Glug Brighton Summer 2016

After a recommendation from a couple of the Nexus team, we decided it was time to take an after hours field trip to Brighton's coolest design meet up.  

Glug is a series of events for the design and creative community. Glug’s popularity has grown extensively since their initial event in London in 2007 and they now host events in 13 cities around the world. Glug Brighton reflects the creative buzz of the city and is a haven for creatives. It is an evening jam packed with creative talks, live art, pop-up shops and interactive fun. Glug Brighton is organised by Agency Rush and Crush Creative. It’s held at a different venue each time, last Friday it was held at the Patterns club and bar on Marine Parade.

  

All three talks were inspiring, captivating and funny. The first talk was from Animade, a London based animation studio who make everything from TV ads to social campaigns and video games. They spoke about the importance of studio projects. They purposely spend roughly 20% of their week on their own work, whether it’s a personal project such as Party Pooper, an online game that pushes SVGs to their limit, or developing shortcuts to speed up their work flow, which they publish for free such as an easy storyboarding system and After Effects animations.

They also regularly connect with other animators through social media. The Full Secs animation challenge is one such example. A Full Sec is an animation that has to tell a story in one second. Animade created a few and published them across their social media channels and asked other animators to submit their own Full Secs. They received hundreds of entries, they have compiled some of the best ones here.

Putting aside time, energy and resources to work on studio projects has allowed the team to stay creative and innovative.

Creating ways to speed up their work flow allows them to create polished client work quickly and sharing these resources with other designers has helped them to become an authority within the animation industry. Here at Nexus we also understand the importance of making time for studio work and Animade’s talk serves as a gentle reminder to make more of a concerted effort to dedicate time to studio projects and self improvement. 

The second talk was from the founder and editor of Riposte, Danielle Pender. Riposte is a women’s magazine that features brilliant and bold women, worlds away from glossy showbiz magazines typically marketed at women. Her talk was really witty. She spoke about some of the amazing women they have featured so casually, as if you were meeting them at a house party.

The third and final speaker was so popular it was standing room only! Mr. Bingo, the original Shoreditch beat busker and ‘Master of Pens’ detailed his rise to fame. We loved hearing his amusing anecdotes detailing how his Hate Mail project grew from a simple (drunk) idea to a book deal, as well as how he found extras for his tongue in cheek rap video. Mr. Bingo is a regular on the global speaking circuit and we’d urge you to go to one of his talks, you won’t regret it!

As well as the amazing talks there was plenty going on upstairs…

The interactive treats upstairs included:

A DJ app created by Stick It On that enabled guests to have 15 minutes of DJ fame on the decks. Users could browse through playlists and submit three songs along with their DJ name. The chosen few, who were notified through the app, were able to play their selected tunes on Stick It On’s decks. There was also a tweet powered vintage sweet dispenser called Tweets for Treats!

If you tweeted the selected handle and hashtag you were rewarded with a handful of free sweets. The Private Press were also there. They’re a local screen-printing company who had teamed up with illustrators Adam Howling and Sean Sims and were printing exclusive limited edition prints designed especially for the event. They were free and as you can imagine, very popular with guests. There was also an illustration photo booth, illustrators Rosie Curran and Peter James Field were sketching guests.

There was also live art by:

Alice Bowsher, who is renowned for her fun and bold illustrations. Her clients include Virgin, White Stuff and WGSN among many others. Alice has exhibited across the UK, led live drawing events, created 3D installations and published a colouring book for children. Alongside Alice there was Stephanie Unger, whose work is playful and very colorful. She has recently been working with Blink creating props for their ‘Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared’ series, which was being played on a screen behind her on the night. Lucy Sherston, a local artist and illustrator was also there. She’s interested in how forms fit together and creates playful compositions. She’s currently employed by Dowse as an in-house print designer.

In addition, there were also a few pop up shops:

A Brighton based illustrator, Hello Marine, was selling her acrylic jewellery, prints and textile pieces. Her clients include Lacoste, The NY Times and Heal’s. As well as the headline speaker, Mr. Bingo, who was selling his book ’Hate Mail: The Definitive Collection’. There was also Linguistine a.k.a Matthew Ward, an Art Director, Graphic designer & Illustrator selling prints of his work.  His clients include V&A and Red Bull.

We’re all looking forward to the next Glug Brighton event. Check out their website, Twitter and Facebook to find an event near you!

Words by Fiona Prosser

Images by Fiona & Jean-Luc Brouard