We was robbed!

Regular readers will know that earlier in the year, 2nd year graphic design student Sam Mallard's beer can designs (below) were selected for production by our friends, Eden River Brew Co. a continuing partnership that's brought several can designs to the craft beer market.

Recently, we were delighted to learn that Sam's designs were placed second in the standard label category by The Labologists Society - The International Society of Label Collectors.

2nd place!!! ... to use footballers parlance, "we was robbed!" 

Since Eden River Brew Co. introduced the beers in June 2018, these special craft brews have sold out! A testament to the quality of the beers and the shelf appeal of Sam's labels.

Eden River Brew Co.

A Very Special Visitor to our studio

Why did Pudsey visit the graphic design/illustration studio?

We can't tell you, ut watch this space...

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. 

Studio repaint...

Our magnificent Graphic Design and Illustration studio/workspace is being repainted during the winter break.

And, much to Tony's chagrin, when it comes to matters of interior decor, Jim and Dwayne cling resolutely to the male stereotype, despite Tony's best efforts to help them get in touch with their "feminine side"...

Dwayne, Jim & Tony (all 33) think decorating

... so when that inevitably failed, we asked the students to suggest colour schemes.

The hot favourite was obviously Nathaniel Hunt's 'Rococo Revival'; heavy on decorative plaster work and gold-leaf, light on visual sensory respite. But the scheme that was finally chosen was a Silver Grey and Marr's Green combo (Marr's Green, the world's favourite colour according to our friends at GF Smith!) and last week the painters were in making a start. Here's where they're up to, first coat on...

There is just the thorny matter of cushion covers and curtains to sort out now!

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! 

Lett's Diary

Yesterday, 2016 graphic design graduate Shona Lett (33), popped in to Grillust™Towers to show us a little green book; the Favourite Design 2016 Annual...

...and what a bumper edition it is too, with Shona featured not once, but twice in its hallowed pages.

You can find more of Shona's work at www.shonalett.co.uk

Watermark 2017

In collaboration with students from a number of Arts & Humanities courses, including Creative Writing, Photography and Wildlife Media, etc., our own 2nd year Grillustasi have been extra busy over the past week putting together this year's Watermark publication. The publication is designed as an accompaniment to the International Keswick Literature Festival "Words by the Water" which starts tomorrow!

Working under the editorial direction of Senior Lecturer in Media, Tony Randall (33), Graeme Guthrie, Victoria Smith, Elizabeth Sharples and Sian Whitfield (all 21 and all from Year 2 BA(Hons) Graphic Design) have been putting in the long nights, getting ready for the print run, scheduled for 8.15 am this morning at CN Print in Carlisle.

Illustrative elements were produced courtesy of 2nd year BA(Hons) Illustration student, Hazel Mason (21), who's efforts have brought another dimension to a publication that has, in the past, been dominated by photography and type.

The Student Editor was Rebecca Gibson from BA(Hons) Wildlife Media.

Well done to all involved!

Bovill/McCarthy Day at Grillust Towers

2010 graduates, Gary Bovill (33) now a senior designer at MC2, and James McCarthy (33) similarly positioned at Drumbeat, made a triumphant return to the studio with a splendid talk on 'What makes a successful brand' followed by a quick and dirty challenge to 3rd year students (all 21) to propose brands for one of two enterprises - one for a residential/retail/office warehouse development, the second being a perennial Grillust™ favourite, Pies!

A meat pie. An officially ratified food group at Grillust™ HQ.

Students ended the day by presenting their ideas, and all received positive and productive feedback from Gary and James. A big thank you goes to the both of them for taking time out of their busy schedules and showing such an interest in the current crop of Grillust™ hopefuls.

Four minds as one, sort of like The Beatles. Bearded 3rd year students (L-R), James Cook, Tom Selwood and Kyle Bridson contemplate the truly important things in life alondside MC2 design supremo, Gary Bovill.

Third year graphics, first project

After a long hot summer watching daytime TV, going to festivals, playing the latest video games, raiding the family fridge and other traditional student pursuits; the return to University can be a shock to the system. In this project, students produced directed research based on a single word and then designed and produced a monograph using that research directly...

Everything starts on layout paper of course. Kyle Bridson (21)

..before layouts are taken into the digital realm. Kyle Bridson (21)

Two experimental spreads by Emma Davidson (21)

Will Fuller (21) gets all 3D visually

Metamophosis. Becca Lettice (21)

Experimental type spreads, Becca Lettice (21)

Gravity, James Musson (21)

Experimental typography, James Musson (21)

Experimental typographic spreads by Elinor Prescott (21)

Grillustasi 2016 have arrived!

Do Nuthatches go up tree trunks and Treecreepers down?

