Here I will compare and contrast the processes and practices of illustrative director and animator Damian Gascoingne and wallpaper designer Tracey Kendall. From this I will then apply these processes and practices to the demands of industry then conclude by reflecting on how these can affect my own practices.
All projects start with concepts and ideas and these come from the things around you. These two designers both use their surroundings to create their work. Gascoingne creates doodles his characters from the people around him. Then goes on to taking photos of them so that he can find the story that is behind people and continue on with designing the characters further. Kendall is on a similar wavelength. Kendall goes out collecting organic objects from her surroundings. Objects include grass, flowers and feathers. She then continues her process by going to the photocopier and creating black and white photocopies. From the initial steps for the work Gascoingne has ideas handed to him on a plate from the people he meets whereas Kendall could be walking around for days looking for the best organic object she can find. For Kendall it is vital for her to find these objects to create wallpaper. This is because then she sells her wallpaper as a consumer product. In that sense if she doesn’t find anything she likes that could lead to a wallpaper design then she cannot make anything for a while and then she will be out of pocket because she hasn’t sold any wallpaper! This is how she succeeds as a practitioner. Whereas Gascoingne is likely to be set a brief that by a company and gain work from that. It is good that Gascoingne belongs to an agency rather than being a freelancer like Kendall because you are vital piece in a big game. The agency can provide a client with a great solution to a brief because they have an arsenal of different practitioners that work at Gascoingne ‘s agency PicassoPictures.
Both these designers use different varieties of materials and techniques in their work. Kendall has a whole range of different materials techniques to create different outcomes in her wallpaper. These include a laser cutter for laser cutting paper, stitching, digital stitching, sequins, jigsaw pieces and lace.
Combining these techniques make for a variety of different outcomes that will not only look right for the intended look of the wallpaper but will also have the feel and texture of the mood the design intended to have. Gascoingne’s work has recently been introduced to new areas and techniques. Gascoingne has started to work in 3D using 3D animating software. A student has been working with Gascoingne on building two characters for his animation. Firstly the models were constructed with clay that is used as a guideline whilst modeling in a virtual environment. Gascoingne quoted at a lecture Gascoingne said that “Animating in 3D is like driving a Porsche in a chip shop.” I’m guessing he mean it hard work. During Gascoingne’s lecture he showed the state of his current 3D work in which the character was basically rendered out without detail and was performing some basic movements. This project will give Gascoingne another tool under his belt and will allow him to be more available and open to any brief set with these new skills.
Kendall revealed that her work has been affected by the economic downturn. This is because the factory where she gets her sequins from had to close down. Politically this really pushes the thought that designers and other artists are potentially at a stand still if they can’t get their materials needed for their projects. There is the famous saying that ‘time is money’ and in Kendall’s case she is potentially loosing money because of the materials that are no longer available to her. I image that many design agencies and designers are feeling the pinch a little bit by cutting down the budgets for production and the cost changes of materials because a lot of things in recent months have been changing in price. It is not known whether Gascoingne’s work has so far been affected by the recession but it wouldn’t be surprising if it were.
The thing that I have learnt from both of these highly qualified practitioners is that you should be open to new ideas and different methods of working. This is because you can be a jack-of-all-trades making you more attractive to an employer. This also allows you have a wide knowledge of what design ideas and techniques are around you. Integration is a positive of knowing different processes and techniques because it allows you to combine two or more tools that could result in something great that could answer a brief that requires something more than just one feature of a technique.
802 Words
all images are from google.com
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