The First Years are Introduced to 'Hardcore' Typography

The Typographer Royal™ (with full regalia) dispenses words of wisdom to Jake Thompson (21)

It's that time of year when The University of Cumbria's very own Typographer Royal™, H.R.H. Rhiannon Robinson, spends a lot of quality time with our first year students.

Rhiannon was crowned Typographer Royal™ by our very own queen, H.R.H Elizabeth II, in an elaborate ceremony, held in Typographers Hall (City of London) in June 1990. The position of Typographer Royal™ is not to be underestimated and Rhiannon takes her official duties very seriously. Her role behooves her to undertake the following:

1. Banish poor letter spacing, leading and tracking from all four corners of the kingdom
2. Seek out and destroy all 'widows' and 'orphans' in documents near and far
   
3. Challenge all developers of Microsoft Word Art to single, mortal combat
4. Round-up, imprison in Newgate and finally hang by the neck until dead, all look-alike, generic fonts and that evil malefactor, known to the wider population as 'Comic Sans'
   
5. Teach kick-arse typography skills to students of The University of Cumbria
   

The Queen helps Debbie Nixon (21) finesse her design

The induction commenced last Monday with a deceptively simple brief to turn some 'naked' text into a black and white press ad. The students quickly learned that what seems an easy task , is in fact fiendishly difficult. However with Rhiannon on hand they are learning fast and will quickly develop a sound understanding of the basics of good typography.

We'll post their efforts next week...


Things appear to be going well for Luci Ormrod (21)


Jen Sproat (21) in combat with an awkward line length


As always, we design on paper first...


Meanwhile... Adam and Katy (both 21) work on ideas for the concurrent 'Twins' project

Dan Sutherland - New Website

While we're featuring the successes of our ex-students (see the post on Ryan Young below) we thought we'd bring you up to date with 2005 graduate Dan Sutherland.

Dan, who has featured on the blog before, graduated to a job at MTV in London and subsequently moved to RED in Brighton.

Dan has now gone solo, creating his own company The Desire Path and we at GRILLUST™ would like to take this opportunity to wish him every success in this exciting new venture.

Be sure to also check out his Vimeo channel as Dan has made a great video, or two, or three, or four...

Visiting Lecturer - Ryan Young of Sell! Sell!

On Friday we were treated to a visit and illustrated lecture from ex-student Ryan Young who now works at the dynamic London agency Sell! Sell!



Ryan - who comes from Newtonards in County Down - graduated in June 2008 with his job at Sell! Sell! already in the bag!

It was good to see that after all these years of living and working in Hackney and Shoreditch - where, let's face it, fashion and hair crime are a daily reality - Ryan's sense of style remains resolutely true to his Northern (Irish) heritage (see photo below for proof):



In a packed lecture theater...



... Ryan not only featured lots of Sell! Sell!'s intelligent, witty and engaging advertising and design work (see below):

Fentimans Victorian Lemonade Commercial from Sell! Sell! on Vimeo.

MyBuilder.com Commercial from Sell! Sell! on Vimeo.

...but also passed on his top tips for success, both as a student and as a graduate (some of his key themes are illustrated below):



Following cries of "well said Sir!", "huzzah" and a generous round of applause, Ryan adjourned to the studio to offer practical advice to students.


Ryan gives advice to Year 2 student Steph Stilwell (advice not pictured).

We should also advise you that Ryan is one of the tallest students we have ever had the pleasure of teaching. In fact we thought he might be THE tallest, so before he left we thought we would compare him to our current 'loftiest student' Appie Carr (21). As you can see Appie, at 7' 4", came out victorious. However, we can now firmly state that Ryan (33) is the 2nd tallest student we have ever had the pleasure of teaching.


Appie & Ryan strive for vertical supremacy (Tom Cruise included to give a sense of scale)

From everyone in the GRILLUST™ empire, we'd just like to say thanks a million Ryan and please feel free to come again anytime.


The smile of success...

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT ON 'THE DIELINE': SARAH SWANTON

Yr3 Graphic Design student Sarah Swanton (21) recently featured on top packaging blogsite The Dieline, with her range of retro Lindt chocolate packaging.

Sumptuous!

the best website in the whole world ever

If you've been wondering which is the best site in the whole wide world, look no further because we've found it here...

computer arts #197 featuring mica connelly of 3rd year

Perennial studio favourite and self proclaimed biggest digital art magazine in the world, Computer Arts, this month features an illustration modeled for by third year graphic designer, Mica Connelly (21), and created by lecturer Dwayne Bell (33). Of the exposure Mica has been quoted as saying that she "won't forget her roots or the little people who put her where she is today". She has recently been spotted stepping out with the girly looking man-child from that 'band' that are semi-famous this week. She is also hotly tipped to make an appearance on whichever reality show is in popular favour as we go to press.

drawing

As the second year illustrators embark on some good old fashioned drawing, here's a very very nice example of a good old fashioned drawing by American illustration legend, Bob Peak (it's of Marlon Brando).

What Do You Mean, You've Not Seen...

The films of Peter Greenaway

Scenes from the Life Room

book by it's cover another one for illustrators to bookmark

If you love sketchbooks you'll love this site. It's as simple as that.

Drawger - One for Illustrators to Bookmark

It's difficult to describe Drawger so I won't...

No, on second thoughts I will. It's like a sort of loose collective of illustration blogs housed under an umbrella called 'Drawger' or something along those lines...

Anyway, If you've not visited before its time to point your browser in their direction and get digging as the site is full of hidden treasure and you never know quite what you're going to find.

Hugh's Got It Covered!

Part man, part machine, Year 3 Graphic Designer Hugh Leoidsson (21) is taking no chances...

Ronald Searle 1930 - 2011