We're Off to London to Show Off Our Graduates

Regular readers of the Blog will know that it's rapidly approaching that time of year when we head to London (a large city somewhere South of Doncaster) to exhibit our graduating student's work to industry professionals. Have a look here to see last year's foray to 'the smoke'.




We will be exhibiting our highly talented Graphic Design and Illustration graduates at at New Designers Part 2, held at the rather swanky Business Design Centre in central London (above).

The show opens on Wednesday 5 July and it runs through to Saturday 8 July.

Opening times as follows:
Wed 3.00 – 9.00 (VIP & Press Preview)
Thursday 10.00 – 8.00
Friday 10.00 – 5.00
Saturday 10.00 – 5.00

Venue: 
Business Design Centre 52 Upper Street London N1 0QH 

You can find more details here.

We're on stand VC34 and look forward to meeting friends old and new.

Here's an extra special, behind-the-scenes  preview of what we will be showing...

Grillust Artists in Residence Exhibition 2017

For a year now we've been sharing our studio with three of our excellent Graduates of 2016 - illustrator Miss Maddy Mould, graphic designer Master Vincent Walden and illustrator/force of nature Miss Katie Lock (all 33) who collectively comprise our Artists in Residence.

It's been a pleasure hosting them (they've been no trouble and all) and they plan to leave with a bang well, actually an exhibition. Here's what Katie has to tell you:

Being offered our artists in residency within Grillust has given us an invaluable space for us to find
our feet after graduating university, making transitioning out of education a much more relaxed,
enjoyable process. Access to workshops and reprographics along side studio space has helped
continue our shared and personal creative paths which has only but developed assuredly over the
past year. Whilst a lot of graduates end up working out of their bedroom, this has been a
very unique and significant venture!



We will be displaying a collection of our individual and group artwork at a local exhibition -
“F R E S H” at The Galley in Atlas Works. A multitude of mediums and manifestations will be
displaying across ourselves as well as alongside other Carlisle based creatives. The opening night
is set to be a sparkling event (Saturday 24th June) and the exhibition will be open for the following week.

For more information please contact exhibitionfresh@gmail.com.


Katie Lock

Maddy Mould

Vincent Walden

Arrest All Mimics Sir John Hegarty

Sir John Hegarty, lead singer in Creedence Clearwater Revival* and co-founder of advertising hit factory BBH appears on this weeks 'Arrest All Mimics' podcast** BUT this isn't a podcast about advertising - this is a podcast about creativity. So if you've got a creative bone in your body, this is worth a listen.




* This is a lie. Sir John Hegarty wasn't in Creedence Clearwater Revival. John Fogerty was. But close enough that we'll include this banger...



**The Arrest All Mimics podcast is brought to you by Ben Tallon, illustrator, raconteur and karaoke face melter extraordinaire.  

Sketchbooks are Boss.

Sketchbooks are great! Drawing is fantastic!!! These are undisputed facts and often heard mantras of illustration lecturer Dwayne Bell (South West Scotland's Pencil Sharpening Champion 2003 - 2005). Dwayne practices what he preaches (yaps on and on about) and is also currently undertaking an MA focussing on drawing.

The majority of Dwayne's drawing takes place on his daily commute across the debatable lands between Carlisle and his home in that there Scotland.

For your award season consideration, here is his most recent sketchbook in it's completed glory.

New studio set-up

 

New furniture in the studio... bean bags and balloons. Tables and chairs are just so last year :)

Funhouse Exhibition (Keeps on Giving)

How do you clear a studio full of balloons?..

27th Letter Winner!

Our heartiest Grillust™ congratulations go out to 3rd year Graphic Design student David Guthrie (21) who was announced as the winner of the 27th Letter international design competition 

The competition was judged by Phil Cleaver, designer of The Book Collector and Professor in the Creative Industries at Middlesex University, James Fergusson, Editor of The Book Collector, Fergus Fleming, writer and co-publisher at Queen Anne Press, and Lilian Lindblom-Smith, Head of Graphic Design at Middlesex University.

In the end, David captured the judges imagination, winning £250 and a beautiful trophy book designed by Phil Cleaver. The winning entry?That’s right, the winning entry is lol. Injecting a little more humour into the alphabet as we know it!

David Guthrie, competition winner (lol)

A surprised Roddy Hunter, Director of the Institute of the Arts with 3rd year Graphic Designer David Guthrie.

