D&AD New Blood 2014

We've just spent three days exhibiting our student's work at D&AD's 'New Blood' graduate showcase.

'New Blood' takes place every July and for the last three years has been sited within Spitalfields Market in the East End of London, the epicentre of the capital's design industry.

It's attended by a wide range of interested people but principally is an opportunity for students to sell themselves to prospective employers.

It was a hectic three days and has been chronologically documented for your edification and amusement in the following images and accompanying commentary...

Tuesday 1 July, 1.55PM: the stand has been successfully erected and we're about to be 'kicked out' so that the official judging can take place. Grillust operatives Rhiannon Robinson and David Robert (both 33) proudly pose for the camera.

 Tuesday 1 July, 6.45PM: The private view – things are hotting up.

Tuesday 1 July, 7.10PM: Industry professionals queue to get into the exhibition.

Tuesday 1 July, 7.15PM:  These lovely students from Edge Hill University had fundraised for months to pay for their 'New Blood' stand only for D&AD to inform them at the last minute that the event was oversubscribed and they hadn't actually got one! 

Not to be defeated, this enterprising group decided to promote themselves by becoming 'living' exhibition stands and making direct approaches to the industry professionals queueing up outside. It seemed to be working for them and we would like to applaud their entrepreneurial and pro-active approach. 

Tuesday 1 July, 7.47PM: Even busier. Here Luci Ormrod (centre, blonde) engages in some self-promotion. 

Lots of our ex-students – who now work in the design industry – dropped by over the three days. Pictured above (far right) is Craig Parkinson who works at Unit 9

 Tuesday 1 July, 8.06PM:  And here's Rick Banks (the first) with his 'better half' Bella.

Tuesday 1 July, 8.30PM: Luci Ormrod at it again. This time with another of our 'exes', Adam Kirby of Forever Beta.

Tuesday 1 July, 8.43PM: 'Lofty' student Jasper Van Looveren-Baines had a spectacularly good three days. Here he is charming (and being charmed) by two equally 'lofty' designers from M&C Saatchi. 

Note: only their feet have been shown as their collective beauty and 'coolness' would have produced too many pixels for our digital camera to handle...

Tuesday 1 July, 8.50PM: Another familiar face from our past, Mr Barry Smith of dn&co. 

 Wednesday 2 July, 10.23AM: She's still got it! Typographer Royal and all-round 'hunk magnet' Rhiannon Robinson pulls.

 Wednesday 2 July, 10.40AM: We told you he was lofty. Japer VLB ('VLB' saves my typing finger) continues to work the crowd.

Wednesday 2 July, 7.10PM: How was it for you? Jasper VLB at the end of a very successful day.

You always get out of New Blood what you are prepared to put in. Those students who actively promote themselves to interested parties are always the most successful. Most of our students did just that, resulting in many contacts and invitations to visit studios with their portfolios. We'll keep you posted with the results.

Thursday 3 July, 10.47AM: An exhibition panorama with four Lee Lunds!

Thursday 3 July, 11.12AM: The sad truth behind social networking. All those Tweets and blog post about what a great time everyone was having were created by this hard-working, one-woman, 'Team' New Blood.

Thursday 3 July, 11.20AM: Here's some of Team Grillust.

L to R: Adam 'Ady' Norfolk, Emma 'Emma' Liles, Ami 'Swifty' Swift, Ruth 'Foggy' Fogden, Luci 'Keith Moon' Ormrod and Lee 'what's for tea?' Lund.

Thursday 3 July, 11.56AM: Mr David Lawton and Mr Jonathan Henton, both ex-graduates and both now successful freelance designers. More importantly, these are the geniuses behind the spoof 'Fife Design' website and associated digital empire.

Thursday 3 July, 7.30PM: Another hectic evening well attended by industry professionals. Here's bestest pals ever, 'Jaspy' and 'Ady' expressing their enduring, platonic, 'man love'.

Thursday 3 July, 7.35PM: 'Jaspy' spots another industry professional and 'goes for it' one last time...

Thursday 3 July, 8.03PM: We 'roll lite'. 

The exhibition officially ended at 8.00PM. Here's our stand three minutes later!

Friday 4 July, 12.04PM: The morning after the night before. Stands gone, signage binned,
Spitalfields Market returns to its normal state – until next year...

Brace Yourselves, Here's Captain!!!

Grillust operative Tony Peart (33) and his family have recently been temporarily caring (we lost a family bet) for Captain, an African Grey Parrot of indeterminate age (although we do know he's definitely over 18).

It soon transpired that Captain can certainly be described as  'a character' and that most notable among his many, many 'idiosyncrasies' is his love of 6 Music's Evening Session (hosted by the parrot friendly Steve Lamacq).

Here's 14 minutes worth (yes, you can pity us) of Captain's 'vocal approval' recorded earlier this evening.

Enjoy...     (...if that's the right word):

Do You Think Anyone Will Notice?

We thought we'd better give the exhibition stand a 'dry run' before we take it to London.

It's a good job we did, as there seems to have been a 'slight' change of scale between it leaving Dwayne's desktop and arriving at the digital printers. 

In scenes vaguely reminiscent of Spinal Tap's 'Stonehenge Moment' accusations and insults were hurled – just who "doesn't know the difference between metres and millimetres" remains a moot point...

However, as Jim pointed out, it's only a little mistake and probably won't be noticed by the general public.

Here's Grillust operative Dwayne Bell (8' 5") towering above both the exhibition stand and Grillust's newest recruit, 'Dinky' David Robert (3' 6")

It's New Blood Time Again!

