bookworms…

Our second years are currently creating their children's illustrated books. They have toiled away, writing some fantastic, original stories and are now beginning the really fun part of the project - coming up with the illustrations. As is always true with any project - the finest solutions come from lots of experimentation - testing out ideas and developing a unique style. The video above takes a look at the work of Axel Scheffler, most famous for illustrating the Gruffalo character. A great video that showcases how even the professionals start at the drawing board and have to work hard at developing their illustrations.

Hope this inspires some of you second years… remember to not be scared of making mistakes, and have fun experimenting.

Also for you guys to have a look at, there is a video of illustrator Emily Gravett talking through taking her drawings through into Photoshop… this video will make you want to start saving for a graphics tablet!! View Emily Gravett's workshop here

You get what you give…

print & sniff…

We can't believe this our first post of 2011… I know it may seem it, but it isn't because we are lazy, it's because we are the super-busiest people ever at the moment. However, we think this post is definitely worth the wait…

Posted with our first years in mind, but this is still definitely worth a peek for you second years - Little White Lies designers The Church Of London have just unleashed this little treasure on youtube… a two minute video that squeezes all the work that went into the production for their most recent issue (The Black Swan Issue). Great to catch a glimpse of the design process in industry - meetings, planning, drawing, computers, cups of tea, stressing out at technology, and sniffing a new print of your work!! Also, for those of you that like to know these kinds of things, the front cover for this issue was guest-designed by David Carson… the guy that produced RayGun magazine. Enough reading, grab a look at the video here

You can take a further look at Little White Lies, including the full-screen online view, here

You can check out design studio The Church Of London here

roll with it…

Deadlines are fast approaching for all our students at the moment - some of the hard work is out of the way, but there is still a way to go before the Christmas…with that in mind, some last minute inspiration for you second years. Olly Moss is a uk based designer/illustrator who has produced worked for Levis, Urban Outfitters, Puma & Nike. A short while ago he recreated these classic movie posters for the Levis Rolling Roadshow cinema project

You can see more of Olly Moss' work here

monkeying around…

Sock Monkee, or Chris Sandlin, which is the name his mother gave him - is a U.S. based illustrator specialising in the craziest character driven illustrations and some great looking typography work. Most of this illustration work gets applied to t-shirts for some cool, independent clothing labels - there is also his very own line of t-shirts on the online shop page. First years may find this inspirational as a late addition to your NCFE & Unit 34 research documents, as well as giving you some ideas for how to apply your finished illustrations onto t-shirts in the coming couple of weeks. There is even a photo-shoot section, which you first years may also find helpful (use the Look Book link on Chris Sandlin's website)

You second years may just find the combinations of socks and monkee's and drawings nice to look at!!

Visit Chris Sandlin's website and portfolio here

Visit the Sock Monkee online store here

Always watching…

the best things in life…

Some of you will have already heard us mention this, because it has been up on our Facebook thread recently, but free graphics stuff is always worth a second mention, right?! Hydro74 is a very talented chap - all his design, illustration & typography work have a very dark, distinct style, and he has worked on projects for Nike, K2 Snowboards & Quicksilver to name just a few. He is in the process of starting up his own type foundry, titled Legacy Of Defeat, and at the moment he is giving away several of his fonts, free of charge!! Very stylish, so head over at take a look, and grab yourself a couple while he is still feeling generous

View the Legacy Of Defeat page here

View Hydro74's website, with his portfolio & other bits here

tickled pink

It's been a quiet blogging year so far - apologies guys, but this academic year is turning out to be a hectic one - we are already halfway to Christmas!! On the last day of the half-term (22nd October) Blackburn College took part in a Pink Friday, to help raise money for the Breast Cancer Care organisation. There was lots of goings-on across college, and everyone was encouraged to wear something pink & make a small donation. We are happy to say that our second year students did us mighty proud, and tickled us all pink in the process, as some of them definitely pushed the boat out in order to help a worthy cause :)

just click on the picture to take a close look and have a giggle

To find out more about Breast Cancer Care Pink Fridays , click here

mr. big stuff…

It's that time once again - the great big induction project - Big It Up 2010!! All our fresh new first years were split up into teams and had to re-create larger than life chocolate bars - the selections this year were Toffee Crisp, Curly Wurly, Buttons, Smarties and a Jaffa Cake Bar. Over the course of the induction period our teams worked tirelessly to produce some really tasty looking treats… the voting process proved how good all the work was - two teams tied for second place, and the first place winners only snatched victory by 1 vote!!!

The Big It Up winners 2010 will be announced later this week…we will keep you posted ;)