All-Hallows-Eve

5.00pm and night draws in on a ridiculously warm and eventful Halloween day.
Robert Smith has left the building, Nostradamus has made a prediction, pumpkins have been carved and candles lit.



Soon rosy faced children will come a 'trick or treating'... Their smiles of joy will soon disappear as they discover there are no Haribos or Cadbury's 'fun-size' to be had here. "But where have they gone" we hear you ask? The answer's quite simple - Grillust's scoffed the lot!

Nostradamus Predicts...

Grillust Goes Goth (for the Day)

It's Halloween today and we couldn't think of a more suitable way to celebrate it than in the company of that 'godfather of goth' Mr. Robert Smith (from off of/out of The Cure).

'Laughing' Bob treated the assembled throng to ukulele versions of his greatest hits including: The Lovecats; A Forest and In Between Days.


Impressed proto-Goth Josh Ford (21, pictured above left), who lives underneath Blackpool Tower, was ecstatic. "The last time I was this happy was when I went to see The Fields of the Nephilim at the Blackpool Tower Ballroom in 1991 when I was only one year old" he gushed excitedly!

Yvonne Kennedy (also 21, pictured above right) who lives underneath the Bullring, Birmingham, was even more effusive in her praise. "To be here today listening to Robert sing Boys Don't Cry has got to be right up there with the time that I went to see Wayne Hussey (former Sisters of Mercy member and Mission front man) playing the evil stepmother in the 1998 production of Cinderella at The Birmingham Hippodrome".

Robert was invited to the studio on this special day by his good friend Kraig Mitchell (21) of Year 1 Illustration.

Another Day in the Studio

GRILLUST™ T-Shirt No.2 - a Jenny Cox Original

Here's the second T-shirt from GRILLUST™ Enterprises and this time it's one for all the tutors out there.

This wonderfully humorous, poignant (and accurate) observation is brought to you by talented, Year 3 Illustrator and wordsmith, Miss Jenny Cox (21). Drop by to Jenny's website and blog to see many more of her witty musings on the human condition.

Chalk Tree

Here are some 'chalky branches' for Adam...

Ever wanted your very own font?

Well now you can have it, without the need to get your head around Fontographer.



Fontifier is a website that allows you to create a digital font by simply filling in, and then uploading, a template. You could create a script font based upon your handwriting/hand lettering or, if you want to keep things digital, you could adapt an existing font to fit your your own exacting needs. All you need is some imagination, 9$ and a PayPal account.


Grillust™ would undoubtedly use Fontifier to re-draw the rubbish tail on the uppercase R in Futura.
It is a little known fact that Paul Renner (Futura's designer) had intended to attach the tail to the bowl approximately 2mm to the East of its present location. However, while making the master drawing for this letter in his Bauhaus studio, Renner's elbow was accidentally knocked by Johannes Itten as he enthusiastically indulged in a bout of arm wrestling with Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius! Crazy times...


The R from Futura yesterday - it's not an R it's a P in disguise!

...Because It's There

How many web links can you get into just one post?

This many.

HELVETICA+HEAVY METAL=GENIUS

OK, so when we say genius we mean nonsense, but you get the idea...

No, on second thoughts, it is a genius idea and when printed onto a good quality, crisp, white T-shirt, may well be the start of the GRILLUST™ merchandise empire. After all, what's the point of being a brand if you're not going to milk it for all it's worth?

So... Ladies & Gentlemen we give you hellmetica © the first typeface to bridge those previously parallel universes of High Design and Heavy Metal logos.

You know you want one!


If you would like us to make this T-shirt a reality, let us know. If there's enough interest we'll get some quotes in and get back to you with prices.

STOP PRESS!
What were we thinking? A metal t-shirt in white?

Grace (who knows about Metal) pointed out the error of our ways in no uncertain terms. So for Grace and all self-respecting 'metalists', here is hellmetica © as it should be seen, reversed out of black. A black far blacker than James Hetfield's darkest 'dark night of the soul'. A black that's blacker than the depths of Slayer's abyss. A black that's even lots more blacker than that very, very black monolith featured in the film '2001 a Space Odyssey', viewed in a windowless dungeon in the depths of a castle devoid of electricity, candles and fire, on a moonless winter night...

Saul Bass Bookyes please

Dear Lawrence King, please ask me if I want a free review copy of this book. Go on. You know you want to.

.

We Like These - Clever with Words

The late, great Hovis Presley

Noma Bar and Others

We thought we'd celebrate the striking and very witty visual images of Noma Bar. The Israel born illustrator/graphic artist has an uncanny knack of being able to distill often complex subject matter into simple, appropriate graphic statements.


