Reading Reflection: Foreword by Christopher Breward
1. “Fashion does not define. It is instead a term that demands definition” Indeed, the term fashion is too broad to define. Fashion is very subjective; the standard for a “good” fashion varies among every person. To me, fashion is using external elements to package ourselves into a great selling product to attract the things we need. Some might say that fashion could define a person, and you can tell their personality and social status from the clothes that they wear. In this case, I would like to bring up the existence of counterfeit. A common phenomenon that is currently existing within our society is that many young adults who don’t have the ability to dress in luxury brands would purchase counterfeit to pretend that they are wealthy. Another situation is that many individuals are buying luxury products even when they don’t have the relative income. Whereas wealthy people such as Bill gates are wearing clothes that look very down to earth. Now looking back at the question of whether fashion could define a person, do you still agree with it? Can you still tell a person’s wealthiness through the way they dress?

 

2. “Fashion is intensely personal…” I almost completely agree with this quote. In my perspective, our mood could impact the way we dress for the day. For example, I would throw on a hoodie on a lazy day, whereas I would wear a blazer when I am in a good mood or on days that I feel like to dress up. However, we don’t always have our own style. There are many people who could copy how celebrities on social media wears everyday, there are even businesses such as “DAILYLOOK” that offers monthly subscriptions which they provide clothes of certain style to the subscribers.

BACKPACK FOR ARTIST

The idea of this assignment is to create a shortfolio based on the object that I designed.

The link below will direct you to my shortfolio.

shortfolio updated version Maggie Ng

As a lot of design is becoming more digitalized, laptop is considered as a necessity for designers. Designers could create all kinds of designs with software such as Photoshop, Indesign, and etc. However, as a designer, we still need to carry around sketchbooks and other stationary to preserve ideas and inspirations on paper as soon as we can. Therefore, I designed this backpack that has compartments that focus on different purposes.For example, the main compartment is for laptop and sketchbook storage,  small compartments are designed to store pencils, rubber, ruler, and etc.

ART DECO INSPIRED NECKLACE

Introduction

Art Deco is short for Arts Decoratifs. It is a style of architecture, visual art and design which started in France just before world-war 1 in the International exhibition of modern decorative and industrial arts held in France in 1925.  In the 1930’s, the great depression forced Art Deco to expand with new materials coming including stainless steel and plastic. But the great depression affected its popularity on the world scene as it was seen as too luxurious and gaudy during those war times. It built its name again in 1960 with the Art Deco movement effect on jazz and the art of pop. The name Art Deco itself was not highly used until Bevis Hiller, a well-known critic and art historian popularized it in her book Art Deco of the 20s and 30s back in 1968 (MP Beltran, 2017). In 1980 it became a house hold name because of the growing interest of its cubism design and Art Deco’s graphic design. The Art Deco designs used channel-set gem stones, diamonds and glass to signify luxury and modernization.

Characteristics and materials of Art Deco designs

Art Deco’s designs and jewelry has many distinguishable characteristics, such as: a geometric form, platinum or white gold, old European cuts, symmetric designs, streamlining cuts and its filigree work.

In particular the intricate geometric designs are characterized by triangular, trapezoid and zigzagged shapes, chevron pattern, sweeping curves, stepped forms and sunburst motifs. The designs of Art Deco is based on mathematical geometric shapes which were based on the architectural forms of ancient Egypt, Babylon and the ziggarts pyramids of Aztec Mexico to mention just a few(JF Pile, 2005).

The era of Art deco was mostly marked by white, gold or platinum jewelry. White gold which came as a substitute for the high cost platinum was introduced in the early 1915’s. Given that yellow gold was out of style at the age, white gold became the most prominent jewelry designs of Art Deco.

With the ever growing popularity of diamonds, they have been featured in the designs alongside channel-set gemstones such as emeralds and rubies which represent this age. In Art Deco, these caliber cut stones are custom cut and tightly spaced together against metals or other stones to have an alluring overall design. The designs further had small intricate cut outs produced by filigree work. Art Deco uses die-cast machines to crate the cutouts and they are almost impossible to replicate as todays jewelry uses wax molds to create jewelry.

