Design Process Essay - Jan Švankmajer

It's taken me a while to decide on a designer I could write about, although I have to admit, I think I had an idea of who I would write about straight after the first lecture.

The designer I've chosen is Jan Švankmajer, a Czech animator and film maker. If you've seen some of my (few-and-far-between) blog posts, you'll know I've mentioned him quite a few times already! The work he produced was one of the first that I started to look at during my foundation course and I found his ideas intriguing. His use of surrealism in his work has fascinated me and inspired me to try similar techniques that he had used for my own projects.
This was the first animation I watched by Švankmajer:

Jan Švankmajer has primarily used stop-frame techniques for his animations, which is why I had researched so heavily into his work during my final major project for my foundation course. Although I know that the technique is quite out-of-date now compared to 3D animations, it's the technique I used to produce my first animation.


I started looking in the library to see if I could find any books that might relate to Švankmajer, but so far, I've only managed to find videos and DVDs that include his films and animations. I might take them out just to have a look anyway...but I've just bought this to help me with my research though (:

 

Until I get it...I'll just trawl through the internet and see what I can find.

I wouldn't be surprised if I suddenly change my mind in the next week...