Member Article

CREATIVE INDUSTRY GENERATES BUZZ FOR WE LOVE MANCHESTER

Over a hundred creatives attended Plan Bee Manchester’s summer fundraising event on Thursday 20th July to celebrate their craft in aid of the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund. An impressive £1,000 (and counting) was raised to help the families affected by the atrocities on 22 May.

A selection of Manchester’s best artists and small studios were invited to produce prints for an exclusive exhibition curated on the theme of ‘Connection’ which went up for sale to raise money for the charity cause. The evening also included a live ‘art battle’ between two local artists, Mr Woody Woods and Tasha Whittle, who completed works in real time; the results of which were then auctioned off to the highest bidders.

Plan Bee Manchester — a joint venture between award-winning motion design agency Flow Creative and independent creative director, designer and graphic illustrator Sneaky Raccoon (Anna Mullin) - was originally formed as a meet-up for freelancers to have a collective Christmas celebration. However, due to demand following the success of the first meet up, it was decided to make Plan Bee a bi-annual event.

Karl Doran, Flow Creative’s creative director, said: “It was great to see so many people come along and get involved with Plan Bee. We wanted to put on an event that would give Manchester’s creatives a chance to use their talents to help support a really good cause. Enabling them to all come together to celebrate our warm and welcoming, rapidly growing design community was a real bonus.”

“We’ve all been moved by the city’s reaction to the horrible attack in May, and wanted to do something from our community to help - one that we know cares passionately about the city it calls home. The response by our artists and all our partners has been phenomenal and helped to make it a really great night. By donating all of the proceeds we hope we’re able to help those affected in some way.”

Guests also enjoyed a letterpress live printing workshop and a floral garden made entirely from paper, both by paper manufacturer G.F Smith. A designer raffle with creative prizes, kindly donated by Fred Aldous among others, and a bake sale also helped smash the fundraising target. The summery tunes were provided by Manchester DJ collective Left+Right, cocktails were served by host venue, Texture, and everyone was well fed with delicious food made on site my Artisam catering.

Anna Mullin, owner of Sneaky Racoon, said: “On seeing the great spirit of Manchester’s people who came together and stood united in the face of such phenomenal atrocities, we felt inspired to contribute. We decided to celebrate our community’s voice regarding how we were connected to each other through our work and our city by utilising collective creativity.”

“Having hosted exhibitions and events previously, including running a commercial gallery myself, it meant that we had all the necessary tools and experience required to gather talent and generate something unique for one night only with charity at its heart. Creatives came on board in support of the event completely unconditionally and with such generosity to do what we all do best, which is making, building, and generating new ideas. It’s truly amazing what you can do when you connect the dots between the vast creative skills from all fields that exist in our community. So, we’d like to say a massive thank you to all of the artists involved, to the DJs who kept us entertained, to all of our sponsors who have been wonderful to work with, and, of course, to Texture for being our host venue and continued hub for inspirational events. We could not have done any of this without you and we are delighted that between us all and our attendees we raised so much money to support those in need.”

Prints will be available to buy online soon, with all proceeds going to the charity. Check Plan Bee MCR social channels for updates.

For further information, please go to facebook.com/planbeemcr/ / twitter.com/planbeemcr / https://www.instagram.com/planbeemcr/

Note to editors

Flow Creative

Flow Creative is based on Lever Street and is owned by Karl Doran.

Flow Creative’s impressive client roster includes the BBC, Arts Council England and Hannamans.

The agency specialises in motion graphics, animation and video production.

Flow won four awards at 2017’s Big Chip Awards - Best use of animation; Best public sector campaign, Best use of digital design and the Grand prix award.

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Sneaky Raccoon

Sneaky Racoon’s impressive client roster includes the WaterAid, WWF, Nike, Pandora, Monsoon among other brands, works with a variety of charities worldwide, from design to creative, art direction, graphics and visuals for animation.

The artists involved are listed below:

Dominique Byron Barney Ibbotson and Dan Hett Mr Woody Woods Martin James Power Nine Sixty Noe Baba Instruct Studio Design by Day LJB Studio Jane Bowyer Tash Willcocks Sneaky Raccoon Studio Dotto Flow Creative

The event partners are listed below:

Texture Manchester Fred Aldous G. F. Smith DJ Collective Left + Right Artisam Catering With Print Fablab Altrincham Jane Bowyer and Toby Burkill One Minute Briefs Lost Heritage Lazerian Just Bee Drinks EE Chrisp Letterpress

Fiona Finchett — Photography

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by lucy yates .