Damian Gascoinge

I loved this guy, definetly the most entertaining talk weve had, even if he didnt show that much of his work. He said he had done a powergen ad a few years ago that i vaguely remember, but wanted to show his personal projects and family photos rather than this commercial work.

He talked in alot of detail about his research methods; how he obsessively collects, doodles and photographs anything and everything. He draws from life alot, and as an animator is particularly interested in posture and movement. He photographs objects that can look like something else, and invents stories based on the situation and mood of a photograph. He is in the habit of constantly creating, and said that you have to be obsessive to get anywhere.

He uses commercial work to pay for more enjoyable personal projects, one of which he called 'The Love Books'. This began as a series of books full of drawings, like a visual diary he produced when he was single. This became an exhibition in somewhere like Korea, i cant remember, where his drawings were projected onto a large polystyrene book (which he then had to pay a huge amount to have environmentally recycled). He described the Koreans, or whichever country it was, as being incredibly disorganised and last minute about everything: the polystyrene book only arrived on the morning the exhibition was due to open. The piece i was most interested in is one hes currently working on; an animation of two guys arguing about folk music, really well written & funny.

He described how tough and competetive the design / animation industry can be, saying that last year was his toughest yet. During the last 12 months, he spent time and money pitching for 7 different jobs, but didnt get a single one, untill something came up in December. He described this as having been very stressful, and said that you have to have nerves of steel to stick at it.

He has little interest in the technical side of animation, but as a lecturer at Kingston uni, has recruited a former student to help with this. He criticizes alot of computer animation for being too processed and all being pretty much the same as the next, which i agree with. He didnt say much about his influences, but mentioned that 1950s design and animation inspires him.

After the lecture he joined us in the studio where we had beer and cake.