Beyond Typography

Going Public

I went to visit The Public at the weekend. The Public is the new arts centre in West Bromwich designed by Alsop Architects. I remember reading about the project in 2003 a few years ago in Design Week. The idea was to put West Bromwich on the arts map. It was delayed and had problems with financing and a change in management.

But it is now open. To a muttering of disapproval from the locals. A lot of them said it was a waste of money, they could've built a new hospital/sports centre/swimming pool/shopping centre, etc. Yeah, like they'd use them – that's why they demolished the previous swimming pool. And West Brom is about half way between the revamped Bullring in Birmingham and Merry Hell shopping centre in Dudley.

If they thought about it, there is now another reason to go to West Bromwich (outside of the football season – but that's another argument!) As well as being a cultural centre for the locals, it was Bollywood weekend and there were free screenings of a couple of classics plus other activities, there is an art gallery. I'm guessing the intention is that it will draw people in to the area who will spend money.

It's always the same. Wherever something new or different is proposed/built/opened the vocal local populace are interviewed to knock the new thing. For example, if the media were to be believed, the majority of Portsmouthians did not want the Spinnaker Tower. It seems if you're thick and speak with a local accent and hang around the city centre, then you can represent the views of the rest of the populace. 

Anyway, The Public is an interesting venue. The gallery section isn't open to the public yet. The rest of it is imaginative and a really nice place to sit and drink coffee. I will visit this place regularly, and I'll post my thoughts when the gallery is open. 

There are some more pics in the photo album.

A quick one today as I've got a load of stuff to do before attending day two of an Advanced Flash Course. Yesterday was day one and we covered a lot of ground. I hope to make use of a lot of it.

I downloaded the new Firefox on Tuesday night. Seems slicker than the previous version – although I had to change the browser theme from the default hideous Firelight.

But what is even better is the PicLens add-on from CoolIris and is available for most browsers. When you look at Flickr or YouTube, or search Google, Yahoo, etc, instead of displaying the results as thumbnails on pages, it displays them in a 3D wall (this feature doesn't work in Safari!). Makes searching so much quicker.

Also, Portsmouth is being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century (architecturally speaking, anyway) with the announcement of the new stadium for Portsmouth Football Club. So what? It's been designed by Herzog and de Meuron and looks fantastic. This adds to the already iconic Spinnaker Tower. I hope it gets the required planning permission. Portsmouth had some really nice architecture before being flattened during WW2, or demolished in an attempt to modernise during the 1960s and 70s. One really bold move was to commission the Tricorn Centre, which, when opened won an international design award. The problem was, the local council didn't have the courage of their convictions and the moaners started to knock it until it was voted ugliest building before being torn down to be replaced by an impersonal, identikit shopping mall with no character. The past few years has seen a resurrection of good design in Portsmouth.

And finally, this. Country tourism brands. S'funny how most adopt a "hand-painted" feel...