Friday 8 May 2009

Comparing and contrasting two designers.

For the past few months, I have looked and studied few different designers from different backgrounds. They all have influenced me one way or the other but the two designers which manage to grab my attention and found more interesting than others are Damian Gascoigne and Tal Rosner. These two designers are from different creative backgrounds. Tal has varied experience as he started off from being a graphic designer to creating interesting and experimental short films. Damian on the other hand is film maker and seeks influences from people and environment around him. One of the most important aspects for any designer is to have a relevant subject matter which would appeal to its target audience. Tal’s work is quite experimental and visually unique. He is self-learnt when it comes to film making therefore he likes the full control of his projects and have full command of it. He would usually have small team with him, which makes it easier for him to keep an eye on things and progression of his projects. Tal likes to get involved quite heavily with his work so when the final piece is being edited, he will know when to do what and when to add effects and what not to the piece. Damian works quite similar to this. He has worked in the graphic design industry for more than twenty-five years, which gives him a lot of experience and knowledge about this field. Damian himself is not that skilled when it comes to some of the programs he has to deal with so the way he works around it is that he hires students to do the work for him. Even then he still has most of the control over his project and adds input to any thing that he feels need adding. So he is quite similar to Tal’s approach, as they both like to have full control of their projects.
It is always a great pleasure to know how different designers approach their work and how they manage to generate such great ideas without much hassle or problems. What I have found out is that the most successful designers have a particular way of generating ideas which helps them to come up with ideas a lot quicker and it speeds up the over all process of their creative work. Damian is vey interesting designer to look at when it comes to generating ideas. He looks at ordinary things and people around him to help him. He is constantly looking for interesting natural forms that someone has made by spilling a drink or even looking at natural patterns created by nature it self such as old leaves or cracks on the pavement. And to be able to catch all this and much more, he is constantly carrying a digital camera and is always on the look out for any thing that might intrigue him. Rosner is bit opposite to Damian when it comes to research. I did email him and asked him few questions and one of them was how he generated his ideas and it was very kind of him to reply back and help me with my queries. He looks at other people’s work for inspiration and ideas. He looks at books, magazines, television and pretty much anything, which has a visual content and it helps him to generate ideas. To honest, I work in a similar manner when it comes to research and it is quite helpful to look at other’s work and it does help. Tal keeps his eyes open for any thing, which might spark his interest but his research is not as effective as Damian’s method. Damian also scribbles and doodles a lot and saves them away in his sketchbook and he often comes back to them and chances are most of the time he will re-use them as a character, pattern or any other from of creative piece. Tal has recently been involved in more television work as oppose to Damian who is involved in more animation work. Tal has produced opening credits for the hit television series skins and also has produced award-winning pieces. There’s a big transition in Tal’s work as he only produced work to trance music but later in his career, he managed to produce work for a classical music as well. This shows maturity and a greater understanding of the creativity and shows that he is willing to push himself to greater boundaries in order for him to evolve himself as a designer. Damian has taken a similar step in career spanning over twenty-years. From using just paper and pen for his illustration to taking in the variety of digital programs and combining the two together. Tal has done exactly this as he manages to combine his graphic designing skills in to his television work. The result is outstanding and a lot of depth can be found in both designers’ work. There’s an inspiration that drives these two designers. Damian is inspired by body postures and is intrigued by different people and their unique postures. Tal is predominantly inspired by television and the possibilities of it. The media has a lot to give and is now the basis of promoting yourself. Tal has taken this route and through this he mange to get the where he wants to be. Both of these designers are special in their own way yet their aim is pretty much the same, which is to bring out the best in them. Therefore, they constantly pushing themselves and taking on challenges, which in the long run make them a better designer than they already are.

Shanti Khan

This is my final animation of our super hero project.
This was my first attempt at after effects. It was a enjoyable process and I do hope to work on this format in the future.

Friday 1 May 2009

Holly Wales





This illustrator / designer is like a modern day Eduardo Paolozzi - cutting and sticking and adding her own bits of magic. Some of her work is very 'design' and some is very 'illustration', she is flexible to work in either way. This girl can also really draw too! Look at her website http://www.eatjapanesefood.co.uk/