Red Riding Hood


Final Cut


Power to the Individual


Fatal Attraction


Shy Guy


Tea for Two
It is clear that Noma is presenting a contemporary take on the working methods of that great Japanese designer Shiego Fukuda who sadly died in 2009. For comparison, here are some of Fukuda's greatest graphic hits:










Although Bar's images are digital it is interesting to note that Fukuda had little interest in the computer saying, "I want to go on thinking what creation is without computers. I believe there is a whole world out there which needs to be thought about. When I start work on a job, first I wash my hands with soap. Then I sharpen ten or more pencils. I do not use a computer. My ideas appeal to the visual sense and I use the computer within my own brain."

Another master of visual tricks and optical illusions was the old school illustrator Peter Brookes - you can see a lot of his work in the book 'The Art of the Radio Times' which is where most of these images come from:









Of course, looming large over all of this is the work of one man, a man who's working philosophy was 'Maximum Meaning, Minimum Means', a certain Mr. Abram Games...

Vampire Rabbit

While we're on a Newcastle theme, here's a photo taken today of the vampire rabbit.

No, we're not making this up.
Yes, it's a genuine photo.
No, we haven't 'doctored' him in Photoshop.
Yes, it's in Newcastle.
No, we can't tell you where it is (we're too scared).

Next time you go to the 'Toon', see if you can find him.

Mirror, Mirror

Taken earlier today in Newcastle:

When Sir Ken speaks, scribble.

One of our 3rd year superstars, Dani Horton (21) spotted this intriguing way of presenting relatively dry content.

Open Days on 29th October & 2nd December - All Welcome

We've got a couple of University Open Days coming up and it would be lovely to see you.

You can book a place here.

Please feel free to pass this poster on to anyone you know who may be interested.

While We're Talking About Winners...

We know we've already told you about Year 3 Graphic Design student, Petra Bláhová winning the prestigious Letts 'Design a Diary' competition (not to be confused with the United Creameries 'Let's Design a Dairy' competition).

Anyway, here's something we thought you might like - a lovely photograph of the victorious former Czech Republic student (now officially adopted as Cumbrian) with her prize of 1000, crisp, British, pound notes laminated into the form of a large plastic cheque.

A Czech with a cheque...

Amy Holliday Wins the Graduate Showcase Excellence Award for Illustration

Amy and her winning smile...

Amy Holliday has been crowned top illustration graduate in the Computer Arts Graduate Showcase awards for 2011. We here at Grillust are very, very proud of her.

This is both a fantastic personal achievement for Amy (21) and great news for the BA in Illustration at The University of Cumbria. Our Illustration degree is only 3 years old and Amy is a student from the very first graduating year!



The event was judged by illustrator Autumn Whitehurst who had this to say about Amy's work:

Amy is a native of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria - a town famous for Hurdy Gurdies, nuclear submarines and Dave Myers (from off of/out of The Hairy Bikers/Bakers). Here's what the local paper had to say about her victory:


Note: the article features a rare photo of Amy Holliday on holiday...


and here's some more of Amy's work

We wish Amy well as she embarks on her career as a professional illustrator. Pop over to her website to see more of her beautifully observed, drawn and painted work.

Emma Slights wins Tigerprint 'Gift of Christmas' Competition

Emma Slights with the smile of victory.

Our warm congratulations, a cry of "well done!", "huzzah!" and a metaphorical pat on the back must go to Emma Slights for it is she who has won the Tigerprint 'Gift of Christmas' competition.

Tigerprint is the sole supplier of greetings cards to retail giant Marks & Spencer and her winning design will be available for purchase in the run up to Christmas 2012.

Emma, who graduated from BA Graphic Design this summer, beat off stiff competition to win this coveted prize.

As Yorkshire as York, Yorkie Bars and Yorkshire pudding, Emma has featured before on this blog and is the proud owner of her own blog Little Orange where you can see lots more of her work.

Badly Drawn Men

Separated at birth: "Badly Drawn Boy" and our very own

"Draws Bad Boys"

'hot tamales'ordylan playingon a skateboard

Course skater yoof and jackass wannabe, Dylan Sewel and his chums in action with music n' stuff

The end of an era. Erm (the movie) finally retires.

Our open day on Saturday marked the end of an era - the final time our outtake movie 'Erm' will ever be shown in public as part of Grillust(TM) promotional activities.

Once we'd wiped away the collective tear from our eye (Grillust is a sensitive beast) we wondered what we should do with it?.. Press the delete button and reuse the pixels for a mouth-watering piece of editorial design? No! Never!

It struck us, that like most other pieces of digital fluff that have passed their sell-by date, it could look forward to a happy and peaceful retirement in the land of YouTube. Here in that 'care home of video' it can look forward to finally finding the audience it deserves and enjoying a long, carefree dotage.

Erm - you have served us well.

ex student Rick Banksform fifty five

Rick Banks – FormFiftyFive from FormFiftyFive on Vimeo.