Following her well received workshop at this year’s summer show, illustrator and educator Ignacia Ruiz sat down with final year student Andrew Sosnowski to discuss how it went and this year’s theme of the show: process.
Andrew Sosnowski: Hello Ignacia. Could you tells us a bit about yourself?
Ignacia Ruiz: Hello! Im a London based illustrator and graphic designer working mostly with drawing and printmaking.
I like to work both commercially and on my personal projects, mostly involving me walking around with my sketchbook in hand. Im also an associate lecturer at the foundation course at Central Saint Martins.
AS: What appealed to you about running a workshop in the Hothouse summer show this year?
IR: I'll take any excuse to make images! I've worked a bit with Riso and I think its a great medium to explore. The combination of drawing and printing is always a winner in my books, so that sounded very appealing.
AS: What had you hoped to see come out of your workshop?
IR:Hopefully have people experience a new method of printing and be able to try a different way of making images.
AS:How do you think it went?
IR:Well hopefully! I enjoyed it. You would have to ask the attendees…
AS: The theme of the show this year is the process of making. What do you think about the tools available to designers today?
IR: We have a wealth of tools today! We have access to not only analogue methods but digital too. I think great things happen when you can successfully combine both.
Many illustrators, especially who enjoy printmaking feel like its either one or the other but I think both tools are just as valuable and complement each other in a great way. Its about embracing both
AS: To give current students a sense of the challenges that await them in the future, what would you say is the biggest difficulty you’ve had to overcome as a designer?
IR: I think the biggest difficulty would be juggling all the different aspects of the job. You need to be excellent at time management and pretty self reliant. You'd be surprised how much of the job is NOT about making images.
AS:Do you have any advice for students graduating this year who aren’t quite sure what their next step should be?
IR:Don't pressure yourself to be "successful" right after you leave college. Sometimes you need some time to grow into what you will do in the future. Things take time, I myself feel like i have a long way to go still. This is a good thing! Its exiting to think where things can grow into with time.
Check out Ignacia Ruiz at: http://www.ignaciaruiz.com/
Follow her on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/ignacia_rz/
Will Hudson, co-founder of Its Nice That came to the Cass to do his part to demystify the design industry. Hoping to give the audience a better sense of his entire journey in the industry, he started by talking about his time at university (where he and Alex Bec started It’s Nice That) before talking about three companies he currently runs (with Bec).
It's Nice That is a website which aims to promote good design in an accessible way. Hudson is quite proud of the fact that one can see high-quality professional design sitting alongside the bold, imaginative work of second year design students with each sharing the same level of space and attention. Hudson freely admitted that, although the website has been up and running for 10 years this year, the notion of the business plan hadn't really surfaced until 2007.
All throughout the talk, Hudson’s approachable and down-to-earth demeanour supported his intentions of helping those who want to enter the design industry but not feel intimidated by it.
Hudson then went on to talk about Anyways, the sister company to Its Nice That. They function as a graphic design studio doing all sorts of projects.
Hudson also mentioned Lecture in Progress which is designed to provide those who want to join the creative industry more knowledge about just what it is they are getting themselves into. Throughout everything Hudson talked about, it was very clear that transparency was one of his main goals. It really came through when he talked about Lecture in Progress: real designers talk about their real experiences in the industry, from getting the first job to the realities of networking.
Hudson then gave his own advice to the audience, talking about the importance of being friendly and enthusiastic, learning through doing and most importantly, about maintaining the determination to keep going when things don't go your way.
Having been generous with his time, Hudson also brought free publications for the audience. They contained several pieces of artwork that have been showcased on Its Nice That as well as several articles from Lecture in Progress.
After a lengthly question-and-answer session, the talk ended an, to sum it up in four words: it was nice that.
Have a look at It’s Nice That at: http://www.itsnicethat.com/
Find out more about Anyways at: http://www.anyways.co/
Sign up to Lecture in Progress at: https://lectureinprogress.com/
As part of the Hothouse summer show this year at the CASS, Clayton Welham, Moving Image Director at Why Not Associates talked to BA Illustration student Andrew Sosnowski about the thinking behind his workshop.
AS: You currently work as moving image director at Why Not Associates. How would you summarise what you do?
CW: I work as a part of design team at WNA mostly on the motion / video / animation side of things, directing commercials, short films, animations and music promos. That sees me initiating projects from brief, through development - directing a wider team, to commissioning content ( illustration, 3D, sound design and music) I then co-ordinate all the parts and bring them together into final pieces (editing / compositing / rendering / delivering).
I’m involved in every step of a project, not all are my expertise, but as a director it’s important to monitor each junction, to ensure the each of the parts contribute towards the final outcome as you envisioned it.
