Tuesday 24 April - Another Busy Day

The power of hair

Ever mindful of the Samson and Delilah debacle, the Grillust™ machine has always recognised the strategic importance of a decent 'short back and sides', key knowledge we're keen to pass onto students.

That's why, each year we aim to take on at least one prospect who's got some experience of creating a decent bouffant... this year it's Marc Noble (21).

Here he is demonstrating the barber's art on fellow 1st year, Tim Stewart (21). Tim's ambition is to become a top flight graphic designer.

But with that haircut!?! No way!

Marc to the rescue.

Here we see Marc sizing up the task at hand while the rest of the studio look on... 'Measure twice, cut once' is Marc's mantra.

After briefly visiting the barbers standard repertoire, along the lines of 'Going anywhere nice this year?' and 'Would Sir like something for the weekend?', Marc gets down to the serious business of cutting and styling. It reminds him of his training in the shearing sheds of outback Australia he says. Note the use of safety scissors. 

And five minutes later...

The transformed Tim Stewart (still 21), tonsorially prepared for the cut and thrust life of graphic excellence. 

Beamish Open Air Museum - A Grand Day Out

On Wednesday we went back in time to that top visitor attraction Beamish 'The Living Museum of the North', to experience the past for ourselves. Obviously all images taken in the past are sepia coloured (as demonstrated above) so we've used Photoshop trickery to 'modernise' them by digitally adding a rich palette of colour...

 That's much better isn't it?

 Here's a charabanc to take us to the pit village (or "downt pit" as they say "oop North")

 Some students decided to take the tram (sort of like a bus with wires) to "gan tashin' on the toon".

Here's 'Puffing Billy' (the locomotive not the man) - Puffing Billy is a replica of he world's oldest, surviving steam train, built in 1833 and now on display in the Science Museum in a small town to the south called London.

Coal can not only be used to power steam trains but also cook fish and chips, fried in beef dripping...


and believe us, the results are delicious!

The main reason we went to Beamish was to look at examples of period graphic design and illustration. We were granted privileged access to the museums extensive store to examine the delights hidden there.

A large ledger held an impressive collection of period advertising including:

 TEETH! TEETH! TEETH!

YOU DIRTY BOY!

Lot's of samples were laid out for inspection in a study room...

...before we ventured into the darkest depths of the collection store.

 ... an 'Aladin's cave' of wonder and delight.

Gorgeous enamel advertising signs are everywhere...

 

 Later on there was time to visit the Victorian fun fair which included the opportunity to partake in coconut shying, Hoopla hooping and a quick spin on the 'Speedway' (see below).

Thank to Beamish Museum for giving us 'behind the scenes access', we all had a 'grand day out'!

Max Maxes Out and Wins £500 of Art Materials!

We do our thinking on paper - visuals, roughs, scamps - call them what you want, it's important to get ideas down on paper as quickly as possible. After that intelligent conversations can take place and great design and illustration developed. You'll therefore understand that around here we take our visualising materials very seriously: be they pen, marker, paint, crayon or pencil. 

Some Year 1 visuals yesterday

When The Univerity of Cumbria Institute of the Arts Art Materials Shop or 'The Art Shop' as we call it (it saves time) took delivery of a wide range of excellent but modestly priced Spectrum Noir markers it caused quite a stir. However that was nothing compared to the excitement generated when the lovely people at Spectrum Noir decided to run an art competition with the first prize being £500 worth of their art materials!

The competition was open to all UOCIA students and involved 'colouring in' using Spectrum Noir products. We can now proudly reveal that the victorious on the day was our very own Year 1 Graphic Design student Max Wilkins (21).

Mine, all mine! Max celebrates his victory...

Max was brought up to respect boundaries and not cross the line (ideal traits for a top 'colourer-in'). Unfortunately, we don't have his winning entry to hand but believe it probably looked more like this...

...than this:

Max, who hails from Shropshire (a county not famed for colouring in) was overjoyed saying: "I'm ***** with ***** and will use these to ***** the *****!" However, after he'd calmed down a little and consumed a nice milky drink, a more considered Max went on record: "I'd like to thank Spectrum Noir and tell them winning this prize has made me a very happy chappy."

Well done Max!