TMDG in Argentina celebrated it’s 10th anniversary earlier this month. The design conference held annually in Mar Del Plata was launched in 2001 by Seba Acampante and Pablo Gonzalez Diaz Pacheco – and has since grown to fill a stadium venue attracting over 6000 visitors from all over South America. This year’s line up of speakers included David Carson, Jeremy Ville, Ian Anderson, Dr Alderete, Elliot Tupac, Unconvention, Hojun Song, Massimo Vignelli and Gerard Saint from Big Active. We’d like to extend our thanks to everyone involved for their passion and hospitality. TMDG Rocks – that’s official! Click here to see some of the highlights.

In addition to our success at the European Design Awards, we are also pleased to announce Mark Ronson’s ‘Record Collection’ has featured in all of this years major design awards. The project was selected for the 2011 Creative Review Annual, nominated as a finalist in the Design Week Awards and chosen to appear in the 49th Edition of the D&AD Annual. To take a closer look at Mark Ronson’s ‘Record Collection’ as well as a selection of projects from our music design portfolio please click here.

Sofia Design Week is currently in full flow in Bulgaria. At Saturday’s forum speakers included Big Active’s Gerard Saint, the book designer David Pearson and Mark Chambers creative director of the innovative digital agency Perfect Fools. This year’s event centers around the theme ‘Design is all around’ – and the capital city plays host an extensive program of events, exhibitions, screenings, talks and workshops. Big Active also have a selection of music design work on show at the Central Mineral Baths Gallery. Sofia Design Week runs until 18th June.

Big Active has just been awarded a Gold Prize at the European Design Awards for our art direction and design work on Mark Ronson’s ‘Record Collection’ album. The awards were announced by Ugne Skonsmanaite at a ceremony held in Vilnius on Saturday. The work was described by this year’s jury as “the perfect way to reference the musician’s influences and the collecting habits of the customer”. This trophy marks the latest in a run of nominations for the project at this years design awards – it was also short listed as a finalist at the Design Week Awards in March, and is currently featured in the 2011 Creative Review Annual. The 2011 European Design Awards book will be published next month.

We’d like to say welcome back to Grafik magazine – and wish co-editors Caroline Roberts and Angharad Lewis every success with the new format. The first issue has an special feature on ‘How to Get Rich in Graphic Design’ with topical commentary from industry sages including Stefan Sagmeister, Michael C. Place, Michael Johnson and Big Active’s creative director Gerard Saint. “What you should be asking is whether it’s possible to earn money and still have principles, and yes, I believe that is true…” says Saint. For the full report go buy the magazine – it’s well worth it.

Big Active’s creative director and founder Gerard Saint has just returned from Athens after speaking at the Design Panorama conference. Saturday’s headline talk focused on Big Active’s music design output – and why we believe an integrated approach is essential to produce effective creative work. “Music design is the glue that holds together all the fragmented aspects of the way music is currently consumed – from digital to print – so it’s really important that each adds a new dimension to the story…”. Examples of this way of thinking include campaigns for Beck, The Enemy, Keane, Goldfrapp and Mark Ronson.

Design Panorama is organized annually by +Design Magazine and Sunday’s main presentation featured Anne Miltenburg from the Dutch design studio Lava who have been named European Design Agency of 2010. We’d like to thank Demetrios Fakinos and +Design for their superb hospitality.

‘The Trend Forecaster’s Handbook’ was officially launched last week at the Wapping Project in London’s East End. The book is a sharp, in-depth and highly visual textbook and teaching aid for students and tutors keen to know more about the world of trends, trend forecasting and consumer-insight techniques. Trends are a fundamental part of our emotional, physical and psychological landscape, and by forecasting trends, or using them to anticipate what is new and next in the world, we can begin understand what drives and motivates consumers. This in turn can help to make the difference between a product or design that sells and one that languishes on the shelf. The Trend Forecaster’s Handbook was written by Martin Raymond co-founder of The Future Laboratory, and was designed in collaboration with Gerard Saint and Ed Vince at Big Active.

‘Couture In The 21st Century‘ is a new book designed by Big Active. It was launched last night with an exclusive party at Harrods. Working in collaboration with the author Deborah Bee, design director Gerard Saint commissioned Rankin to shoot a definitive series of portraits of 30 of the world’s leading fashion designers – the likes of Erdem, Lacroix, Prada, Paul Smith, Armani and Oscar de la Renta, to accompany interviews explaining their relationship with couture, archive inspiration and examples from each designer’s current collection. The front and back cover features specially commissioned graphics by Siggi Eggertsson. See more…

The new Mark Ronson album ‘Record Collection’ features many different record covers that are used to create the actual design. The album campaign was directed and designed by Big Active with collaborative imagery by Mat Maitland, Jasper Goodall, Will Sweeney, Jesse Auersalo, Parra and Markus Karlsson. The ‘Record Collection’ is available as a CD, 12″ Vinyl, iTunes Interactive Format and Collectors 7″ boxed set – featuring the individual sleeves from the album collages and housed in an 80’s inspired leatherette record carry case.