A 2 day workshop introduced by Philippa Wagner, who has established her own consultancy in 2006 which offers exclusive services to a range of clients that have included Philips Design, Marks and Spencer, WGSN and Orange

Philippa specialises in trend forecasting and future thinking concepts, to view Philippa’s work please follow the link below:

projects

Philippa began to discuss topics with us on the material revolution and how sustainability has affected the process of design.

These are my notes from the lecture..

 

We then went on to see what Emily Crane has been up to..an ex-Kingston student..

A link on what Emily does..2010090300004311.html

Emily Crane is a fashion designer who explores through processes and material experimentation new cultivated couture.

“Through this unique process and development of new materiality I have laid an innovative creative foundation for future fashion design, conscious of the restraints of our future planet and the impact from current fashion cycles. My methods look towards ‘survival’ as a key factor informing my processes; fashion is no longer a thing of simple beauty, but of nutrition also.” Quoted from website.

process.html

I feel as though Emily is a perfect example of designers who are truly pushing the boundaries of new materials and processes by experimenting and flirting with the seductive world of cultivation. She has surpassed the everyday norms of the usual standard fabrics of fashion design.. We are in an era where sustainability has been the reason why we invent and create. It has given us designers a purpose, however it has changed the direction and the ‘process’ of design evolution into a different direction, where green has become the new black!

 

We were then asked to cultivate our very own experience of a ‘new age design process’

Workshop experimentation:

Started off with the following tools..

Erlenmeyer Flask

Beaker

Bowl

Petri Dish

Test tubes

food colouirng

Electric whisk

And Food Colouring..

 

Then we were asked to experiment with..

Experiment 1: Milk + Food colouring + Washing up liquid (Petri dish + lip + Dripper + Cotton Buds)

We were asked to pour milk into a petri dish and to pour washing up liquid into the lid. We then had to choose one bottle of food colouring and then pour the food colouring into the milk using a pipette. With the cotton bud, covered in washing up liquid, we were asked to gently dip it into the mixed solution of colouring and milk. Please view below the materials used as well as the video explaining and outlining the process.

milk + Food colouring

Milk + Food colouring + Washing up liquid

 

 

And then repeat the process once I knew how it would react…

 

 

Creating patterns using Milk + Food colouring + Washing liquid

 

 

Another experiment of of the experiments included..

Experiment 3: Carbonate Powder + Vinegar + Food colouring (Petri dish + Pipette + beaker)

 

We were asked to pour vinegar into the petri dish. Then we were asked to pour the food colouring in with the vinegar in the same petri dish. The carbonate powder was added next. What you can see below is the reaction to formula.

 

 

The next experimentation was the last but not least..Experiment 4: Bottle of Coke + Menthos..

If you’re going to try this, don’t try it at home!

Start with mentos..

Insert as many mentos as possible into the coke bottle..

And see how many you can insert before you get showered in coke, or run as quickly as you can…

This experiment was based on the Diet and Coke eruption..The numerous small pores on the candy’s surface catalyse the release of carbon-dioxide from the soda, resulting in the rapid expulsion of copious amounts of foam!

These were playful experiments to open up the creative juices that are often suppressed due to other factors that designers often face; finance, process, colour, material etc.. and to just playfully watch reactions on natural experiments and take that on board as the strategy of designing. In my opinion it’s all about waiting for an accident to happen and entering the world of the unknown. The joy is in not having a prediction of what will come out of something and learning along the way in order to move forward.

 

 

Materials workshop:

Textile Consequences was introduced by Charlotte Medin (a 2nd year from Central Saint Martins)

She believes that interesting elements appear when we take unusual approaches to materials. Similar to Philippa Wagner’s philosophy on the change and approach to design as an affect of sustainability and to Emily Crane’s work she looks into unusual processes and techniques to a selection of materials.

This is the workshop of materials…