Be Very Afraid!!! - Introducing Our New Students...

They've been here for two week now and we haven't even introduced them to you! 

Sorry.

Well, what are they like I hear you ask (not really)?

In short, they're lovely, talkative, funny and all very different.

Here are some pictures we took on day two of the course. A day we rather ominously call 'Fun in the Studio' on the timetable. 

Actually, it really is fun. 

Using tried and trusted Grillust methods we soon have them feeling at home, getting to know one another and making new friends.

Pictured below are some of the 'advanced' ice-breaking techniques that we employ.

Step 1: The Debate (argue the following topic with a complete stranger - 'Is Kendal Mint Cake really 'cake')?

Step 2: Studio Ball (hurl a tennis ball around the studio while loudly shouting the name of the intended recipient).

Step 3: Morris Ball (similar to Step 2 but don't hit Mr Morris. You wouldn't like Mr Morris when he's angry...)

Step 4: The Choir (let Gareth Malone form you into a community choir and teach you 'Songs from the Shows').


Step 5: Play 'Pass the Bomb' (a game where speed is of the essence).

Step 6: Play Line Up from North to South (find out if you're 'pie' or 'jellied eel').

 Step 7: Take part in the Grillust Pub* Quiz (no cheating though...)


 Step 8: Win the Grillust Pub* Quiz 

 Step 9: Be very circumspect when watching your dodgy DVD prizes!

*Only different from a pub in the fact that our studio isn't a pub, we don't have any alcohol, there are no decorative horse brasses over our fire, we don't actually have a fire for that matter, or flock wallpaper, or a darts board, or...

Open Day Attendees - Here's a Little Bit of The Introductory Animation You Didn't Get To See...

Ooh that rhymes!

Anyway, today The University of Cumbria held a very busy Open Day and we had the opportunity to meet lots of lovely people from all over the country.

We do hope you all enjoyed your visit, liked what you saw and had a safe journey home.

The open day was also used to unveil our brand new PowerPoint Promotional Presentation (blimey we're using alliteration now)!..

Sadly, although the presentation itself was finished, the highly elaborate introductory animation wasn't!

Happily I can reveal that it now is - complete with a very jaunty soundtrack and various comedic sound effects.

Anyway, here's a small sample (sans soundtrack) of what you missed.

The artwork is by charismatic illustration tutor Mr Dwayne Bell (33) who likes nothing better than hurtling down hills on a mountain bike and/or 'colouring in'.

For any interested parties, our next Open Day will be held on Saturday 1 November and you can book a place here.

The Power of Networking

Here's a link to one example of the result of inspired networking skills. Pop over to Sarah France's Blog, " – work in progress" to find out more...

What you'll find here is Sarah's name alongside some of the big hitters in the international design industry - Ed Fella, Paula Scher, Michael Beruit, Vince Frost and many, many more!

________________________________________________________________________

The lettering of On Language, New York Times Magazine

The first peak of my career hit before commercial experience, still to this day I can’t believe what can be achieved through passion, graft, many mistakes and hard work. The exhibition has since become a permanent feature in The New York Times building, feel truly blessed to of been a part of “The lettering of On Language in the New York Times Magazine.”

Lunchtime Accoutrement Shadow Puppet Theatre No. 01

Is that a semi squashed paper cup and a used paper napkin? No, it's The Batman!!!
POW!!! BIFF!!! THUNK!!!





Tune in tomorrow, same bat-time, same bat-channel when Tony, will be depicting Superman in his Fortress of Solitude with the crust from a cornish pasty and a fork.

Setting up your blog

We like blogs. We have one and are very proud of it. You may have seen it. You will certainly have been told about it by now. Professional graphic designers and illustrators use blogs like online sketchbooks and diaries, they use them to record ideas and comments, inspirations and process work. Where their online folio shows the world their work, their blog shows the world where the work comes from, in a way, it shows their personality. They can be fun, informative, irreverent  but I think the best, at the very least, give a little glimpse behind the curtain.
Michael Gillette’s Blog
Patrick Leger’s blog

As a student at the very beginning of your journey, your blog has a slightly different purpose. It’s too early to be concerned with ‘getting your work out there’. You shouldn’t care what people think of your work at this point, you’re not out to impress anyone (except your Mam). Your blog, at this stage, is simply a place to collect various aspects of your journey. It helps us gauge where you’re at but mainly it’s for you. Thoughts and critiques on the work of others, collections of photos, sketches, personal work – anything, can appear. The biggest part of becoming a designer or illustrator is cultivating personal interests, obsessions and opinions. Record this process on your blog. Don’t record nights out, this isn’t Facebook; although you’re not using your blog as self promotion at this stage, we’ll act as though you are, in the name of good professional practice.

So let’s get your blog started.

Previously we’ve asked students to use blogspot. It’s what we use on the famous Grillust blog. But recently the interface has gone from bad to worse. We feel that if a blog is a nightmare to use, you probably won’t bother. So we’ve bowed down to trend and are going to send you in the direction of the hipsters favourite – Tumblr.

Step one (is pretty easy).


Head over to tumblr.com and see if you can work out the difficult sign up steps

You will need -
1 – an email address (use your student one if you want)
2 – a password
3 – a username – this will become your url (the web address you use to locate your blog) so be sure to pick something that is easy to type, isn’t too long, won’t require multiple explanations before someone can work it out, makes sense and will allow someone to find you (your name is best. ‘Kittenlover941’ – not so good) and pick something that won’t have you in spasms of embarrassment in two years time, because we want this blog to go with you through the entire course.  



