Last Thursday we popped along to Birmingham’s inaugural Chitterlings dinner at The Vaults. It’s an event that Type used to run in London, and it’s basically a smallish gathering of graphic design professionals and educators getting together over a meal to listen to, and chat with, a guest speaker – and each other. (Caroline explains it all much better over on the Type website – and they’ve got better photos too!)

First up, thanks to Euston station being shut and the subsequent travel disruption, we were treated to an impromptu talk by Francis Atterbury of Hurtwood Press who had literally just returned to the country from Stuttgart. There, he’d been collecting proofs of the new exhibition catalogue of Gilbert & George’s work, the printing of which he’s overseeing for them. It was fascinating to hear his anecdotes, and about the perfectionism and passion that goes into something that so many people take for granted. Ahhh, the joys of getting colours just right!

Next, our main speaker – Meirion Pritchard, Art Director of Wallpaper magazine – described the changing face of the magazine, from the first issue to the latest; a slightly naughty Peter Saville special. It was both interesting and reassuring to hear that everyday design conundrums also affect the designer of a global publication; hooray!

Chitterlings was a real experience – and one I hope to repeat. I don’t know if it’s just me but lots of people seem to be interested in socialising over food recently – is ‘food networking’ becoming something of a trend … or is that just pie in the sky?