Opposites Alike – The Two Outcomes of Opposite Aesthetics

The Aesthetics and Design class embodies much of my current major, Environmental Design, but gives everyone a further sense of freedom than we typically have. With this in mind, my goal was to always fully encompass the aesthetics of my choosing and challenge myself in my skills, conceptually and physically. 

Given what felt like endless freedom and possibilities, I chose to take on 2 very different aesthetics, Pop Art and Art Nouveau. Although they are visually different, they both historically challenged societal norms, taking on new founding principles of design and changing design philosophies from then onward. 

 

The Bucket Bag: Upcycle Project

My first project was to make a handbag out of fully recycled materials in the Pop Art aesthetic. Through various eco-fabrics already made of recycled materials, I patchwork sewed the bag, which was completely out of my comfort zone since I had very minimal experience sewing. The result is below:

Although some of the sewing is quite rough, I am still able to use the bag and feel that I created a product with many layers of the chosen aesthetic and constraints of the project brief. With this product, I took the opportunity to create a poster for the design which was very typical for products created with this aesthetic.

You can read more information about this product and my experience here: 

The Bucket Bag – A Pop Art Exploration

 

Hex: Project of Motion

Being the main project of the class, this product became an opportunity for me to truly express myself, which influenced the main concept of “personal identity”. With the only requirement of having a moving component, I took on the challenge of mimicking biological systems through a clock design – this being the inner workings of the human eye. The foundation of systems found in nature comes from the Art Nouveau design philosophy which was the aesthetic of my choosing.

Through a lot of research, iterations and conceptual development, I created HEX

Being a very personal project and one that I had spent a lot of time developing, I truly love the outcome and plan to see how I may expand the design to further products, colors and materials. My biggest challenge was finding another clock design that captured the essence of my concept, meaning that this design was full of my own conceptual thinking and unique in design and one-of-a-kind in fabrication, which I am quite satisfied with.

You can read more information about this product and my experience here:

HEX – Identity Through Time Pt 1

Hex – The Final Product Pt2

 

Lastly, if you are interested in my work outside of this class, please check out my portfolio website here: https://orange-porcupine-cbe9.squarespace.com/

A lot of my architectural work resembles a similar essence to the design of my clock, which has even inspired my designs and their philosophy further. I am excited to continue exploring the different paths and avenues that this design process has brought to me.