Month: July 2017
Files for Urban Adaptation
Chindongu Prototype
This Prototype shows approximately how the Picnic Pants is going to look like on a person, taking the shape of the butt. I tried to add wiring to the sides to keep it in its shape, but it turns out to be too restricting and the person who tried it said that it was hard to move in. So from that I thought that I would make the high resolution prototype with plain fabric and no wiring to allow flexibility. I will also have to adjust the size of the straps as these are too short to fit different people.
Chindongu Product
The final product although is very simple, is effective as of its function. From the concept of ‘form follows function’, I took the name ‘Picnic Pants’ and actually made the product look like one side of a pants. To add a little design to the product, I painted the original fabric green to blend in with the theme of grasses. Other than this I think the simplicity is one of the strength of this product as it is self explanatory as the user would straight away know what to do with the product without any detailed guidelines making it suitable for universal use with no fixed language or restriction to age or gender.
Mock-you-mercial
Design Brief
Logo of Chindongu
This logo came up from the inspiration of grass and how the trouser would sit on it to give the logo an illustrative meaning. I have used illustrator to vectorise a grass texture image and edit it into the two ‘P’ that are rotated to represent the butt, with the name ‘Picnic Pants’ sitting on it. This all resembles the use of the actual product of a butt sitting on grass.
Photoshoot
Origin
Defisa’s design was based on the Chinese myth of a beast known as Nian ‘年’. Every year on New Year’s Eve, the beast would descend down its inhabitant to the villages to feast on the livestocks in the village. One year a wise men suggested that they cover the town with red, stick talisman on doors and create loud noises to scare away the beast. From that day on, the tradition carried on to celebrate the villager’s victory.
From this myth, I have developed a garment from the theme of ‘defence’ under the heading of ‘Urban Adaptation’. To meet the criteria I have used many symbolistic objects to illustrate the story. The main use of the colour red as well talisman acts as a defensive layer from the beast. A history of Chinese immigrants into the States are illustrated through the choice of modern fabric and use of fringe. The colour palette from this section of the garment also represents how the American architecture has been covered with Chinese signs over time.
The name ‘Defisa’ (meaning defence) itself came from the geographical location of Chinatown itself, as it is located near Little Italy, combining everything together.
From this photoshoot trip to Chinatown, I feel like this is one of the most important aspect of the whole project as it tie everything together. I was lucky enough to have Annie to model for my dress as she fits the garment really well and was able to create exaggerated poses to show off the garment. I was also lucky to have Chloe (my roommate) help me with the make up on both the face and body to make Annie look fierce, like a dragon. Combining all this with these aspects (along with extra accessories such as the bracelet and sleeve) together the photoshoot pretty much wraps up the whole project very well. I am very pleased with the result, successfully translating the theme of ‘defence’ in ‘urban adaptation’ into a design piece.
Hangtags
I am planning etch the dragon’s face and the description onto leather as they create a sense of ‘old’ making it seem like the garment has an ancient history. However I want to etch the map onto clear acrylic and intensify the lines with black china graph pencil as the modern material reflects modern day world, together creates a combination of now and the past.
Logotype
The name ‘Defisa’ came from defence (the main given theme) in Italian. The reason behind this is that Chinatown is located near Little Italy, so I’ve considered the geography of the actual area. This design is my attempt of combining the material alphabet theme ‘sharp’ with the Chinese culture. To do this I have sketched a silhouette of a kung fu pose (with a brush-like stroke) with pen and vectorise it in illustrator, combining it with the rest of the letters in the word defisa.
I’m planning on using the kung fu illustration to be the logotype of my garment as I think that it help make the consumers recognise the product easier in a marketing point of view.