In 1947, while helping out at the typographical magazine Alphabet & Image, James Bond creator, Ian Fleming conceived the idea of a competition for the best interpretation of a twenty-seventh letter of the alphabet. Entries had to have a distinct purpose and would be judged by him alone. This year's competition followed Fleming’s rules: the letter must conform to the alphabet as known in English-writing countries and must represent a particular sound or combination of sounds. All that is necessary is that the entrant must be over sixteen years of age and have an idea as to how written English could be improved.

Tapping into the current zeitgeist of text lingo infiltrating mainstream written language,  David decided to create a character representing the acronym LOL...

...and he won! lol. 

David is now setting about designing, amongst others ROFL, WEG, SMH, WTH, WTF & TTFN characters all to be sold as limited edition posters! 

Funhouse Exhibition Private View - Friday 2 June

 Come inside, come inside...

 VIPs and industry professionals had a special early event

 Becky (21) explaining why she dressed Donald as a clown

 Leanne (21) colour coordinates with her work

Caitlin Quinn (21) tinkles the ivories...

 Tash (21) talking (probably)

Here's Grillust's very own Jim and Rhiannon (33) talking to Jason Hill (also 33) of the Eden Brewery 

 Getting busy

Here's Bronte (21) talking to guests in the exhibition shop. I don't think Bronte saw us when we took this snap.

 Danielle, Guthers and Chloe (21 X 3) manning and womanning the bar

 Back in Black - Tash (21) with mum (33) and gran (33)

 Getting even busier

 It was lovely to see a crop of last year's graduates: Rhian, Megan and Ben (all 33)

One of the people in this picture is also featured in the illustration - can you guess which one?

 Here's Bronagh from Year 2 having a good 'ratch' through a portfolio

Where's Wally?

Arrest All Mimics It's That time of Year AKA Advice for Creative Graduates

This week's Arrest All Mimics podcast is one for all yr3s and it's probably worth a listen for the rest of you too. It's jammed with advice reflections on past experience. Well worth a listen.
Thanks to Benny T Dog, for the hard work putting these together.

The crowds pour in...

Funhouse a fantastic success.

This footage of visitors at the opening on Friday night was recorded courtesy of UoC Advanced Technologies Dept on a special camera and slowed down 1000% so it can be seen by the human eye. 

Exhibition open all this week. 

Hartlepool Festival of Illustration

June sees the return of Hartlepool's Festival of Illustration. Why should all the illustration fun be down in that there London? We here at Grillust towers don't think it should be and neither do the good people of Hartlepool.

Grillust pen wrangler and illustration lecturer, Dwayne, was invited to both exhibit work and be a keynote speaker at this years event.

Here's Dwayne, awkwardly standing beside two pieces of his 'Drawn Together' project, exhibited as part of this year's Festival of Illustration

"It was a great honour to be invited along and to talk about my work. Having just completed large project as part of my ongoing MA, I formed my talk around that but also included a brief run down of my path toward an illustration career. Essentially Transformers, cartoons, drawing, college, uni, work".

Dwayne delivering the big questions whilst utilising a delivery style that he calls 'drunk eyes & flappy hands'

The festival included work by many prominent illustrators including Gerald Scarfe (trying to get some of Dwayne's limelight in the photo above), Reg Smythe, Sandra Dieckmann, Lucy MacLeod, Jim Stoten, Drew Millward, Nik Holmes and Felt Mistress - take a look at the Festival's site for details of the extensive line up.

Here's the reportage project 'Drawn Together' that formed the basis for Dwayne's talk / ramble



and here's some of the artists who were talking and exhibiting

Black Hawk Down. Storyboard from Ridley Scott. GEEK SPASM!!!

Jim Stoten AKA Jim the Illustrator

Drew Millward

Warwick Johnson-Cadwell

Felt Mistress's work with Lucy MacLeod's fashion illustration in the background

Thanks to the event organisers for all their hard work and fantastic hospitality. It was a great event and it's very welcome to see illustration getting some attention so far north. Very inspiring. Right, Carlisle, what we gonna do?...

Funhouse (the end of year exhibition) Opens Tonight!

Funhouse, the Grillust summer exhibition opens tonight at 6.00pm (all welcome).

The exhibition is then open Saturday 3 June - Friday 9 June, 10.00 - 16.00 (closed on Sunday).

The students have put a huge amount of time and effort into transforming our studio into a vibrant circus 'big top' full of top-quality design and illustration work. Have a look here to see the dedicated Funhouse website.

Pictured above are two of the chief protagonists: Mr James 'Chuckles' Musson (21) and Chloe 'Ringmistress' Farsi (also 21).

We'll feature a more in-depth look at the exhibition next week.