Grillust™ Autumn Tour 2011 - Destination No.4

Location: Manchester
Date: Monday 28 November- Tuesday 29 November
Event: UCAS Design Your Future
Distance from Carlisle: 121 miles
Grillust™ Operative: Tony
Design Your Futures Fast Fact 1: over 6000 art students attended over two days
Design Your Futures Fast Fact 2: there is always a ton of free crap on offer - everything from the humble pen, badge and postcard through to bags, mouse mats and T-shirts.
Most annoying freebie of 2011: the promotional popcorn that was dropped by visitors on just about every stand at the show. University of Gloucestershire please note - popcorn should have NO place in the recruitment of students!


The event took place at the Manchester Central Convention Complex, still known to everyone as the G-Mex...


The interior of the G-Mex is quite like our studio only a little smaller...


The calm before the storm; our welcoming stand and friendly staff.


The photo booth was a real hit, especially with the ladies.


Über Mancunian design supremo, Peter Saville casts an adoring eye over our student's work.


Tony (33) gave a talk on the Monday entitled 'How to Succeed' to these lovely people.


Fine Art 'Supremo' Professor Robert 'Prof' Williams (33) recovers from another heavy round of Fine Art course enquiries.


Ian Anderson from out of Jethro Tull was so excited he treated us to some of his greatest hits including the full version of Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play, nice...


Monday night - after a hard day's work, time for some liquid refreshment in Manchester's only pub with a 'wall of crisps'!

Manchester Beardy Weirdies

The 'Grillust™ Beard Photo Booth' did a roaring trade over the two days...

A Field Day for Foot Fetishists!

Oh, oh... the first years have been drawing footwear!

 

For Becky's Mum Only

Dear Becky's Mum

With subjects that aren't related to the career of choice (eg. philosophy, history etc.) it could be argued that the degree classification attained and the institution attended act as an important 'currency' when making job applications.

We're happy to report that the world of art & design has never (and never will) operate in this way. Ours is a meritocracy based solely on creativity, motivation and ability. Design studios have no interest in where a candidate studied or their degree classification. They are interested in only two things; their personality and the quality of their work.

The best University for Becky will be one that enthuses, encourages, supports and values her aspirations. She needs to find one of those scarce institutions that will treat her as an individual, not just another face in the crowd, somewhere she will feel at home.

Card Engineering

Modern pop-up books with some impressive card engineering...


Tutankhamun - 1500mm pop-up from an A4 book

How the body works


Space Shuttle 1







Space Shuttle 2, again from an A4 book

"Fashionistas" of the Week

The "Fashionistas" working hard in the creatively messy and entirely un-glamorous EWM Marketing studio.

the return of strangest thing of the week

In this moving and troubling visual depiction of desire, we watch, slack jawed, as Rod Stewart (famed singer of 'Do You Think I'm Sexy' and 'Blondes Have More Fun') sets out to and succeeds in eventually ensnaring his woman. In this instance his old pal from The Faces, scarecrow look-a-like and waitress botherer, Ronnie Wood.
Thanks go to Luci Ormrod (21) of yr 1 Graphic Design for this piece which has called for the return of 'Strangest Thing of the Week'.

And here's a close but no cigar to Chris Bell for his 'Hair Styles'. 'Nuff said.

Grillust™ Autumn Tour 2011 - Destination No.3

Location: Leyland
Date: Wednesday 23 November
Distance from Carlisle: 98 miles
Grillust™ Operative: Tony

Leyland Fast Fact 1: home to the bus and truck manufacturer Leyland Motors

Leyland Fast Fact 2: the very first Leylandii hedge (now infamous as a common cause of territorial disputes between neighbours) was discovered growing wild in Leyland in the 1950's.

Leyland Fast Fact 3: Laura Palmer's father, Leyland (from the hit 90's TV series 'Twin Peaks') was named after this Lancashire town.

'Explaining to an Alien' - Year 1 Project

Even the simplest of things can be extremely difficult to explain if you can only use images. We rely on language for so much in our day-to-day lives...

The students were asked to choose from a list of common objects and then design an A3 sheet that would visually explain its purpose to any visiting alien who may drop by for a visit. The final outcome also had to demonstrate their ability to use Adobe Illustrator (they've been going to weekly 'Illustrator' classed all term).

As ever, the quality of the 'journey' decides the quality of the final piece. As you may well know, we frown on our students designing on screen (a soul destroying activity at the best of times and likely to result in a 'clip round the ear' from Rhiannon). In fact here's what our Course Study Guide has to say on the matter:

'Don’t get us wrong, we do love computers but we see them as a useful tool not the answer to all our prayers. They certainly are a hindrance to developing visual ideas quickly and spontaneously. In fact a computer is to the generation of ideas, what a suit of armour is to lovemaking - technically possible, but a definite hindrance to speed and passion.'

So rather than focus on the finished pieces, here's the story (in excellent A3 visual sheets) of how Year 1 Illustration student Ruth Fogden (21) came up with her final design explaining what hair dryers are for.

Please note: like all good designers Ruth explores lots of alternatives before making an informed choice about which works the best...

'100 Ideas' - Year 1 Project

We've been concentrating all term on helping our First Year students develop their ability to generate multiple ideas and then get them down confidently on paper. They're coming along nicely thank you.

Here's a tricky little project designed to encourage lateral thought and a playful approach to visual problem solving. We gave the students four A3 sheets containing 100 empty frames, a fairly dull subject and asked them to produce 100 visual variations on the given object in a very short period of time. Here are a few examples for your delectation and amusement:

Rae Valters (21) of Year 1 Illustration chose a walking stick as her subject...




Debbie Nixon (21) of Year 1 Graphic Design, chose to explore the visual possibilities of a traffic cone...



Finally, Ricky Lowe (21) of Year 1 Illustration shows us what he can do with a skittle...