Designer’s World: Head Garment
In this assignment, we were required to construct an interactive head garment which involves simple mechanisms derived from natural and man-made forms. The head garment had to be visually stunning and also wearable alongside having transformative functional forms. The purpose of this assignment is to encourage students to merge visual research experiences from project one, two and the exercises in order to generate a variety of visual concepts and design solutions.
Progress
Describe your image
I started out by brainstorming several natural and man made items that possessed transformable mechanisms and narrowed down my list into 3 items for each of the elements. I decided to go with peacock, pitcher plant and water lily for the natural elements and umbrella, jack in the box and pinwheel. Moreover, I also did some research on the history and heritage of hats over the centuries in order to gain understandings of the composition of hat making which would benefit me in stage 3 later on
Describe your image
Next, I made 5 mock-up models with cartridge paper and pvc foam board to experiment with the mechanisms from stage 1. After that, I drafted several designs of the final head garment before moving on the stage 3.
I made the head garment with different types of materials in which some are recycled items.
Outcome
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
The GOLDEN AZURE
The Peacock, the National Bird of India, Pavo cristatus (Linnaeus) holds characteristics such as beauty, grace, pride and mysticism. A bright, swan-sized bird, Peacock has a fan-shaped feather crest, a white patch under the eye and a long slender body.
Beauty. Grace. Pride and Mystery. Presenting, The Golden Azure. It is a headdress that consists of three movable mechanisms and adheres with the royal colour palette such as blue, golden and white.
Mystique mask
The mask is inspired by the peacock’s head, which is lined up with bright blue feathers. Neatly arranged scaly cut outs represent the overlapping effect of the feathers on its head. The eyes of the peacock is accentuated with white outlines and strokes to add a feminine touch to the mask. Lastly, both sides of the mask are decorated with soaring wings that represent freedom and power. The overall form of the mask maximizes the volume of space occupied which suits the design language.
Peacock’s Plumage
The peacock’s plumage spread out in a remarkable train and it is represented by the fan mechanism which can be expanded and folded after use. Each fold consists of an intricate cut out pattern which symbolizes the “eyes” on the feather. The plumage is folded and stored in an open case and chopstick mechanism that holds the fan in place.
The Grand tiara
The grand tiara resembles the sun, which radiates positive energy and hope . It is made of a headband and zip ties which are trimmed to shorter lengths and kept original.
The headdress structure
The basic structure of the headdress is made up of PVC board and enclosed with shiny gold paper to give it a boost of volume and shape.
Mechanisms showcase
Flapping wings
Movable mask
Expandable Plummage
Reflection
Overall, the fun elements to this assignment were depicted in a sense that we got to try out different mechanisms and incorporate aesthetic designs to the head garment as well. This assignment had drilled me to cogitate critically and enhanced my problem solving skills particularly when I didn’t have access to certain materials whereby I had to look for alternatives.