AS: The theme of the show is 'support'. As Celine Condorelli discusses in her book Support Structures, support can take many forms. It 'collaborates, props, assists, frames, holds up, sustains, encourages, corroborates, stands behind, strengthens and underpins', to name but a few. What does 'support' mean to you as a designer and how has it affected your plans for your workshop.
CW: My workshop is a close representation of the live rig I use to tour with Emptyset - with a few tweaks to open it up for a group to use and understand - it is a set up that was developed over time by 4 people - all of which brought something to it - some placed demands on my ability beyond what I was comfortable with at first, some supplied components, some provided advice on improving and polishing the system.
So taking the rig as an example, support for me means being pushed, it means being part of something and the opportunities that arise that would not have come to me on my own, and it means vital technical advice allowing me to understand and therefore modulate a system to my advantage.
AS: What do you hope to see come out of your workshop? (Asked prior to workshop)
CW: I hope to get across two main points:
1/ What I do day to day and on personal projects isn’t possible on my own 2/ That to make work that provokes questions and intrigue, we need to modulate existing systems - of thought, of technical equipment and of how the work is presented / absorbed
The actual outcomes may or may not be tangible, but in the process of playing with an example modulated system, I hope it opens up participants to shift from some of the the conveniences we enjoy as designers / image makers. To see that with a bit of thought, and cross platform collaboration, new unexpected outcomes can come about.
I’m always disappointed when presented with a piece of work, of which I know the exact process, plug in, filter etc that was used to create it. So to create in an unconventional way (which doesn’t have to be radical, but have some sort of unique input) the outcome could be seen as more exciting to make, and may well be more exciting to an audience.
AS: Now that you've had your workshop, how do you feel it went?
CW: I think it went well - less of a workshop in the end, more a show and tell / technical discussion but a good session all the same. I've had a positive response, so it seems to have been useful.
AS: What would you say is the biggest difficulty you've had to overcome in your design career?
CW: The biggest challenge I face is juggling time. Between full time work and extra projects - when deadlines hit at the same time as other commitments it can be tricky to stay on top of everything. I kind of thrive on the pressure though - and once settled I'm glad looking back on the outcomes.
AS: Having made the successful transition from design student to successful professional, do you have any advice for those who are graduating this year?
CW: This for me is simple - stay in touch with those you meet. Fellow students, tutors, anyone that has had a positive effect towards where you are now. The things I'm doing, Why Not and AV projects have all been in part down to my work, but largely due to the people I've met along the way. Ways in, advice, heads up and collaborations have been vital.
Clayton Welham is Moving Image Director at Why Not Associates. Check out them out at http://www.whynotassociates.com/. Clayton also works with Emptyset, A studio that investigates the relationship between sound and spaces. You can check them out at http://emptyset.org.uk
Today was the first Hothouse workshop, with Clayton Welham, Moving Image Director at Why Not Associates. His workshop was designed to encourage the participants to consider a more experimental approach to the processes they use when creating their work. He brought with him a custom made set-up including an old television set, several laptops, an electronic keyboard, and a few other components. Through a series of complicated technical processes best simply described as ‘science’, these machines could turn visual information inputed at the beginning into audio output at the end. The idea was to get the participants to add their own ‘input’ to generate an unexpected outcome.
Clayton made the point that he is always disappointed when he sees a piece of design and can immediately tell how it was created or make a reasonable assumption as to the processes involved. The apparatus he uses was designed to help foster an air of uncertainty and unpredictability into the creative process. He makes regular use of it when working with electronic musicians James Ginzburg and Paul Purgas, collectively known as Emptyset, at their live shows.
In reference to the theme of the Hothouse summer show this year, which is ‘support’, Clayton spoke about how his ability to use this system and its technology came about as a result of the expertise of many other people who had helped him modify and understand the equipment in question. He also spoke about how ‘once you agree to something, you have to do it’ and that, in doing it, you are pushed into improving your knowledge, skill and efficiency so that you do it right.
As the workshop went on and people started ‘feeding the beast’, as it were, the entire floor of the building was shaken by the cacophonous roar of, what can only be described as dubstep’s younger, coarser, less well-spoken brother. After a while, the participants stopped to consider the functionality and implications of the equipment, as well as resting their ears.
The workshop continued in the same vein until its end. Giving all in attendance a lot to think about for a very long time to come. If all the workshops this year are going to be as groundbreaking and vital as this, it’s going to be a very good year indeed.
And here's my work that was displayed in the exhibition! (The 4th pic is a title from a video I edited of everyone's videos from my studio! So it is everyone's work! But also my work!) #thecassart