Step Two You’ll find yourself here (once you pick a few blogs to follow – just pick any, you can delete them straight away). This is the ‘dashboard’. This isn’t what visitors to your blog will see, this is the ‘back-end’ that you use to add entries and make changes. You will also see posts from blogs you follow.

We at Grillust towers don’t use Tumblr so we’re not in a position to explain how exactly it works BUT a billion hipsters use it so it can’t be that hard.


These are the important buttons and each represents a different type of pre-set entry that Tumblr allows you to post. For now you will mainly use ‘Text’ and ‘Photo’.

Text allows you to post text (bit obvious) and images.

Photo allows you to post text and images (ditto)

The benefit of the text option is that you can give the post a big bold title. The downside is that images you place within will be small.

The benefit of the Photo option is that images will be large. The downside is that you can’t give these posts large, bold titles.Why this is, I don’t have a clue, it seems a bit daft.
Let’s post!

Find an image. Use Google, take a photo, load something from a USB drive – it doesn’t matter. Click either the text or photo button and off you go. If you want to say something hilarious about the image, do it, it’s your blog.



and click publish


Click this icon to be whisked to the public view of your blog
(you can change this image to something more ‘you’)


You’ve done it! Give yourself a big pat on the back.

Step three
Your blog won’t look like this though. You will have a standard tumblr default blog. Our next step is to look into changing the design.


When you’re logged in to Tumblr and you go to your own blog, it will always have these buttons in the top right. Dashboard takes you back to the dashboard and customize… well, can you guess?

Here is our number one suggestion for customization:

Keep it simple. Big bold colours, large background images, movement and animation, garish typefaces; all of these things get in the way of what you are posting. Let your posts do the work, not the blog.

There are many templates available, each has a varying number of options within, the more options, the more you can tweak the design.

You can amend and change until you’re happy – as your design awareness grows you’ll be able to adjust your blog to suit. At some point in the future you might even look into basic HTML so you can tweak templates or create your own. 



And that folks, is that!

Don't forget your...

In 3 days we'll be welcoming Yr0s and Yr1s to Grillust Towers. If you're one of our newbies, we can appreciate what a monumentous weekend you have ahead of you, but never fear, we're all about helping. So here we list a few things you definitely don't want to forget (and some you do) when you're pilling everything into Dad's Nissan Cherry for the drive to sunny Carlisle.

1. Toothbrush. Oral hygene is important, even when Mum isn't there to remind you.


2. Family photo. To look at lovingly in moments of self reflective poignancy or to remind you who to call when you need a tenner.

3. Plant. This will lend your room an air of sophistication and maturity to counterbalance the pyramid of empty cider cans; plus, it's a proven fact that they make you cleverer or better at reading or something.


4. Pasta.


5. Your copy of this. You got the updated reading list right?


6. Cake. For us.



You should probably bring some pencils and pens and books and stuff too.

Here's a couple of things NOT to bring.

1. Knitted winter wear. On hearing that you're off to Carlisle, someone will knit you something for the winter. You're going to look a right berk in it. Leave it. In fact, burn it.

2. Your Mum. You'll look silly and though she won't admit to this, she's looking forward to the rest.

3. Your collection of decorative horse brasses. There's a multitude of reasons to not bring your collection of decorative horse brasses. Let's say it's an issue of storage space and leave it at that.

Summers dead long live the summer

"Rhiannon, did you leave caviar in the fridge, it smells funny".

The first words uttered on our return to Grillust Towers. That's right, we're back! The first years will be showing up next week, the little darlings, but for now here's some snaps from our summer hols.

Honest.

A Song for Friday

A simple idea, well executed and expertly recorded...

Holiday Postcards

Snapped by Grillust operative Tony Peart in a cottage window in Ditchling*, Sussex last Tuesday.

While the use of Comic Sans is a little unfortunate, we wholeheartedly approve of the sentiment!

*Ditchling was the home to Eric Gill's Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic and is now home to a new museum of art and craft devoted to their work.

Just how well do you know your Dwayne?

Charismatic illustration lecturer Mr. Dwayne Bell (33) is the closest thing the Grillust Team have to a fashion icon (sorry Zoe but he does scrub up better than you).

His sartorial savoir-faire, coupled with those hirsute, rugged, manly good-looks have influenced the grooming habits and personal style of many (mostly males) who have come into his orbit.

On our recent jaunt to Spitalfields for New Blood we were surprised to see  just how far the 'Dwayne Bell Look' had traveled. You see, Dwayne didn't actually come with us to London but we seemed to keep on seeing him everywhere.

As the number of 'Dwayney-likeys' we came across started to multiply, we started to photograph them...

So, ladies and gentlemen, boys, girls and members of the third sex, just which of the following 'Dwaynesters' could possibly be the one and only, genuine Mr. Dwayne Bell?

You can leave your entry in the comments box...

The winner will receive a Steak Pie, or if vegetarian, a Scotch egg.

That looks a little familiar...

No.1 in a very occasional series.

This week: the D&AD New Blood exhibition design.

Here are a few shots of the self-aware, 'chatty', language based, info-graphics referencing design that surrounded the New Blood 2014 exhibition...










...and a spread from the exhibition guide.

Here's a photo of Grillust Operative Tony Peart (33) with D&AD's 'The Ideas Begin as Soon as You Spin' wheel of fortune.

Now, lets look more closely at what he's pointing at, 'Rip Off An Idea'...

It seems that D&AD were being ironically 'post-modern' with the inclusion of this advice to plagiarise.

As long ago as 2003, well known New York design duo Karlssonwilker published their excellent book 'tellmewhy' (we'd recommend it to any design student).

Let's have a look inside a copy to see just what it is about D&AD's 'design concept' that looks so familiar...

 

 Tut, tut...