona: A Creative Encounter. Here we concentrate on the second part of the project - Leeds Taylor which was a showcase event of creative talent from both Leeds and Barcelona. (You can check out the first part of the project here: The Conference)

Leeds Taylor was held at the amazing Hotel ME in Barcelona. The idea behind the event from our point of view, was to showcase Leeds creative talent to massive audience of international opinion leaders and, more broadly speaking, further develop ties between the two cities. But rather then just go to Barcelona and try to 'sell' we wanted to create an experience that was more of a collaboration, something that was a one-off special project. To do this we teamed up with Marketing Leeds and our good friends LeLook and set about creating a platform where Leeds and Barcelona creatives could be seen together. For the fashion talent involved in the project this was in the form of a photo-shoot and catwalk show. 

Photoshoot at Hotel MECatwalk featuring Dom Dick & HarryA piece from the latest James Steward collectionDom Dick and Harry and Nicholas DeakinsJames Steward A/W

The soundtrack for the event was supplied first of all by Barcelona DJ and all round superstar DJ Mustache. Then followed a live performance from Leeds band ICS and they absolutely smashed it! Their performance included material from their new EP mixed up with some really cool covers including Nelly - Ride With Me, and Tinie Tempah - Pass Out. Then the showcase moved up to the 6th floor where the sounds of legendary Leeds club BacktoBasics and more specifically Dave Beer and Tristan Da Cunha kept the 1000 strong crowd entertained for hours more.

ICS left a lasting impression on the Catalan crowd

The showcase attracted more then 1000 people

The reaction to the event in Barcelona was amazing. Loads of people from the Barca creative scene now want to visit Leeds and hook up with designers, artists, bands and DJs here. The directors of the European Institute of Design want to travel here this summer and discuss ways we can collaborate further. Spanish national television will feature the project in a show later this month, introducing millions more to what we created and drive more interest and awareness of Leeds as an interesting international creative city.

Over the coming weeks we will report back on further fallout from the event including some of the next steps people are taking and we will post a copy of the spot on Spanish television. Discussions are taking place involving the talent featured in the project and we are sure that in the immediate and long term, some really cool things are going to emerge from this project.

The Hebe Week In Pics

Last weekend it was our friend Matt Maudes birthday and feature film premier!The whole Hebe Team and friends went!Applause for the Left Eye Blind feature film which was very entertaining!Film snacks ;)The birthday boy with one of his pressiesOld school ticket machine @ The Showcase CinemaNow we have a superhero phoneWe also met up with Josh from ICS and Freya to talk new Jamaica projects!I discovered MORE low fat poporn, it deserves a spot for the amount i eat daily!We also hit LCA Graduate Fashion show(blog post coming) and caught up with Marketing Leeds and the LFS Girls!Caught Shang Ting interviewing a foxy guy(you know i had to do the joke! As bad as it was ;))Another pair of Lee's crazy kicks!I went along to the Leeds Loves Food Bus Tour. Mmm cakes from Cooplands!Chicken and peppers from Casa MiaLeeds Grub and Ebsnare talking fruit! While Phil Kirby is thoroughly enjoying the bus tour info!And finishing off with a lovely photo of Matt and our Simon! See you next week!

Creative Cities - Leeds in Barcelona Conference

This video, posted on LeLook's website earlier this week, captures the energy and direction of a panel discussion between a group creative people, brought together on the first night of this year's Leeds in Barcelona, as part of a conference hosted by IED (Istituto Europeo di Design).

Chaired by our very own Lee Hicken, the conversation centred around the idea of a "creative scene", comparing the current situation in Leeds and in Barcelona, and reflecting on the conditions necessary to realise the potential of a city's creative people.

Despite popular myth I wasn't playing DrawRace on my phone throughout the discussion and was listening intently and making some notes... I just happened to be making them on my phone... long live Evernote! I've published them below, to give people an overall sense of what was said, but this is just an interim thing until the edited recording is ready to be published - this should be ready in the next few weeks.

Chair: Lee Hicken, Director of Hebe Media (Leeds)

Host: Jürgen Salenbacher • Academic Director at IED Barcelona

Panel:

• Imran Ali • New Technologies Expert, Consumption trends
• Juan Antonino Ávalos • Spanish Fashion Designer
• Chidy Wayne • Spanish Fashion Designer and Fashion Illustrator
• Dom, de Dom Dick & Harry • English Fashion Designer
• Giuseppe De Luca • Singer of ICS (iCallShotgun), visual artist

- Introductions

- Jurgen reflects on creative cities

- Creative economy needs creative education

- Reflecting on what has happened in the economy, the crisis is also a transformation of an economy driven by machines to one driven by ideas

- Creatives helping to develop new forms of economy

- Providing a platform for creatives to develop their ideas

- Technology supporting creativity

- Without the right circumstances it's impossible

- Imran talks 'bleeding edge' emerging technology, post-digital economy and the city is a platform for new technologies

- What some people think of as distractions are the real business of the city

- The city is a lab for creativity, enabling efficient prototyping of new ideas

- Through non-conferences cities are developing a digital cultures along side the creative ones

- Dom on life as a fashion designer in Leeds - Leeds is not London or Paris and this enables a level of safety with which to experiment

- Cross fertilisation of ideas between music, fashion, art that is underpinned by the social scene

- Diversity breeds creativity

- Tolerance is an important factor in collaboration

- The economic transformation - from industrial to knowledge economy

- The need for accountable creativity - in economic terms (emphasised by a drop in employment, in Barcelona)

- Technology as a way of spreading ideas

- Cities and their unrealised potential

- It is important that support comes from all external forces, not just education

- Talent moves where the opportunities are

Conversation moves on from creative cities to creative education:

- Lee asks some questions about training

- "You learn to learn - when you crack that you can teach yourself anything."

- Not about going to school - it's about motivation

- Positive thing about a design school is the infrastructure, the resources, the test-bed (safety, low risk space)

- Need to update and optimise education to meet skills needs in industry

- Imran talks about Orange and MIT Lab as a template for a new kind of education

- Imran talks about user designed 'bar camps' as a useful tool / catalyst

- Sustaining connection so when you want people to cohere you only need to make a phone call

A full recording of the conversation, along with other material from Leeds in Barcelona 2011 will be posted here soon.

Leeds in Barcelona: Spotlight on Rowan Grant

One of the designers who will feature during the Leeds in Barcelona project is Rowan Grant and her jewellery brand Kitschen Sink. We checked in with Rowan to get a bit of her back-story and her take on the Leeds creative scene.

We are delighted to have Rowan involved in Leeds in Barcelona: A Creative Encounter. She has added another dimension to what we are showcasing and gives something very different to the other brands involved: James Steward Couture, Dom, Dick and Harry and Nicholas Deakins. Somehow brands that start organically have so much more 'cool' then those manufactured by the system or for purely financial gain and Rowan is a great example of that: Working her way from 99p eBay auctions to being stocked in Selfridges!

This is the final video previewing the Leeds in Barcelona project and in the coming days we will begin reporting back on the project and share loads of pictures and videos! 

Note: Big "thank you" to Neil at Testspace for hooking us up :)