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About Grendel's Den Design Studio

Grendel's Den Design Studio specializes in distinctive designs that draw inspiration from the unique, the imaginative and the fantastique, striving to present the most creative and innovative work we possibly can to our clients.

GDDS is a full service digital studio that provides web design and development, graphic and print design, logo and branding development, media packaging design, and custom art and illustration. We bring not only years of technical experience but a strong passion for creativity, providing our customers a mixture of artistic distinctiveness with user-friendly functionality in every design.

Our client base is one of the most diverse and includes Halloween events, authors, photographers, opera singers, prop designers, film studios, music labels, artists, deejays, and festivals just to name a few. This has given GDDS the ability to be flexible, resourceful and thoughtful, listening to what our clients have to say and working directly with them to create something that fully represents them and they can be proud of showing the world.

Grendel's Den Design Studio strives to provide the best of service, expertise and passion to give our clients a product that is uniquely theirs. And we invite you to contact us with your project so you too can experience this for yourself.


About D.E. Christman

D.E. Christman is an artist that simply wants to scare the hell out of you. And he takes great pleasure in doing so. He has been creating his darkened images for as long as he can remember. Monsters, goblins, spirits and other things that go "bump" in the night have always filled his imagination. His Lovecraftian inspired work has been described as twisted, demented and wonderfully creepy, a description he takes great pride in.

Throughout his lifetime D.E. Christman has pursued a long list of artistic endeavors, striving to learn all he can from each and every one. Taking from each discipline what best suited him and his creativity he built a unique style that is definitively his. Today he works exclusively in the Digital Media melding photography, archived textures and digital painting techniques to create striking and haunting images.

He makes his living through his company Grendel's Den Design Studio, producing art and design for print and web. He is also the owner of Zombie Monkey Projects (a blog of odd things for odd people) and Philly Frights (covering all things spooky in Philadelphia), as well as a club DJ under the name Dave Ghoul, the co-founder of the Philly Zombie Crawl and Philly Zombie Prom, Art Show Assistant for the HorrorFind Weekend Art Show, Prepress and Graphics Manager for Dancing Ferret Entertainment, and is also regarded as one of Philadelphia's premier zombie experts, having given various interviews and lectures regarding his knowledge of both the Living Dead and the famous Voodoo curse.

Today he lives in Philadelphia, PA with his lovely wife Stephanie, thier dog pepper and the monkey on his back called coffee.


F.A.Q.

Q: Why is your artwork so dark and creepy?
A: I just love all things dark and creepy. Always have and always will. I know that's a pretty damn simple answer but in all that just about sums it up.

Q: Where do you get your ideas from for your artwork?
A: Anywhere and everywhere. Movies, books, art, ghost stories, folklore, dreams, real life occurrences... you name it. I don't limit myself as to what and where I find ideas for my work, which opens the doors to a flood of prospects.

Q: Who are your inspirations and influences?
A: Who: Basil Gogos, Gustav Klimpt, H.P. Lovecraft and Clive Barker. What: folklore, mythology, comics, Japanese grotesques, Hammer Films, Heavy Metal Magazine, horror films from the 60s and 70s and macabre humor.

Q: Do you have any formal training?
A: Nope, not one bit. I've taught myself every step of the way and take great pride in that. With that said I know that if the opportunity to have had formal training was available to me years ago I probably would have gotten to the point I am at now much sooner.

Q: How did you get started?
A: I've been creating art in one form or another all my life. Which makes it kind of hard to nail down an exact time I began my artistic endeavors. Now if you are asking when I began my professional career as an artist I would have to say about a decade ago. That is when I made a conscious decision to make a living off of my work by creating Grendel's Den Design Studio.

Q: What equipment do you use to create your art?
A: I use PhotoShop, various cameras, Poser, a Wacom tablet, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, ImageReady, InDesign, Quark, a computer, a scanner and lots of coffee.

Q: Can I model for you?
A: Maybe. If you really want to get onto my radar best bet is to either send an e-mail or you can use the GDDS Model Form.

Q: Can I use one of your images, graphics, etc. for free?
A: I have a pretty good idea that you already know what the answer is to that question, but since you asked- The answer is no. My artwork and design are how I make a living. Obviously I have to make money in order to pay the bills. So if I gave my work away I wouldn't make any money, thusly I wouldn't be able to pay the bills. Now I know what you're thinking "But come on dude, I can just take the image." Sure you could but I'm confident that you aren't a jackass and wouldn't do such a thing. Cause you know, I needs me the money to pay da bills.

Q: Would you make me a piece of artwork, image, graphic, web site, etc. for free?
A: Again, you probably already know the answer to that but here you go- No. Remember that money and bill paying thing I mentioned above? Well it's the same answer to this question as well. I need to get paid for my work so as to be able to pay my bills.

Q: Can I hotlink to one of your images, graphics, etc.?
A: No you can not link directly to any of my images, graphics or artwork. It takes up bandwidth on my server and is in all intents and purposes bad netiquette. Besides I know you're not such a twit.

Q: If I purchase your artwork can I reproduce it, publish it, post it on the web, etc?
A: No. You may own the piece of art but I own the rights to the image itself.

Q: What do I do if I find someone using your art, images, graphics, etc.?
A: Contact me. Be sure to give me the web address to where you found it.

Q: Why do you go by D.E. Christman?
A: Laziness. In all honesty it's a lot easier to write that out than my whole name which is David Edward Christman.

Q: Was this web site named after the monster Grendel from the epic poem Beowulf or Matt Wagner's comicbook series Grendel?
A: A little from column A and a little from column B. Being a fan of mythology and folklore Beowulf has always been one of my favorite tales. Also being a fan of comics I have always loved Wagner's antihero Hunter Rose.

Q: Are you really a zombie expert?
A: I've always been a big fan of the Living Dead and the Voodoo legend since I was a kid. And I actually do have a pretty vast knowledge of such things because of that. Besides, that's what the news papers say. And we all know the news is never wrong.

Q: What is Zombie Monkey Projects and who is Dave Ghoul?
A: Zombie Monkey Projects was the name of my DJ and event promotions company, which operated very successfully for 6 strong years organizing nightclub events, live shows and online radio webcasting, as well as promoting me under my DJ name Dave Ghoul. As time had passed I decided to cut back on the event promoting and organization so I could focus more on Grendel's Den Design Studio. But instead of dropping the Zombie Monkey Projects name I decided to morph it into two separate entities - Zombie Monkey Projects became my personal blog and DaveGhoul.com became my DJ site.