Saturday 27 March 2010

LAUREN MORIARTY































Lauren is a 3D/textiles designer who came to Stockport in March to talk to us about her work. She studied for a degree in textiles in Loughborough and now she designs products such as lamps (see below) and cushions which she has been able to sell to stores like habitat and various independent design stores. Her degree show at Loughborough was based around her study of textiles where she created 3D pieces that were made up of layers and layers of lazer cut vinyl. After exhibiting this work she got a lot of interest in her idea although it didnt have an actual use. Renault bought her design an used it as a parcel shel in one of their concept cars, and Lauren went on to make the structures into cushions which she hand made one by one and sold off.
Laurens work is often simple looking, but with a great deal of though behind it. Many of her designs are initially built up of simple, sometimes repeated patterns which as a whole make a really interesting piece of work.
After her degree, Lauren started a Masters with the intention of learning how to use her work and push herself towards creating final products which she could manufacture and sell.
She spoke about how she likes working on collaborative pieces with other artists and designers as it is always a good way of coming up with new ideas, or making your own ideas that you previously thought wouldn't work, work.


Lauren spoke about the work she creates and told us to, overall, make sure that we do something we like. She spoke about how important it is to make sure we create things that we are happy with because in the past she has done things which she hated, and then felt guilty for hating her own work. She spoke about how sometimes she had to reproduce the same work over and over again and explained that this can be boring therefore you should make sure that you are making something that makes you happy because the last thing you want to do is get bored of your own work.
Lauren spoke about the industry and told us that it is important for us to ask ourselves questions about our own work such as: 'What is your work?', 'Why would people buy it?', 'What would they do with it?' etc. otherwise you can spend a long time creating something that could turn out to be useless in the real world.
She spoke from experience about the fact that working with companies and other people means you will have to compromise- a lot. She said that often you have to simplify and simplify your work down to fit in with what other people want. A project she undertook with Camden council to designs some lamps for a main street showed her that, when working with other people, the final design is never going to be exactly how you imagine it because of so many limitations and other peoples opinions and ideas.

Tips:
Lauren told us that it is important to build up a relationship with the press, to be quick, efficient and polite, and it will work in our favour. She told us that it was important to have decent images of our own work, and be organised so that if somebody shows an interest in you, you can send them work quickly and it makes you seem more reliable and professional
She also said that customer feedback is very important as these are 'your' customers and the people that will be buying your work.
She spoke about buying our own equipment, (photocopiers, vinyl cutters for example) as it saves a lot of hastle and you don't have to pay to use someone else's machinery. Also it gives you the opportunity to play and experiment, which, in an art related job is always necessary.

Thanks to Lauren for coming in and speaking to us, she has been an inspiration in the way that she has done everything for herself and works for herself creating what she wants to create.

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