Art Portfolio project: Initial Research

During this weeks class, we were assigned to create a blog about research. The first thing I decided to write down included the different areas that I wanted to research up until the designing of my final products. I had a lot of ideas for research, therefore I wanted to roughly note down some. 

I want to look at and research where purple is mostly used in the market and what part of the target market is my product made for. Analyse how purple can affect consumer purchases and look into other artists that produced purple products. I also want to look at designers that produced similar foldable products and get inspiration from them. Looking at different foldable products will also allow me to look at the consumer reviews and feedback. I need to research different artists and look at the shapes that could be implemented in my design. Additionally, I would also like to look at 2D artists and paintings of various products as I could be inspired by one of those. I have to research different products as I do not know the specific products that I will be designing other than the cupboard. At a later stage I also have to look at materials, components, product finish (matt, shiny), product aesthetics (colour etc.), folding mechanisms, dimensions.

This will act as a checklist in the future to ensure that I looked at every part of my project carefully and thoroughly. 

The first artist I would like to look at in more depth is Marc Newson. Marc Newson is an artist I looked at last term and got inspiration from.

Marc Newson was born in Australia in 1963. He graduated from Sydney university in 1986 and used an aid to stage his first exhibition at the age of 23. Marc presented the 'Lockheed lounge' in that exhibition which is one of the most iconic contemporary art pieces till this day. He studied jewellery and sculpture in university. Throughout his life, Marc has worked and lived in many places like Sydney, Tokyo, Paris and London. He has worked with brands such as Nike, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Apple. Marc is one of the most well known product designers in the world and his work never fails to amaze me. Marc is known for creating products made out of unusual materials and uses smooth geometric lines, translucency and tends to avoid sharp edges by bending the material and forming rounded edges. He was listed in Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world and was appointed by the royal designer for Industry in the UK. 

Marc Newson Exhibition Murrina Console

Marc uses very bold colours and textures in his own designs, therefore, since my theme is purple I would like to draw some inspiration from Newson and see how I can implement the colour purple in my own designs. I would also like to consider the finish, the materials and the potential patterns that I can use. In this design, he uses a bold orange colour with dots for a unique pattern. He implements various interesting patterns in his designs that make his work stand out, therefore, I would like to look more into that and perhaps get inspired. The colour I have to implement in my design is purple, which is a bold colour; therefore, I can look at some of his work and see how I can apply purple to my designs to make them stand out. Additionally, his design is similar to the concept that I am thinking about. It is a long plank that is bended to form the legs of the table. My design will have sharper edges as it will fold, however, I can still get inspired by some pieces Newson created. 

The material he uses for this table is glass, which is very interesting. However, after thinking about the safety hazards of folding and unfolding glass, I immediately rejected it. I previously researched some of his work, and I am excited to look at it in greater depth this time.

A designer I am also very interested in researching is Gerrit Thomas Rietveld. Rietveld is a designer I accidentally stumbled across when researching but ended up really liking his work. His work definitely impacted mine and he was a huge inspiration to this specific project. Gerrit Thomas Rietveld was born in 1888 in Utrecht. He worked at his father’s furniture workshop from the age of 11 and he also studied technical draughtsmanship. His tutor, Piet Klaarhamer was a known architect in the at the Utercht Museum of Applied arts where he studied. Rietveld’s goal was to product more affordable, simpler, modern and more accessible products to the market as he felt that the furniture in that time was too heavy and unnecessarily expensive. Rietveld was the one who revolutionised the way that furniture was designed. He got married in 1922 and had six children.

The most significant and known work of Retvield was the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. Retvield passed away a year after the project began and it was finished nine months later. Most of his work is kept in his hometown, Utrecht.

280 ZIG ZAG

This was one of his pieces that inspired me to create foldable products. He used an innovative way to create the legs of the chair using planks. This design is very modern, minimalistic and simple which makes it stand out from the rest in the market. I briefly checked out other pieces of his work that have a similar concept to this one and they did not fail to amaze me. Retvield has amazing products that I can look into and get inspired by. I am looking forward to dedicating a blog post about Retvields work to talk about the designs in more depth and what elements I can incorporate in my own design.

I also want to research Heatherwicks studio as it has a foldable plank. That plank sparked the idea of what I want to design, therefore, I would like to research it in more depth. 

foldable plank

This foldable planks has a very similar concept to mine and I would like to look into the folding mechanism they used to fold and unfold the plank. I find this design very interesting and I do want to analyse it in more detail. 

I want to look at Retvields work in great detail as I feel like it would be a great source of inspiration for my project. However, I will definitely dedicate more blog posts to more designers and their work that I will stumble across while researching about this is greater depth. This is an initial research to include some artists that I would like to look at.

Additionally, it would also be very interesting if I could research origami and draw inspiration from something related to it as it is can fold and unfold. I could research some artists that use origami to create different shapes and even look at how I can use the folding in origami in my own design.

I would like to look at foldable products on amazon, eBay or IKEA as this will allow me to also read consumer reviews and feedback. Being able to read and consider the constructive feedback will develop my idea and ensure that the final products will be the best possible outcomes I can create.

References:

Newson, M. (n.d.) Biography. Available at: https://marc-newson.com/marc-newson/ (Accessed: 20/01/21)

Gerrit Rietveld (n.d) Available at: https://www.famous-architects.org/gerrit-rietveld/ (Accessed: 20/01/21).