Difference of Art Deco Jewelry from others

Art Deco designs have sweeping curves and sunburn motifs, whereas Art Nouveau designs have a whiplash curves. Their designs have zigzags and sharp angles and are stepped inspired by jazz whereas Art Nouvea and Edwardian designs are more nature inspired and have flowy patterns with blunt angles in their jewelry (Morel, 2015)

Art Deco jewelry is more mathematically geometric and symmetric to reflect the glamour of the industrial revolution. As such, their jewelry designs have less free space and an industrial feel to them. The Edwardian designs differ from them in that the designs have more free space, they are light and flowy given that they were inspired by nature. Art Nouveau designs are asymmetrical usually taking the form of natural plants and animals.

The filigree work done on Art Deco jewelry give it a stamped edge and sharper look. The stark edges of the jewelry are nearly impossible to replicate. Their jewelry has bold colors and streamlining cuts. The modern reproductions of Art Deco have a dull, softer look lacking the stamped and stark edges of previous designs.

Art Deco uses 10k to 18k pure white gold or platinum to make their jewelry. Imitations of Art Deco jewelry are made using alloys giving them a yellow tint and use other measurements of white gold or platinum to make them.

My Design 

 

After careful consideration, I decided to create a necklace inspired by Art Deco movement as necklace can create more statement than other accessories and allows me to play around with the design more. To create an architectural feeling, I chose to use triangles as a geometric element, surprisingly, these spikes of these triangles add more fun to the overall design. Old European cuts and Old Cushion cut diamonds were the only options for my design as these two were the most popular cuts from Art Deco design period. In order to create an elegant feeling to the design, as I imagined a wealthy young women would wear this design, I decided to use sapphire old cushion cut diamonds as the dominant design element for this necklace. To me, I always associate sapphire with high-class individuals. I added small old european cut diamonds around to serve as a foil to the large old cushion cut diamonds as old european cuts are rougher. Filigrees are used in the center of the design to add details and also brings more unity to the design as they act as connections between each part of the design too. All the silver looking parts are 18k white gold to add expensiveness to the design.

I made the pattern in the middle first, then repeated it 4 more times then adjusted the angle and reduced the size for each pattern to create a fade out feeling. If you look closer, you will notice that only the center piece has 5 sapphire old cushion cut diamonds on it, this is a way to suggest that this is the main part of the design and to attract attention.

References

JF Pile, (A history of interior design, 2005), 65

MP Beltran Transparent Drawing Supports and Media Applied On It: Chemical Characterization and Conservation Problems in Spanish Art Deco jewelry Design (Restaurator. International Journal for the preservation of jewelry, 2017), 2

Morel, Guillaume Editions Place Des Victories (Art Deco, 2012), 15

                    Book on Drug Rehabilitation

 

For this assignment, we were asked to make a book about our system, I made a book that is 52 pages on drug rehabilitation in general.

The cover of the book shows illustrations of the most common drugs, it covers drugs such as marijuana, mushroom, ecstasy and etc. I included an illustration of alcohol because any substance that could make an individual addicted is considered as a drug, and that alcohol abuse is a common issue.

The first half of the book educate readers about what drug is and the different types of drugs with its short-term and long-term effects. I chose to talk about alcohol, ecstasy, marijuana and cigarettes as these are most common drugs and are more relevant in our life as these are the drugs that people do the most.

 

The image above shows a codex that explores how the consumption of drugs, such as tobacco, could influence the human body. For example, tobacco could add pressure on portal circulation in the throat, which increase risk of haemorrhage and lung cancer.

Then, I introduced the topic of rehabilitation by explaining the two types of rehab centers (private and non-profit) with images that I took when I visit there for my last assignment. I also introduced the two types of treatment methods, which are impatient and outpatient treatment.

For the last few pages of the book, I looked up archives on the topic of drugs. I found advertisements from the past that educate the public about drugs and persuade the public to not do drugs. Something interesting I found from these archive images is that drug was used as medicines in the past and it reminds me of medical marijuana.

The last two pages for my book is about celebrity and drugs. There are a lot of celebrities who do drugs as a form of getaway from their stress and pressure. I chose to use an image of Demi Lovato because she produced a documentary that explores her journey of being a drug addict to become sober again.

