![]() Aidan McCormack - Illustration And Visual Media. As I embarked on my DPS Journey I quickly secured a placement As a Studio Assistant at Lauren Bakers Studio. I ultimately got this placement by revisiting artists and companies I had previously been in contact with prior to this DPS experience, as months back I had enquired about job opportunities but was never previously in the position to send over a complete, professional portfolio. After perfecting my portfolio, I was able to rekindle conversations ultimately leading to this great opportunity. This taught me to always make sure I follow up on past efforts especially once I was in a more suitable position. As my first placement at Lauren Bakers Studio in Hackney Wick began, I was truly excited to embark on this work placement for the next 3 months. After previously meeting Lauren in Soho house for my interview we got on really well so I was excited to meet the rest of the team. As I was welcomed by a young and friendly team in which some of them where in a similar position to me, also working as Interns, it felt like a great initial work environment to begin this journey. As they had literally moved studio a day before I arrived it felt like a new start for everyone which was also comforting, but exciting as we had the task of curating the 40 square foot gallery and exhibition space from complete scratch. Discussing with Lauren, she gave me a deeper insight of her specific practices and achievements as a Multi-Disciplinary artist, also discussing how I could make the most of this experience whilst also benefiting her practice and work flow throughout my time as an assistant. Some of these specific areas that I am to focus on through my time with Lauren are as followed;
This range of responsibilities excited me as I was ready to progress in areas I favour such as photoshop design, now developing my skills in a more professional context, but I was also excited to explore new areas of design such as Neon light works, exhibition curation and the overall construction and hanging of different works. Being confident in myself and conversing with the rest of the team was an important factor of this initial experience as Its always important to represent yourself well whilst also showing an interest in others. With week 1 commencing I understood that I would be primarily helping arrange the new studio and exhibition space, this provided me with a great opportunity to understand how a studio can be both put together and curated to provide the best working environment. It also gave me a great initial insight into the process of her work as I arranged a wide array of materials and tools. As I also helped arrange and curate a huge range of Laurens artworks within the in new exhibition space downstairs it helped me understand the progression she has had as an artist, the variety of processes she explored and the overall journey she had been on as a creative. This ultimately made me question and visualise how I can feed off these works and her style to offer her a refreshing, creative outlook within the team attempting to push new, diverse possibilities and direction of her future outcomes. My first design based tasks was to create a sculptural mock up using Cinema 4D which is a programme I wasn’t very familiar with, despite this I begun to teach myself and although I had very little knowledge previously, this project really forced me to make steady progress throughout my short time using it. This digital model was then used as the visual blue print when physically constructing the sculpture. This process taught me a progressive approach to creating bespoke sculptures, similar to 3D printing (which I had done in the past) This Digital 3D model gives a clear representation of the goal and can be altered and viewed from every angle which proved key when developing shapes and textures around the tree, making it look as natural as possible. The images above display the development of my 3D modelling as I refined the design and my skills throughout the week through personal reflection and feedback from Lauren. I was happy with the outcome of these models especially as they are the first ever models I had sculptured within Cinema 4D, whilst I also successfully captured Laurens vision as we worked closely throughout the process. The tree sculpture was to be positioned at the opening entrance of The Other Art Fair Whilst Lauren was also given a booth within fair to display further works. A great approach and one I had not done before was digital curation, using Cinema4D again I was able to mock up the exact dimensions of the space and the works we planned to place within it. This was extremely effective as i was able to understand how many works we could fit on certain walls and what works complement each other in the space both visually and size wise therefore leading us to be accurate and efficient with our time and money in preparation of transporting the works from the studio to the exhibition. This is a process I plan to use in the future with my own works as, aswell as helping myself out in the overall curating process as you can input exact dimensions of each work seeing how they work together, it also creates a great visual presentation of how your work can fit in or affect certain spaces.
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Natalie Cheng / GMD It is an exciting year ahead of us. Although sometimes clouded by self-doubts and insecurities within skillsets, I do believe that I will be fine. Whatever lies ahead of us will eventually be a fruitful and enriching journey that will shape our perception of our craft, and also build our mental toughness. Application process was not a smooth sailing one for me. 99% of my applications were either not responded (I very much appreciate companies who take the time to reply to emails even if they are not hiring), or an email for disappointment. I was mentally drained because it was a tiring process– to seek out for companies, to crafting out a personal email, to a lot of waiting, only to be waiting and left hanging at the end. Whilst I actually managed to successfully receive a response the next day after I sent in my portfolio to Domenic Lippa, a significant partner from Pentagram, I was left hanging for weeks after his first email back of an invitation for an interview. Of course, with such an amazing opportunity, I couldn’t let it slip out of my hands! I was craving for an immediate response, but days slowly turned to weeks. I lost motivation to keep going and also did not want to appear an annoying person flooding his mailbox with so many of my desperate emails. After all of that mental turmoil and with a heavy heart, I had to let the opportunity go. But I told myself to try again after this current 3-month placement I am in now. Currently, I am in a 3-month internship at a wayfinding studio called Endpoint. I count my blessings to have landed in a healthy office environment– colleagues are especially funny and joyful, and my line manager is the kindest in terms of cultivating a work culture where there is minimal hierarchy. Although I have only been here for two weeks, I learnt that a camaraderie between colleagues is the most crucial to create a pleasant working environment. Every single colleague is not afraid to showcase their own personalities, and what I appreciate most is how everyone else embraces it. To add on to cultivating a healthy working environment, we have a thing called Breakfast Fridays every fortnight where we enjoy a plethora of breakfast spreads over a morning meeting. To put it quite simply, the reason why I wanted to do a placement in a wayfinding studio is because I always had the interest in social anthropology. But it is not only that, it was also my passion for architecture and the built environment. I see myself as a nerd towards subject matters– always curious and questioning the psychology behind things, especially if it deals with the whys within human behaviour. And to learn more about the field of wayfinding, the senior designer kindly lent me a book on city planning. It talks about the considerations a city planner will need to make to have have a more vivid and memorable image of the place for city dwellers. In Kevin Lynch’s book The Image of the City, he categorized these physical forms of a city into five types of elements– Paths, Edges, Districts, Nodes and Landmarks. (Lynch, 1960) Not only do these five elements make up a definition of a city, it also helps us retain our directional sense and memories. It made complete sense to me after learning more about the subject matter because if I were to recall my past experiences, it is through the vividness of a district, or a significant landmark that allows me to retain an image of the place in my head. But what are the sub-elements that allow us to remember the image? Some examples include its facades, proximities within streets, or surrounding activities such as shops.
I thought his book was really insightful to learn about the built environment, especially since this is a completely new field for me. These new knowledges will be useful to consider especially during design thinking and ideation process as rationales are extremely crucial. To link back to the question of how design plays a complex, networked and technologically driven world, I suppose the point I’m trying to make here is through my definition of becoming a well-rounded designer who possess various kinds of knowledge from different fields. Although the things I will learn during these 3-months in Endpoint may not expose me to a complete graphic design realm, it will however teach me alternative communicative methods. And to be in a wayfinding studio, it will allow me to gain exposure within human behaviour. Since design itself is a tool for communication for the masses, I believe that by exposing myself to that skillset, not only will my future designs enable me to consider that aspect area, I will come out to become a better enriched and open-minded creative. |
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March 2022
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