July is almost upon us so it's time for the Grillust Team and graduating students to pack their bags and travel down to London (a large city in the South-East of England) to exhibit at the D&AD New Blood graduate showcase.

This annual event allows our students to demonstrate their creativity, talent and employability to the capital's professional design community.

It's based in Old Spitalfields Market, right in the very heart of the London design community and is therefore very well attended.

Do come along and say hello, it will be lovely to see you – exhibition details can be found here.

Anyway, here's a sneaky peek of the exhibition stand banners that we will be taking with us...

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.

Snask (Sweden's finest) come back to their old University to give a guest lecture

A few years ago two fresh-faced, modest and quiet Swedish students, Mr. Fredrick Ost and Mr. Magnus Berg, came to Carlisle to study Graphic Design at The University of Cumbria (or The Cumbria Institute of the Arts as it was then named).

The effect we had on them was quite dramatic as can be graphically demonstrated with these 'before and after' photos showing below:

 Before... (Freddie and Magnus as year 1 students)

 ...after (SNASK – as Sweden's top design, branding and film agency)

However, they also had quite an effect on us...

During their time in Carlisle Freddie and Magnus threw themselves into both their studies and the cultural life of the city, running a popular club night and designing for Carlisle's Motive Sounds record label. They had a lot of fun and worked hard. 

Grillust operative Tony Peart (33) has said of his former students:

 “Freddie is the most dapper, sartorially elegant student I ever taught. Magnus isn’t… Freddie and Magnus couldn’t be boring (even if you paid them). Snask was created as a vehicle to allow them to have fun once they’d graduated. Happily, this is exactly what they’ve gone on to do, producing work that always makes me smile.”

If you've not seen any of Snask's work you need to rectify that now by visiting their website.



Here's just a small sample of their hugely entertaining multimedia work:

MALMÖ FESTIVAL 2013

SWEDISH HANDICRAFT

MEATPACKAGING DISTRICT

SABO – Allmännyttans Energisparkampanj 2013 from SNASK on Vimeo.

SNASK even have their own book, Make Enemies & Gain Fans.

The Snask studio, Stockholm is where the multimedia magic happens.


Malmö Festival – Stop Motion Films from SNASK on Vimeo.

As you can imagine, the visit from Freddie and Magnus had been eagerly anticipated by all of us at Grillust Towers. We can now happily report that it more than lived up to expectation.

The visit was preceded by a Snask talk poster competition open to all students. Victory was claimed by Year 1 student Mr Vincent Walden (21) pictured below, grinning like a cat who has just got the cream:

The day commenced with a fully illustrated talk detailing the history of Snask from its foundation here in lovely Carlisle, through the difficult early days in Stockholm to their present position as Sweden's most innovative design, branding and film agency.

The name Snask in Swedish means all of the above...

Proactivity, ambition and attitude have been key to Snask's success. Freddie and Magnus have never been backward at coming forward and are masters of networking and making contact with the a wide range of influential people.

There's no such thing as luck in the world of design. All successful students 'make' their own luck – i.e. work incredibly hard, have great portfolios and most importantly, actively promote themselves!

No Snask presentation is complete without Magnus doing a little dancing...

A lively Q&A was held immediately after lunch...

It was during this session that the third partner in Snask, Eric arrived with his band VÄG.
That's right folks, Snask brought their very own three-piece rock group on tour with them! Now that's style...

Later that evening everyone reconvened at Carlisle's premier indie rock club, The Brickyard for a storming set by VÄG.



For the encores Freddie and Magnus joined the band on stage for some hot maraca/tambourine action. Yet another opportunity for Magnus (the true show-off in Snask) to strut his stuff.

A great day!

It's Nearly Exhibition Time. Bring your friends!

Firstly, let us apologise for the lack of posts over the last few weeks. It's the end of the academic year, a rather busy time for the Grillust academics (and students for that matter). There's work to be assessed, feedback to be given and tutorials to be held. Lastly, there's the not inconsequential matter of the end of year exhibition which coincidentally opens on Friday...

So, without further ado, please consider yourself invited. Here's your private view invitation (don't worry you don't need to show it on the door) and there will be free strawberries and cream for all*:

and here's the poster...

The theme for this year's show is 'student power'  – that's a bit like 'girl power' but with added blokes and less singing – as the third years have pretty much organised, designed and built everything themselves.

'Cometh the moment cometh the man' (or woman) and in our case Year 3 student Jasper Van Looveren-Baines who is a man (and yes, that it is his real name) has stepped up to the mark to lead his fellow students. 

A small but dedicated team has branded and designed the show and also put together an exhibition catalogue. 

This year the students have decided to go for an 'old school' show featuring work on exhibition boards, all hand painted and stencilled to tie in with the exhibition branding. It's been a lot of work but has been tackled with lots of energy and enthusiasm.

Anyway, here's a sneaky peek of the work in progress...

Here's Jasper stepping up to the mark in that perennially fashionable combo of deck shoes and 'pedal pushers'.

 Twenty four sheets of 18mm MDF needed to be painted.

 Strawberry red detailing carefully 'whacked' on by Luci Ormrod (21).

 Dom and Lee adopt that traditional male role of 'watching the women work'....

 Only one student is aware of the camera in this photo. Can you spot which one?

Jim Millington (33) comes down to direct the troops.

It's true that power corrupts and by extension a little power corrupts slightly. Here's a power crazed Jim addressing a massed rally (well Ricky actually) a little later in the day.

*Not necessarily all.

Cause and Effect I & II

Anstruther, Fife, Monday 14 April, 6.30PM

 

Carlisle, Cumbria, Friday 2 May, 6.30PM