Use your mobile phone in an innovative scheme at the Vamp;A’s new exhibition, Rewind: 40 years of design and advertising from the Damp;AD Awards, to find out more about the history of design, then take your own photograph for the visitors’ website and vote for your favourite among the 43 Damp;AD Gold Awards.

Rewind is an insightful guide to the best of commercial design over the past 40 years, all award winners chosen by a panel of experts for Damp;AD (British Design and Art Direction), and including such familiar images as the “pregnant man”, the 1970 press advertisement for the Health Education Council, Stalin with a squashed tomato on his nose on a film poster, and the “Hello Boys” Wonderbra ad. There are sections on products and packaging, radio and television advertising. Enjoy a 55-minute showreel, beginning with the Dr Who title sequence from the Sixties, which takes in all the old favourites from the gritty nostalgia of the Hovis ad to the witty graphics of the original titles for the South Bank Show.

Two one-day masterclasses, on November 23 and 30, will provide students with a unique opportunity to talk to leading designers and art directors. Bookings: 020 7942 2190. There is a programme of talks and family events (including “Ready, Steady, Design”, played in teams), and a study day on January 31. Information: www.vam.ac.uk.

Mind matters

Listen to people from different walks of life as they guide you through Consciousness. Meditation. Watcher on the Hills, an exhibition of the work of conceptual artist On Kawara, showing his preoccupation with human consciousness. The Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, November 20 to January 26. Information: 0121 248 0708.