Compare two practitioners

Mark Pawson

Karl Bielik
Compare and contrast the processes and practices of your two chosen practitioners, to what extents are they defined by the external rigours of the market place/ industry they operate in? upon this analysis what lessons could be applied to your own practice?

I have chosen to evaluate and compare the practices and processes of Mark Pawson and Karl Bielik. I decided to compare the two as when I met up with each of them during my time in London I couldn't help but notice the similarities as well as difference between them both, working methods and illustrations.

To begin I will state both designers are worlds apart, Karl Bielik sees himself as more of an artist (even though looking through his portfolio this seems a shame as his work is really impressive) but its clear his passion lies with fine art but in my opinion its great that he can do both and make a steady amount of money as he can juggle both trades. He owns his own studios and flats to rent, this is how he funds his art. He claims that he is not precious about illustration and he usually goes about it quite quickly. Mark seemed like his illustrations would quite a lot of time as the subject matter is mostly collection which have been built up over large periods of time. Karl believes in good research in the client before producing work for them. He says its really important to have a website before meeting any clients as it so important in the industry and this way they can look you up..otherwise you wont be very memorable. He has been involved with few agencies and recommends eye candy. He also thought using editorial piece in our portfolio is a good idea so that art directors can see what they get. he advised me to make my website minimal, simple and personal. Karl doesn't tend to look at blogs, he says they are time consuming.

Mark Pawson unlike Karl works from home, hes uses a print Gocco to print his post cards on. He is very much a collector so a lot of his work revolves around his obsessive collections similarly Karl is inspire by signs, old books and tickets and this is reflected in his work as its quite rustic. Another observation of mine is that Karls portfolio is typically professional and well layed out whereas Mark Pawson uses a box as apposed to the portfolio with plastic sleeves (we all know and love) I found this quite unusual, although the quirkiness of the box matches his work as a lot of it it prints on small pieces, the box included different sized home made booklets, badges and such likes.

Mark makes money through his hobbies. he says he has 4- 5 serious hobbies. He makes his own books and badges, when hes not making art he writes comic reviews and book reviews. He also makes his living by teaching. Mark doesn't have an agent hes confident enough to make his own books and never works to briefs unlike Karl (and a lot of people in the industry) he doesn't pursue doing work for anyone else. He is not artistically educated, he took a degree in sociology. where as Karl Bielik has a degree in graphic design, although he did not pursue this career path. He didn't give a lot of feedback or advice but he stressed that I should do what I want to do. He put facts with his work and sells a lot of it online, its more about selling the work which is important rather than having an amazing site this is a very different approach to Karls minimal, clean looking website. Looking at some of Mark Pawsons work I noticed there could be issues with copy right he talked about crediting the typefaces in his book and things like this, Karl Bielik would have this problem as the text and images in his work is always his own.

Mark Pawsons has a lot of friends who are graphic designers and illustrators he finds them supportive as well as influential. Karl is influenced by Cy twombly, Julian Schanabel, Joseph Cornell.

Both Mark Pawson and Karl Bielik are strictly illustrators per say. they both have different passions and go about earning a living in very different ways. Karl need a lot of space to do his work, he also is in a band and rehearses in his studios. Mark Pawson does not need a studio at all as his work can be produced mostly in the comfort of his own home.