Category: Design

Absurd Geometry

Penrose Triangle, first designed by Oscar Reutersvärd (1934)

90 ° – the impossible triangle vase, designed by Cuatro Cuatros

It’s nice when an impossible object starts to be not just possible, but also useful. The Cuatro Cuatros’ triangle vase would be such a case, because the paradox is their speciality. The “impossible vase”, like most of Cuatro Cuatros’ projects, deals with optical illusion.

The interposition, orientation and perspective create a contradiction of the space that makes us perceive something that is not. It comes from the Penrose experience. 90 ° is a vase that, based on a drawing, has been converted to a geometrical shape with volume. Depending on the point of view, both ends coincide and make it look like a closed figure.

And we have to admit, that’s a smart design piece.

Cuatro Cuatros is a design studio formed in mid-2010 by four industrial designers from Valencia, Spain: Cristina Ródenas Lechiguero, Adrián Martínez Almonacid, Marina Francés and Isabel Cortina (currently is composed by Adrián and Cristina).
Their designs reshape our everyday objects, without being striking. Imbued with mathematical hints, Cuatro Cuatros love to revisit maths’ basic symbols and concepts, to play with the angles (the 180° project, 90° project, 30° and so on), delivering simple solution suited for contemporary lifestyle.

 

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Doll Matches

Kokeshi Matches by Hiromi Hirasaka

If you’re not familiar with the terminology, kokeshi referes to a genre of  Japanese traditional dolls. The dolls are handmade from wood, have a simple trunk and a painted face. These dolls have no arms or legs (similar to the Russian dolls), the cilindrical body is adorned with various decorative motifs and the bottom is marked with the signature of the artist. This way, the main focus turns to the head and the expression of the face.

The Osaka-based artist Hiromi Hirasaka borrows the kokeshi concept to design something mundane and unexpected – matches. From matchsticks to matchbox design, we can notice a great attention for detail and of course, a note of humour.

That’s one of those emotional objects that is impossible to ignore and, to be sincere, you don’t really want to light them up.

images source: thedieline.com

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On A Clear Day

That’s a powerful beauty editorial featured in the May issue of Vogue Japan! You see, there are many fashion magazines and lots of glossy editorials these days. But only  few of them, from time to time, manage to bring together the perfect light, the opportune model, the inspired stylist. I guess On a Clear Day in Vogue Japan is one of them.

Photo: Julia Noni (Chris Boal Artists) / styling: Aurora Sansone/ hair styling: Seb Bascle/ make-up: Topolino/model: Othilia Simon/ images via fashiongonerogue.com.

 

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1st 3D Printed Dress

Definitely, the technique of 3D print is a hot topic. Some analysts anticipate the third industrial revolution. We already talked about rapid-prototyping on Fashion Salad, especially related to shoe design (designers such as Iris Van Herpen, Andreia Chaves, Julian Hakes and Marloes ten Bhomer already developed quality avant-garde products, well received both in museums and on the fashion market).

But applying the process of 3D printing to a larger category of garments is still problematic. The 3D printed gown, developed by Michael Schmidt and Francis Bitonti promisses a new age for the fashion industry. The product was mediatized as the first full 3D print garment. In reality, Iris van Herpen already did it (remember her rapid-prototyled couture-pieces?).

In Manhattan, Dita Von Teese recently modelled a specially printed nylon mesh dress for a private runway event. The gown was designed in collaboration by Michael Schmidt and Francis Bitonti and printed on a 3-D printer at Shapeways. The garment was designed to fit Dita’s body, moving and flowing on her famous curves. The mesh is a smart choice because it allows flexibility, which is a great achievement compared to previous attempts, still rigid, therefore impossible to wear on the daily basis. Bitonti used Von Teese’s measurements, building a 3-D model of the dress and adapting Schmidt’s original sketch to fit her body using Maya, the high-end design software used for commercial projects including architecture, product manufacturing, and animated movies. Then in Rhino, another design software that allows for precise surface manipulation, he detailed 2,633 independent rings, or links, that formed the body of the dress. The whole thing was laser sintered on an EOS P350 in 17 parts which were then manually assembled.

Blowing away traditional design methods, 3D printing reveals an entirely new concept of garments production and marketing. Rejecting the hands-on manufacturing, it goes for digital designed combined with machine made. Imagine the impact this could have on the fashion industry, currently based on cheap manufacturing and sweatshops. The development of the 3D scan techniques allows the engineers to design garments on custom fit, so we could rapidly get a costume to fit our particular body.

Indeed, there are many issues to discuss at this point: the proper materials to use (we would like some body friendly materials), the correct price and other technical details as the closure system of such a garment.  But I guess, the big move was already done – they managed to “print’ a wearable garment!

This sounds quite exciting, but, in the same time  it’s a little bit scaring.

 

images via wired.com

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Err / Erratum

I love interactive projects. Jeremy Hutchison‘s ‘Err’ project reflects the collaboration between this London based artist and the mass production industry of our everyday objects.

Emails were sent to factories all over the world. These requested that one of the production line workers produce an incorrect version of the product they make every day. 17 dysfunctional objects are shown alongside reams of confused correspondence, FedEx receipts, customs certificates and cardboard packaging.

‘Erratum’ displays the impossible objects resulting from Jeremy Hutchison’s experiment, celebrating fault and irony. This art project could be also regarded as a good design lesson. Inserting error in the standardized production process gave birth to absurd, yet creative stuff.

images via sandsof.com

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Predators with no predators of their own

The Apex Predator Shoes is a project of fantich & young and should be  regarded merely as a conceptual object rather than a fashion item (yet, these fields are often interlaced, so you can take it however you like). Artists Mariana Fantich and Dominic Young, the duo behind this curious project, have worked together since 2008, producing various pieces related to a Darwinist approach. Apex Predator Shoes (above), defined as predators with no predators of their own, residing at the top of their food chain, have particular soles made of 1050 teeth dentures, while Apex Predator Suit (in the image below) is entirely made of human hair with some glass eyes as buttons and dentures again as ornament (spooky enough!).

According to artists’ website, these projects are designed as “parallels between social evolution and evolution in the natural world. Nature as model or nature as threat.”

Surely, the Predator Shoes are not meant for walking (yet it’s possible if you really insist), but to rise some questions, maybe contradictory feelings, a link between the values of natural vs. cultural. On the other hand, the concept could be adapted for a commercial purpose, too  (I’m sure Jeremy Scott would love it).

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