Professional Practice Essay

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Agnieszka Polac 22.03.2021

D&P, Level 2

Professional Practice Module

My ambition is to create professional pattern designs using a range of artistic and technical skills. I want to apply them to a variety of home decor items and produce sensual spaces through art installations. I chose my career path as an entrepreneur and a professional.

I imagine having a range of pattern designs for wallpapers, tiles, fabric, upholstery, etc available in my online store. I would also look for pattern design commissions and design collaborations with companies producing homeware, furniture and soft furnishings. Developing this kind of business will take some time, and before it can bring substantial income I would seek employment as a professional by applying for any role in a print studio, or a design studio.

At the beginning of this academic year I came up with a vision for a wallpaper design. I explored new ways of printing (flocking, foil transfer, puff binding) and want to digitally print out the main design by the end of this year. My design will come in 3 versions:

• hand drawn/painted and digitally printed ‘high street version’;

• the above plus had hand printed elements as a ‘haute couture version’;

• the above plus elements of the design coming out of flat wallpaper, creating ‘an art installation version’;

I think that art installation would be a fantastic promoting piece, also showing a potential to employ the design in creating multi sensory art spaces (with light and music), to show in art galleries or use at festivals/stage design/entertainment events, etc.

During summer break I wanted to learn more about patterns and have already purchased few workshops. In the 3rd year I want to work on art installation. By the end of it I want to be familiar with all technical ins and outs of the whole process to be able to repeat it with a different design when I leave university.

In my blog I looked at entrepreneurs with their own businesses whom I look up to: Justyna Medon, Becca Who, Frieda Gormley and Javvy M Royle. They make patterns, apply them to a variety of surfaces, sell their products, collaborate and work on commissions. They inspire me by showing possibilities within pattern design, and prove that once you’re successful at selling your products more and more collaborations and different projects come to you.

In this semester we were introduced to a number of talks and seminars. I chose a few artists whose work influenced me whilst working on my pattern design. Through art in the city lectures I came across Sean Edwards, whose installation piece for Venice Biennale sparked again my love for installations and reminded me of one of my greatest inspirations in this field (which was also presented in Venice), an art installation by Gerda Steiner and Jorg Lenzlinger.

Another speaker, painter Chantal Joeffe, stopped me with some of her colour palettes and textures of her painting, which I find very sensual. She also made me look at works of Bonnard and pay attention to some of his colour combinations.

Evenbrite talks brought another artist to my attention: Emma Talbot. It was inspiring to see an artist translating her paintings and illustrations to large scale installations,draping her hand painted fabrics all over vast exhibition spaces.

One of new, interesting experiences was a collaborative project on a design for The Big Draw. I worked with 7 other students on creative workshops for people visiting Arnolfini exhibitions on a topic of health. We related health to the environment and came up with a few visual prompts to engage the wide public. It's good to work in a group and be a part of a very different dynamic to what I am normally used to. Since there were many individuals putting in their ideas and artwork, it was definitely easier to contribute what I felt mostly natural with and let others do the rest. I think that it would be good to keep eyes open for more collaborations aside from my main projects as they bring variety and the unexpected, plus more connections and relations.

As part of the Professional Practice module we were introduced to D&P alumnis, who shared their experience during the course and the steps they took after graduating. They shared tips, showed their work and presented their current practice. I was especially interested in the work of Jenny Matthews and Maria Quintin. Jenny works as a studio print technician in a gallery in London. Seeing her practice I grew really interested in a similar role involving screen printing- my favourite way of printing. I very much liked the kind of buzz her gallery is creating, the artists she works with and the beauty of screen printed work. It took her a lot of non-paid hours though to get to this position, which is good to remember.

The other alumni-Maria Quintin also stressed a lot the importance of getting involved in as many things as possible, including unpaid ones. Her very proactive attitude and just trying for things regardless of how confident she felt about them opened her many doors. She found herself making a lot of surface pattern design, lettering, printing and getting commissions from a few different outlets. I think it’s definitely a way for me as well- to embrace a few different, yet related paths to make sure I get a better chance of supporting myself financially through art related jobs.

We also got workshops with Tessa Webb, which were very helpful at assessing our strengths, clarifying our values, thinking how to talk about our art and how to prepare ourselves to enter the professional world. I was only able to do the first one due to lock down of schools, which massively shrunk my university time. I plan to catch up with recordings in summer.

I was expecting to have my wallpaper finished by now- I wanted to submit in design competitions. However, 3 months of homeschooling my daughter made me improvise with ideas for art competitions. I decided to screen print an illustration I was planning on printing at the end of 1st year. I entered it in Wells Art Contemporary competition for contemporary visual art, which doesn’t have any theme and is accepting all kinds of mediums.