Practitioners Report

For my 1000 word report I have chosen to compare and contrast the processes and practices of Tal Rosner and Tracy Kendall. Both Tal and Tracy were visiting lectures at college and both discussed there background and history up to present day and explained their thoughts and experience working in the industry. They obvious showed their work and explained the meanings behind some pieces.

I found Tal’s and Tracy's lectures both interesting and I felt I could relate to both there work and interests. Tal explained how he developed an interest in moving image and became fascinated with rhythm and composition, and shown how he brought the two elements together in his experimental animations. Tracy also discussed her interests within design and explained how from a fine art background she progressed into becoming a wallpaper designer. Explaining her passion for using and sourcing organic material as a basis for her designs.

When initially looking at these two designers in comparison with one and other, my first thoughts were that they couldn't be further apart. However at a more in depth look and viewing them as individuals not as a traditional wallpaper designer and a unique, abstract animator they both share similarities.

Tal rosner discussed that after his studies he thought he landed his dream job working in the south of England for a large company. However he explained that he discovered his dream was short lived as he turned out to dislike the environment he worked in and found that the lack of creative freedom was uninspiring. Further more he preferred to work alone which allowed him full control over creative decisions and gave him freedom. You could suggest that Tracy shares Tal’s working methods as she works alone and develops ideas from her own creative thinking without any boundaries from working within a company.

Tracy explained that she enjoyed working with organic source material such as Flowers, grass, feathers and preferred to have as few technical barriers between the source material and the final piece (wallpaper). She also explained that she used a variety of materials and elements that she liked to work with such as sequins, different textures of paper and metals. Moving on to discuss the process she goes through to create the pieces such as laser cutting, digital stitching and basic printing. I feel that Tal’s working processes and practices in this area are dissimilar to Tracy’s as tal’s work seems to rely heavily on manipulation of his source material. In the case of his piece ‘doppleganger’ the recordings of the industrial surroundings and scenery are then heavily manipulated, perfected and refined to create exquisite compositional animations. This seems to be a very technical approach using effects like mirrors and masks etc. in after effects, when compared to the limited technical barriers Tracy seems to prefer. However I cant help think that Tal’s work also has an organic feel. His sourced footage is mostly of industrial settings, steel frame constructions, pipelines, factorials and has a very mechanical and structured feel to the footage. Yes, his final piece is heavily manipulated and abstracted but I feel that his final compositions some how retains and relates to the original recorded footage resulting in both the final piece and the source material looking and feeling like they both have been produced from the same processor or source. With this in mind one could argue that Tal’s and Tracy’s final pieces some how are similar.

Both Tal and and Tracy explained how their personal work and designs changed due to the external rigours of the industry. This was mainly due to them taking on briefs and having to adapt there style to meet the clients need. At first you would think that the negative side of working with a client would out weigh the positives, but both describe how they were able to bring in there own style of work to meet the requirements of the brief. (This seemed positive.) In Tal’s case he explained how he worked to complete the skins opening title sequences. When looking at the idents for skins you can instantly recognise that it is the work of Tal. Looking at the sequences I think the brief and work didn't turn out to be a rigourous experience in the industry for Tal as it is evident that he was given creative freedom which allowed him to produce idents in his own unique style. Therefore resulting in this brief and experience not to be an ordeal but a pleasure for Tal, adjusting his style to a brief.

Tracy also explained these external rigours working for clients and working to briefs. This area of the industry also seem to be a positive for Tracy. She explained how she, like Tal was given freedom when working for clients and seemed to only come across problems in regards to how her work was displayed. She explained, when creating pieces for industry and clients which in some cases is displayed in public places such as shops, there are certain restrictions like health and safety standards which she must comply with. Tracy explained how her work with sequins (shown in image) had to comply with certain health and safety regulations, in this case there was a fire hazard.

Both Tracy and Tal’s experiences within this area seem quite positive with some if any problems encountered. I think one reason for this is that the briefs they have took on are requesting their style of work, obviously allowing them to work within an area they are comfortable in. I feel that this could be seen as both a positive and negative thing. Obviously the positive is that they will work doing something they are familiar with. The negative being that they could become type cast to that one area of design and clients will think that they only do one thing and only ask for that one style of work. Making the designer feel restricted and that there is more to their design and creative skills then that one area.

In concluding I wanted to using Tal Rosner and Tracy Kendall for this report because I felt that they both seemed very distant to one and other within the industry. Enjoying the work of both I wanted to look more in-depth at Tal and Tracy, comparing their Processes and Practices and how they are defined by the industry they work in. I feel that in overview, before applying the lessons I have learnt in this report to my own practices I need to decide weather I want to work individually like Tal and Tracy, having full creative control. Or within a team, company or organisation all using each other skills and abilities to complete a successful brief. At the moment I feel that I am leaning towards the later.