 

The pdf link to my entire book:  book studio-26aypwe

                          Kombucha Leather

Kombucha leather is basically a man-made leather made from the layer formed on leftover teas. To be honest, I’m not really convinced by the idea of Kombucha leather in the fashion industry, I don’t think that this is feasible as from the one of the TED talk videos we watched in class, the designer mentioned that this is not wearable during rainy days. Although Kombucha leather allows designers to dye them to make look more real, I still think it looks less aesthetically pleasing that other existing fabrics that are used to make clothes, it still looks like plastic to me. I also doubt that this material will actually provide warmth to people.

 

                          Circle Line Field Trip

This circle line field trip inspired me for my final project, which I proposed to make plantable coffee cup sleeves, as I noticed how water is severely contaminated by the waste produced by us everyday. I was shook by the amount of waste that the city has to deal with everyday. 

This is a picture that I took during the trip, as you could see on the picture the water within this area is green and look quite toxic, so I believe there wouldn’t be that many living organisms within this area. Also, the garbage are not separated properly. The left side of the picture shows some vehicles but it is placed with material that looks like wood, this could make the recycling process quite difficult as each material should be handled different because some are more recyclable than other and some takes longer to decompose.

                             MY OWN MAP

For our final assignment, we were asked to attend one of the Jane’s walks and design our own map that relates to our system, similar to the Jane’s walk. The system that I’ve been discovering throughout this semester is the drug rehabilitation system, I’ve was first interested in this topic because drug is something ‘new’ to me after I came to NYC. I would see people doing weeds on the street all the time, I feel like drugs is dominating most of our lives and it is affecting crime rate too as most crimes are done when individuals are high, therefore I thought that there must be a system to control the situation.

In my opinion, Drug abuse is a really serious issue as it not only affect drug abuser’s health (both mentally and physically), it also affects individuals around the person who does drugs and even our society. Major problems led by drug abuse that affects other people are domestic abuse, negative influence on children and financial issues.

It is very challenging to make someone to stop taking drugs, therefore, I created this map to raise awareness of dangers of drug abuse. I created activities that mimics the short term effects of drugs, these activities are quite uncomfortable, especially the ecstasy one, hoping that individuals could realize that doing drug doesn’t actually feel that pleasuring, so that people who tried my map could stay away from drugs.

My map:

studio walk map maggie ng-29tjlwm

Lab Journal (use weedy plants to make water colors)

A guest speaker called Ellie Irons came to show us how to make watercolors from weedy plants in this class. These plants are ‘useless’ because they are not edible as some of them are poisonous, they don’t make the environment look very aesthetically pleasing and they are taking up so much space. Instead of burning theses plants down (producing carbon dioxide), the artist found out that we could make watercolors from these plants as they have the same effects as the real watercolors. This is very sustainable as there are no more harmful chemicals produced that causes water pollution.

Equipments:

 

Colors that could be made from these plants:

Process:

In my opinion, I think that this new way of making colors could be used in the fashion industry as well, designers could possibly dye their fabrics with these colors. I think that this will provide more job opportunities as well because more labour is needed for harvesting these weedy plants and producing colors.

Lab Journal (Systems Mapping)

Systems mapping points out the different actors and elements and states their relationships with each other. It allows designers to explore a system in depth as it helps them to identify knowledge gaps. This links to sustainable design because systems mapping allows an individual too see a bigger and fuller picture of a particular topic and helps them identify the advantages and disadvantages of it that helps them to develop new and innovative design ideas. It also helps because once a designer sees the bigger picture, they will be able to prioritize the issues and solve them in order of importance.

Lab Journal (Fuel cell lab and Urban Energy Systems)

 

With rapid development in cities, many issues such as overcrowds and immensely increased need for electricity started to burst. When there are too many people living in the city, sanitation could become a problem because the amount of sewage is increased by a large amount. Especially that many countries such as China are paying more attentions to the environment, creating environment related policies such as not allowing countries to dump their sewage inside their land anymore, United States would have too much sewage to handle and be treated correctly. The environmentalists and designers had to think of some innovative ways to treat the sewage,therefore, they came up with the idea of turning sewage into energy. This process could definitely be used within NYC because this land already have way too much sewage to handle. But one of the problems is that there are still many people who are not discarding their trash properly as they sometimes are lazy to recycle the trash. The one question that I have about this urban energy is that how much does it cost for this process to be done if this is used to generate electricty throughout NYC?