My name is Musen Lin and now I am in the BBA Strategic Design and Management program. I entered Parsons with a dream of becoming a fashion designer, but I realized that I should not be limited to the field of fashion and I should explore more about the world and create something that this world really needs. In the end, the ultimate purpose of design is to improve what already exists and create what is needed but not invented.
The first-year courses under my program are challenging and helpful at the same time. Throughout the entire year, I worked with various medias including film, drawing, digital collage, sculpturing, printing, etc. Working with Adobe softwares may be the most useful skill I learned in my first year at Parsons. Even though I played with Illustrator before, I never got trained professionally to use Illustrator and Photoshop. Learning to use Adobe softwares allows me to visualize my ideas on my sketchbook into concrete artworks. While I developing my professional skills, Studio and Seminar together improves my understanding of the concept of design. It is important for designers to know that different ideas must be interpreted in different mediums. For example, I can design a series of T-shirts to protest against terrorism, but T-shirts are not proper medium for urban development designs. Rather, I would probably make a prototype(sculpture) of the future city in my mind. There is no doubt that the BBA program is hard, extremely hard. It involves a lot of brainstorming and translating the abstract ideas into concrete forms. But I just enjoy the moment when I discover the countless possibilities of one single theme. I personally believe that a designer is a combination of an artist, a creator and a thinker. Putting myself in the position of a designer really makes me feel like I can change the world. In the following contents, I will introduce my two most proud projects and my future research directions and questions.
- Imaginary Galactic Government & GFBI
The idea of creating an imaginary galactic government comes from the adult cartoon Rick and Morty. Personally I am a huge fan of it, and I ask myself after watching the S03E01, “Why can’t you further the idea of the galactic government?” Therefore, I made a digital collage to present my own sci-fi world. The picture contains the first generation Godzilla, the Ultraman(a Tsuburaya Productions superhero character), and a photo by Diane Arbus. I want the work to look like an old-fashioned Asian movie poster, but it should also leave some space to the audience to interpret by themselves.
- Beheaded Dove Anti-Terrorism T-Shirts
This collection of T-shirts is a collaboration between 2015 The Annual International Design Award Winner Chen Yu and myself.
In the first three months of 2017, the world has already experienced terrorist attacks in Turkey, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Canada and Israel while ISIS is still raiding the Middle East. People are fighting back peacefully. In 2015, after the Paris attack, Le Monde wrote an obituary for every dead victim in the incident.
What really makes me want to design a collection of anti-terrorism T-shirts is the 9-11 Memorial souvenir clothing. Some people argue that the museum should not make any money by selling clothing, mugs, and other souvenirs. On the other hand, the Museum claims that the revenue from the store plays a big role in keeping the museum running.
The problem I identify with 9/11 Memorial Store’s clothing design is that all of them are too commercial. They are designed to make some money. At least this is what I feel like when I first see these wearables. Indeed, wearables are a very good to express emotions. But 9/11 should not be a logo on a cap. The tragedy definitely should be remembered, but nobody is proud of it. Thus, the design of the 9/11 Memorial clothing is very wrong.
This project has been straightforward for me. Every T-shirt is made of three parts, a beheaded dove logo on the front, a photo of the incident and the facts about the attack. I want the product to serve not only as a memory representation, but also a weapon of protesting terrorism.
London T Example-rinswv Two Shirts-1ia22l8
As a BBA student, I want to reach the equilibrium between art and business. I still have a lot to learn as a student. I am currently working on my own street fashion brand MOS Brand and I am trying my best to use all the techniques I learned at Parsons in running the brand. There is still a long way to go.
