Fourseventy media

Founded in 2010 while studying at Birmingham City University, Steve Thornton and Chris Williams went on to become the first undergraduates to be nominated for a Sony Radio Award in 2011. It was for their feature length documentary UB40’s 30th Anniversary, which was nominated for ‘Best Music Special’.

Since the incorporation of the company, Fourseventy Media are proud to have worked with the likes of Birmingham City Council, Birmingham City University, The NEC Group, Retail Birmingham, South Birmingham Police, Fused Magazine, Dyson Media and many more. Fourseventy Media endeavour to help charities and non-profit organisations within the Birmingham area free of charge; their nominated charity this year is Edward’s Trust, who offer bereavement counselling for children and parents in the West Midlands.

Jack Row

One of the world’s most expensive pens worth £27,500 has been designed by an award winning graduate from Birmingham City University. 26-year-old Jack Row – originally from Nottingham, who now lives and works in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter has launched his début collection of luxurious precious metal fountain pens at Harrods, the world’s most prestigious department store. Amongst Jack’s designs is his exclusively hand crafted, white gold and diamond detailed fountain pen.

His ‘Architect’ Collection of fountain pens and cufflinks are all individually hand-crafted in solid silver and gold and set with accents of precious sapphires and diamonds.

His design inspiration is drawn from iconic British architecture, most notably one of London’s most famous landmarks, the ‘Gherkin’. The iconic profile and geometric spirals are reflected in the pens elaborate silver and gold filigree.

Jack came up with the design prototypes whilst he was a student on the Jewellery and Silversmithing – Design for Industry course at the School of Jewellery,

Birmingham Institute of Art and Design. His innovative designs also saw him winning a gold medal prize from the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. “Jack’s fabulous collection is luxurious, eccentric and quintessentially British, aligning perfectly with the unforgettable Harrods experience,” said Darren Walker, Gifts and Stationery Buyer at Harrods.

Liam Treanor

In early 2011 Liam Treanor founded his self-titled designer furniture brand which has promptly established itself as one of the emerging brands to look out for. The studio, working alongside its series of carefully selected manufacturers, has produced a distinctly fresh and international range of timber based furniture and lighting for both domestic and cafe-contract use.

The products adopt an elegant, minimal and seamlessly organic aesthetic pulled together by a selection of trend savvy colours. Stockists include renowned Hong Kong and Beijing designer retail store Lane Crawford.

Urban Coffee Company

The Urban Coffee Company is located in the business districts of major cities outside London and provides coffee via cafe emporiums and their online tasting club. Urban Coffee’s whole life revolves around creating a unique coffee experience for the customer. As they put it: “It goes without saying that our coffee is the best this side of the moon.

“We have created a “wine tasting for coffee” experience that’s not available anywhere else on the high street or online. But that’s not enough; we want the customer to be at the centre of everything we did so imagine this: In our cafe emporiums our Urbanistas (what we call our Baristas) are people who are naturally happy, friendly and smiley who enjoy their jobs (We hire them like that – they are harder to find than you think).

“Our Urbanistas remember our customers names and their usual drink order so the customer feels at home and loved and best of all they have the experience to make you a great coffee. So our customers can enjoy our coffee at home and work not just in cafe emporiums, we created the Coffee Connoisseurs Tasting Club.

“The club delivers single estate coffees to your door to experience on a monthly basis.” Amir & Simon had been in IT for over 10 years and until starting the Urban Coffee Company knew nothing about retailing coffee. “The UK has come a long way with coffee in the last 20 years, from polystyrene cups all the way to a fairly sophisticated understanding of coffee.

“However, we feel it can be taken up another notch and that’s our intent; think wine tasting meets coffee. So, unhappy with the quality of coffee on the average high street, we decided that the only way to get a decent cup was to start our own place.”