June, 2007
June, 2007 |
FLIP featured artist
I started in animation and transitioned to more sculptural pursuits with my metal working studio, which tends to focus on forged work. These two arenas may seem worlds apart, but I look at it all through the lens of design. I've just switched the medium in which I express my design viewpoint. I graduated from college with a degree in Illustration and a passion for furniture/functional art. In animation, I was able to spend many years using my drafting skills to convey ideas; but away from the drawing table I preferred to keep my hands busy working in three-dimensions, building things. When I decided to switch from a 2-D career to a 3-D career, I moved to San Francisco and searched for education and opportunities working with metal, a material I felt could better embody the ideas I had floating in my head. It was a matter of learning to work with a different tool set. All of the years of design and drafting allow me to brainstorm for myself and express to others what I can create. It has helped me to convey to clients that I can manifest an idea, even if I have nothing like it in my portfolio. A majority of the time a client approaches me with a basic need (a railing, fireplace screen, BBQ, etc) and a general concept or style (Gaudi, Craftsman era, organic/industrial, etc.). That is usually enough information for me to submit a quote for the project. If the client is completely unsure about the visual direction, I will quote for the design work and submit an estimate once the design has been established. During the design phase I generate drawings, color sketches and, if the project is large enough, a sample or scale model. After the design is approved and a deposit is received, I form it in metal. The Venus Fly Trap (pictured right) was a fun project to bring to life. The client wanted two BBQ's for his back yard (one for meat and one for vegetables). He suggested that they looked like Venus Fly Traps with an organic/industrial flavor. I spent a couple of weeks researching and designing the right look...menacing without being dangerous. They took a few months to create, alongside other projects I was working on. I needed to create a form for shaping the Flytrap "mouth". I located an old Weber grill on Craigslist, which I proceeded to cut up and reform to the dimensions I wanted. Once that was re-welded back together, I filled each half with sand and sealed them shut with a steel plate. Now I had a (nearly) solid form which I could tack weld sections of plate steel onto, heat with a torch and bend/shape until I had each half of the BBQ. That actually reminds me that I did have one problem. On a couple of occasions I forgot to cut off the tack weld, holding the plate to the form, before tacking on the next plate. I didn't realize this until the entire piece had been shaped. Most of the time I could just twist the formed piece side to side until I work-hardened the tack, and it snapped off. The beauty of metal is that if you can imagine it, it can most likely be realized. It's just a question of whether it's cost effective within the client's budget to create exactly what's in your, or the client's, head. I would say that the visual "feeling" that you get from my designs are definitely retained in the final product. The only changes that I seem to make relate to minor proportional ones, resulting from taking detailed site measurements and the logistics of fitting within those parameters. This is the reason I include my drawings on my website portfolio; so new clients can feel confident that the piece they receive will be very close to the drawings they approved. Influencial designers I've always admired how he can design with nature without making the hand of man so obvious in his creations. His works seem like poems to the fragility, beauty, sensuality, wonderment or tranquility of nature. As with Goldsworthy, I am excited by artists that design with nature, that hasn't been highly processed, while still using the vernacular of nature to create new forms. The lines of his architecture invite you to stroke his buildings and bridges with your eyes, like an undulating rollercoaster ride, always in motion. He uses elemental forms from nature to blend spaces together and invite you in to experience them. Plus, he makes some outstanding kinetic architecture. Whom ever you decide should take credit for nature and it's infinite inspiration.
Photos and artwork in this article are the property of Daniel Hopper. ©.2007 Moore Studios, Inc. |
Daniel Hopper
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