Upcycling Topic and Project Aesthetic

For my Upcycling Project I will choose minimalism as my design aesthetic. As I said in my previous post I hope that by doing this it will make my project look visually appealing and not over complicate the overall purpose. Also I think if I keep to a simple and practical aesthetic it will allow me to focus more on the application and usefulness of the idea. So instead of the color or pattern being the drawing in factor it will be the design features. Also I still like the design to have some sort of usefulness to it and while not needing to have a use I would like to try and incorporate a practical use because it could cause the viewer to contemplate more being able to picture oneself possibly using the design. Or just have a greater appreciation for the design. Like in minimalism where people keep the things that bring them value while letting go of the things that don’t.

I had thought of a few ideas for what my Upcycling Project might be:

The first is recycling bikes: take pieces of bikes found for cheap and make functional bikes out of them. It would be exciting to try and make them like Dutch bikes.

The second is a stool: take existing stool and make it into a toad (mushroom) stool

The third is upcycling clothes: Old clothes pieces of clothes and turn them into new ones

The fourth is a Shoe design: make shoes that are upcycled

The fifth is a tent: make them out of tarp that can be packed away into itself

The sixth is recycling pieces: to turn plastic into a new usable material 

The types of material drew me to some of these ideas because I already had knowledge about the materials I would be working with and thought them interesting. Or I already had a rough idea of how I might go about making the project even if I might not have any prior experience forming the particular product.

To tie these ideas together with a minimalistic design aesthetic I would endeavor to make my designs clean, refined, and functional. To give a few examples for the upcycled bikes I would use parts that would not only work together but also look well together so that might mean looking for similarly colored pieces like silver black or blue etc. or repainting the frame. Possibly even try and add an accented color throughout the build. Or if I were to choose a different example like upcycling clothes to make it have a minimalistic design by matching well suited colors or making the design features like zippers, buttons, or pockets look well integrated to the design (hopefully like they were always meant to be there).

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