Do Jays croak and Jackdaws caw?

Exactly how much blood is there when a Sparrowhawk swoops down on its unsuspecting prey?

There can't be many University campus' where these questions can be so graphically answered by simply walking out of the door. But, happily, the lovely leafy Brampton Road campus that hosts the Institute of the Art is one of them. And, these lovely people (the chosen few) get to study here for their degree in Graphic Design or Illustraion, the lucky Devils!

Meet the class of 2016. Remember their faces. In years to come they will follow in the great Grillust tradition and become the people who's work you want to see, the people you want to read about. 
Welcome one and all!

Back in the box Fido!

Come final assessment time we're usually wise to any ploys to try and 'secure a better grade' - these 'persuaders' usually come a suitably tangible and tasty form like, for example, meat pies.  However, the bar has now been raised by our very own Shona Lett (21), who really pushed the boat out this year. Well, more accurately, she pushed this cute™puppy into a box for us to open the following week.

The little chap was still chipper after his ordeal and really perked up in the loving hands of 'Uncles' Tony and Dwayne (both 33).

*No puppies were harmed in the production of this blog post. It took ages for Tony and Dwayne to clam down after we took it away from them though.


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Stress Busters

Final year graphic design and illustration students across the land will be experiencing hyper-tension about the prospect of leaving the comfortable, protective womb of University life. Well, all except for our Liam (21), who just doesn't do stress.

Liam Robinson (21). This is the closest he's ever been to 'stressed-out'!

There are several commercially available stress busting 'toys' available for the neurotics out there...

...but nothing really suited to the Grillust™ fraternity. Until now!

When the folks at Poster Project challenged students to design a poster around the word 'stress', 3rd year students Katie Lock (21), Vincent Walden (21) and Maddy Mould (21) responded with a poster that stress-heads can all get behind, or more accurately tear-up. 

As Poster Project (run by Glasgow design agency Front Page®) said, "We were overwhelmed – physically and emotionally – with the response, so much so we had to extend the number of winners from three to five. We had entries from Estonia to Chile, and loads of points in between, and in the end – after much deliberation – we had our winners"... which included the entry by our very own Lock, Walden & Mould (still all 21)

And here it is...

In recognition of their efforts, Lock, Walden & Mould will be winging their way up to Glasgow to receive a bumper bag of Sherbet Lemons and attend a celebratory slap-up feed at the town hall.

The rest of us are staying in Carlisle, tearing up bits of paper.

Relevant websites:
Katie Lock, Liam Robinson, Maddy Mould, Vincent Walden, Poster Project, Front Page

Brown is the new Green

GREEN SCREEN is the largest international nature film festival in Germany. And, when GREEN SCREEN put out a call for poster designs to launch their 10th Nature Film Festival in 2016, 3rd year Graphic Design Student, Megan Brown (21), decided to pitch in with a proposal. 

This week we've learned that Megan's design has been shortlisted and we now await the news that her winning poster has been selected by a jury and the 1200 Euros prize money is on the way to Grillust™ Towers. 

Megan Brown's GREEN SCREEN film festival poster

See more of Megan's work HERE

Shona Lett in the blogosphere. Again!

Listerine don't currently sell any sort of mouthwash tablets and 3rd year Graphic Design student, Shona Lett (21), thinks it's high time they did. The packaging solution she developed is inspired by the specific needs of travel - primarily convenience in use and a small pack size.

Packaging of the World seem to agree! See more about the project here

You might remember the our very own 3rd Year Graphic Design student, Josh J. Ford (21), was commended in the 13-14 YCN Student Awards.

For the awards ceremony we can only hope that fashion icon Josh complimented the mandatory tuxedo with his 'trademark' footwear – rhinestone cowboy boots (or wellington boots in inclement weather); either worn outside the trouser.

Well, all that was last summer but, apart from a slap-up feed and free alcohol, Josh has also been featured in the recent YCN Student Annual.

Josh (now 33) has been employed as  graphic designer with Honda since graduating. Hopefully he still wears the boots.

YCN Commendation

The Grillustazzi congratulates 3rd Year students Josh Ford (21) on attaining a commendation in the 'Alphabites Cereal Packaging' brief in this year's YCN Student Awards.

And the 'Cherry Manchester' skate-deck design winner is...

...our very own 3rd year Graphic Designer, Luci Ormrod (21). So, if you're a 'hipster' skateboardin' type who, like, frequents Cherry then you owe it to yourself to purchase Luci's 'cool / sick / rad / fetching*' design.

* Delete as appropriate

Back to the Futura

3rd year graphic design student, James Cope (21), is currently enjoying an internship with Wonderstuff Studio in Newcastle. Here's what he penned for a recent article for the Wonderstuff blog