Art and Design

The links Nancy has posted up on our blog really drive and give me a clear idea of where I want to go. While I am going over all the links, I find some designers whom I want to take similar paths. Stuart Haygarth who made a Chandelier with water droplet-shaped light reminds me of foundation year. The three dimension class in the foundation year opens a new door to me. My 3d professor taught us how to use recycling materials to make an object that is absolutely beautiful and useful by exploring materials. I used plastic water bottles to make a chandelier just like Struart Haygarth did. Mine was not as good as his, but I felt this amusement of making something with very ordinary used material turning into a whole new object. The other class I took during the winter session was “search for innovative furniture” without fully knowing what the class is about. We find and choose one material that is common, ordinary, and easily find. I choose Vinyl tubes for transparency. At first I wanted to make a sofa using stainless steel for a structure and covering it with Vinyl tubes. I did not want the chair to be all similar shapes and textures. I wanted something organic and unique but still appeals to people. However, I could not afford the expense, so I tried to make a smaller object, lamp. It was my first delightful experience of designing a product that could express emotion and could be functional as well.

The user studies are necessary and important to help us developing successful design solutions, but it is not the only approach. There is a room in ID for a more emotional, expressive, and fine arts approach. The moment I saw “Anemone Chair” by Compana brothers and their works, I knew what can be my inspiration, what kind of approach I should take, and who could be my mentor. For me exploring different materials, and textile and ID collaboration will be a new range of expressive ID.

Textile always has been wowed me. I can not help to have interests in textile, whenever I see interesting patterns or colors of fabric. What intrigues me the most in textile is that you design patterns and make another patterns by repeating them. This process can create different feelings and a whole new fabric. There are repeated patterns but sometimes textile designers manipulate them so well that they do not seem to be patterns anymore. Not only patterns, but also using different kind of fabric could give various textures and feelings into products.

I want to push fine art, emotional aspects of textile further and collaborate with ID. Not only designing patterns, but also manipulating, and overlapping fabric with many different ways, we are able to open a new, wide range of ID. I agree that a product is more than just a form or function and it needs to give emotion to people, as Campana brothers say. I want to explore more materials, and textile collaboration with ID could enhance possibility to achieve both emotional and functional elements. I could not only imagine myself making a huge sculpture-like chandelier for the runaway, but also making a sofa with new materials. I desire to push these different approaches in ID to design products that inspire and give emotion to users.