BCNMCR mastermind Dave Sedgwick on why the popular design exhibition is coming back for one last time

Taking place at Manchester’s Hallé St Peter’s on Friday 21st April, BCNMCR is a once-in-a-lifetime design event featuring innovative personalities and agencies taking the stage including Lo Siento, Javier Jaén, Ingrid Picanyol, Pràctica and Cabeze Patata.

Designers with long memories will recall that BCNMCR has visited the second city before. In fact, the upcoming event comes a full decade after it first wowed audiences. What made StudioDBD organizer and owner Dave Sedgwick decide to revisit it one last time? Put simply – it sounds like the time is right.

After starting a family in 2014 – coincidentally the last year that there was a BCNMCR event – ​​Dave reveals that his career has kept him busy with his own projects and pushed the conference to the sidelines. “The idea of ​​doing more than the work I needed to do (while raising a kid) was completely off the table, and I felt like I’d managed to just do two,” he tells Creative Boom.

But over the years and with the onset of the global pandemic, Dave felt he needed another challenge to reignite some of the adrenaline and passion he felt organizing the first two BCNMCR events. “I wanted to prove myself again because I was starting to worry that my career might be a bit of a treadmill,” he reveals. “We all work for a lot of clients and of course that’s great, but I wanted to do something for myself again.

“I enjoy meeting different people and hosting events like this, so I decided to do one final episode. And what could be a better time than exactly ten years after the first one?”

Dave’s clear joy in hosting BCNMCR is rooted in his passion for Barcelona, ​​which can be traced back to the 1990s when he went there as a young art student. Having immediately fallen in love with the city and its narrow streets and graffiti, he often visited with just a camera and old-fashioned paper maps to experience it. “I felt like it was such a creative city and as my career as a designer took shape I became increasingly interested in their design scene.”

During one of these trips Dave decided to visit some agencies in Barcelona and learn more about them. “I contacted guys like Hey and Lo Siento and luckily they were lucky enough to meet,” he explains. “While talking about the similarities between Barcelona and Manchester, I got the idea to think about an exhibition of design work from Barcelona, ​​but here in Manchester, and maybe they would come too.”

Luckily they said yes and then it was Dave’s turn to start organizing the event that would become BCNMCR. No small feat considering he had never done anything like it before. “In 2013, a few months after I was in Barcelona, ​​I flew over four leading agencies, put them up in a hotel and hosted a night of talks alongside an exhibition of their work.

“Fortunately, the people of Manchester appreciated the event and we had hundreds of visitors. Tickets sold out in less than 30 minutes and the whole night was a huge success.”

A second BCNMCR event took place the following year, this time on a larger scale and with even more participating agencies including CLASE, TOORMIX and Laura Meseguer. “The event was again a success, with over 250 people attending the lectures and hundreds more viewing the exhibition.”

The buzz for BCNMCR doesn’t seem to have waned over the years, with the event already selling out despite tickets only going on sale last week. Dave attributes this popularity to Manchester’s relative lack of design talk. “There aren’t many of those around here in the city, and when something like that comes up, I think people don’t want to miss it,” he says. “I also think that the idea of ​​creative people coming to visit from a different city with maybe different values ​​and mindsets really interests people.”

In addition to their city of origin, another theme that unites all the creative talents on display reflects the last decade. Lo Siento, who performed at the first event ten years ago, will be returning and Dave is sure they will want to reflect on how the past few years have changed and shaped them.

Meanwhile, Javier Jaén will talk about a new book they’ve just finished with Counterprint – and have sold a few signed copies – and Cabeza Patata will likely talk about how they’ve continued to work over the past few years while touring the world are a mobile home. Then there’s Ingrid and Anna, who have set up their own agencies over the last ten years. “I think there’s going to be a wide range of different conversations and conversations, which helps make it such a great event,” says Dave.

When selecting speakers for this year’s BCNMCR event, it was important to him to provide variety, says Dave. “Cabeza Patata, for example, doesn’t do the kind of work that I do personally, but what they do is amazing and I know people get excited about it,” he explains. “I always find it helps in my own creative practice to hear from speakers who work in different ways, so I wanted to make sure that this year it’s not just 100% graphic design studios.

“I also wanted to make sure Lo Siento came back because in many ways they are the reason BCNMCR was formed.

This year’s BCNMCR speakers will be accompanied by a specially designed hardcover book to commemorate the event. Printed by TEAM IMPRESSION with a foiled cover by FOILCO, Dave says it will convey a sense of longevity that is different from the exhibition that traditionally accompanies the event.

“There will be work and interviews with over 50 designers, illustrators, makers and creatives from Barcelona, ​​including all previous speakers and participants as well as many more new ones,” he says. “I’ve already started receiving work for the book and it’s all fantastic and original pieces.

“The book will be published exclusively at UNITOM in Manchester the night before the talks (20 April, 6pm-8pm) and is available for just £20 a copy. If there are any left we will be selling them at the BCNMCR event the next day and if there are any left they will be available to shop online through the BCNMCR website.

“We’re only doing 500 copies, and I want to make sure the contributors get a copy, so I’m guessing we’ll end up with around 350 copies.”

Considering BCNMCR is so popular, will it never come back? “Well, I’ll never say never!” laughs David. “But I think three is a nice number to finish with. The truth is that running events like this takes a lot of work behind the scenes. Emails, meetings, organization and planning and all the design work required. Temporary work, and only I do it!”

With his studio and responsibilities as a father, Dave says he has no real plans to do anything like this again. “I also feel like I’ve cemented a design relationship between the two cities, so if I ever want to host an event like this again, I think maybe it’ll be a new city,” he adds.

“I like the idea that it’s always a ‘second’ city, like Barcelona and Manchester,” he concludes. “So New York, Munich, Porto or Rotterdam, keep your eyes open!”