Friday 8 May 2009

Tracy Kendall


Tracy kendall graduated with an Ma from the royal college of art. She was able to show us a range of her work from screen printing to fabric and wall decoration and is now working in London on new wallpapers and decorations.

I particularly liked Kendall’s wallpapers and her innovative designs, especially the scale of them. She took shots of the wallpaper displayed in a room, you could almost imagine yourself walking through a field as if you were but a few inches tall. She has worked in many organic forms such as feathers, leaves, feathers, sequins and jigsaw puzzles.

Some of kendalls designs are based on a straight geometric dotted pattern others, random. She does like to stick to wall coverings, but has in the past made chairs and lampshades, for clients, competitions and charity. You can tell Kendall is inspired by her surroundings, using forks, knifes and spoons as primary elements of her wallpapers. When she has produced this some of her other work, such as chairs and lampshades, she has unusually attached elements when she has been making with a clothes-tagging gun, this adds to the aesthetic. Tracey likes to cut out the middle-man or has to a couple of times when her suppliers have gone bust or closed down, she actively find the source of the product and problem solved.


The motivation behind her work obviously breaks the boundaries of her inspirational designs. She has even gone against fire regulations when creating some of her work.

The question was raised about the appropriateness and the restrictions of some of the material she uses, she answered by telling us that she doesn't see it as a problem as she just makes it and its not up to her who buys it or what people do with it.

The production of her wallpapers is initially quite cheap when it comes to the designs, she expressed to us a story of how she bought a couple of pieces of lace from a flee market and then used these as a design blown up on her wallpaper.  She told us that the piece of lace has earnt her around £50,000. Obviously you have to extract the costs of the making of the wallpapers and such, and she is still left with an exempt amount of money!! She also spoke of her luck and being in the right place at the right time. She now stocks her work at John Lewis.



She has participated in other different exhibitions, where she hung Christmas tress from the ceiling, the concept of walking through this atmospheric forest, the smell, emphasising the work going on in and behind the trees. This contrasting representation offered an exciting perspective and took you there to the exhibition from glancing at an image. It was beautiful. The display separated the designers in a good way as opposed to being hung in a large plain room, to some extent it encouraged you to be enveloped into the work and spend more time browsing, the work seemed somewhat lost within the surroundings, and encourages you to find it. It made it an intimate and memorable experience.

Tracey relies a lot on editorial exposure for her promotion, but also has a website that is used to sell and promote her work further.

She has traveled around the world to trade shows and for her research. She has been lucky with her practice and her willingness has brought her up to date with technology and the industry as it stands. Her work is original and fresh, and captures a new meaning and fulfillment to wallpaper design.

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