by In this month’s news are all sorts of unusual crafting materials from breeds to gingers. There is also the opportunity for students to 3D print their design projects at the London company Batch.Works. I hope there is something for everyone.
The bride wore a fungus
Choosing a wedding dress is a special moment. Some brides go for a family heirloom, others dream of designer gowns. Dasha Tsapenko is probably one of the few who grew her own dress. The biotextile designer is interested in the shared connections and production issues of fashion and agriculture, while the Atelier Dasha Tsapenko investigates ways of making material from farming by-products and plants. The atelier has made fur from bean pods, textile dyes from crop waste and fungal felt. For her dress, Tsapenko was inspired by the custom from her native Ukraine for women to wear hand-embroidered wedding blouses.
Tsapenko obtained vintage linen lace from Ukrainian flea markets and seeded them with fungal spores before placing them in a nutrient-rich growing environment. Over a fortnight the breed fused the lace into fabric as it grew, which could then be adapted into a fungal dress. She imagines a new wedding tradition where the dress is put away after the wedding.
“It felt good not to treat the wedding dress with care, worrying about making it dirty, wet, dusty,” says Tsapenko. “It was easier to run, jump and do cartwheels when I knew the dress would go back on after the wedding. A wedding is an emotional moment that you want to experience deeply. When that moment is over, you want to preserve it in your memory, not in your closet.”
For more information, contact Dasha Tsapenko through her website
Written in black and white
Back in 2016, Washington DC based graphic designer Tré Seals was browsing online for inspiration. He felt that everything he looked at seemed monotonous and, after reading that over 85% of practicing designers in the US were white, he began to think about the connection between these two things. As he says on his website: “You could argue that it’s because of our obsession with grids and perfection, but the truth is that there was no culture, no character.”
He decided to found his own diversity-driven foundry, and Vocal Type was launched. Seals use inspiration from the culture and history of underrepresented communities to create custom typography. Examples include his type VTC Garibaldi, inspired by anti-fascist posters and pamphlets produced during the second world war, and VTC Du Bois which came from the infographics produced by civil rights activist WEB Du Bois, showing how which African Americans entered the racism.
This year Seals has been shortlisted for the Emerging Designer award at the annual Dezeen Awards, the winner of which is announced this week. As he says: “Everyone needs a seat at the table. The world is becoming more and more diverse, and our industry has to catch up.”
For more information on Seals, visit Vocal Type. The winners of the Dezeen Awards 2023 are announced on 28 November
Streets paved with sweets
The Museum of Architecture’s (MoA) Gingerbread City has become a tradition in London at Christmas, but this year the charity opened in New York for the first time. MoA aims to encourage the public to engage with the buildings around them and how they are used. Every year the charity asks leading architects to create gingerbread buildings to celebrate the Christmas season – and also to make visitors think about the challenges of the built environment. New York’s Gingerbread City features the work of over 50 architects and shares the theme of Water in Cities with its London twin. There are daily gingerbread making workshops and NY restaurant Balthazar has made sweets to take home. Melissa Woolford, founder and director of MoA and creator of The Gingerbread City, says: “We use this to show design and the impact it can have on our towns and countryside, thinking about climate change and how we will survive. here. When a city is created with sweets, we can find complex ideas in a welcoming environment that smells delicious!”
Visit New York’s Gingerbread City up until January 7th
Simple. Useful. Taken last
Braun is one of those few brands that is ubiquitous but also cutting edge. Max Braun founded the electronic goods company in 1921 in Frankfurt, just as radio was booming. First Braun and then his two sons, Artur and Erwin, kept the company at the forefront of technology and design throughout the years, thanks to a commitment to aesthetics and functional design. Now a new monograph by Klaus Kemp, professor of design theory and history at the HfG Offenbach, Germany, tells the story of the company that combined philosophy, technology and design to become part of history. Braun: Designed to Hold features over 500 images and catalogs of Braun’s signature moments. Satisfied customers know the Braun brand for stereos, kitchen appliances and electric shavers. But he is also respected in design circles for a Bauhaus-influenced work practice and for providing a launching pad for some of the world’s best product designers. Dieter Rams, Gerd A Müller and Roland Weigend are just some of the names associated with the company. Designer Virgil Abloh even helped celebrate Braun’s 100th birthday. The company’s motto is no surprise: Simple. Useful. Taken last.
Braun: Designed to Keep by Klaus Kemp (Phaidon, £59.95)
Making the cut
“Without cutting a pattern,” says designer and teacher Monisola Omotoso, “no clothes would interfere with a path.” As a creator working in all areas of fashion, Omotoso certainly knows what she’s talking about. In the 1990s, her innovative Jac Sac design – a combination backpack and jacket – epitomized the creative styles of streetwear in the UK at the time, and was sold by Paul Smith and Duffer of St George. Omotoso continued to produce collections of womenswear and accessories before tiring of the constant turnover of the fashion industry and took up work as a pattern cutter – her clients include Alexander McQueen and David Koma – and trained as a teacher so that she can pass on it. skills for a new generation of makers. She has also put together pattern kits for people to try at home. “Pattern cutting is a fundamental skill in the fashion industry that combines creativity with technical expertise,” says Omotoso. “It plays an important role in turning concepts into wearable, functional products.”
Omotoso’s iconic Jac Sac is currently on display at The Missing Thread, an exhibition about Black creativity at Somerset House in London. The pattern kits are also on sale in the pop-up shop.
Omotoso runs sewing and pattern making courses at the V&A. See their website for details www.patterncuttingdeconstructed.com
Print for the next generation
Batch.Works is a British manufacturing company focused on local and circular production using recyclable materials. In collaboration with design consultants Seymourpowell and the Design Council, the company launched a competition for design students, called Products for Planet. Batch.Works needs to train an AI-powered 3D printing machine. “To do this, we need to print around 10,000 parts on our pilot machines in Brighton,” says Milo Mcloughlin-Greening, partner and head of R&D at Batch.Works. To make this a truly creative exercise, students have the opportunity to suggest items that should be printed for their schools or community. “This competition takes advantage of this great demonstration opportunity to make objects designed to solve real problems,” says McCloughlin-Greening.
Batch.Works is looking for a product idea with food, material, mobility or energy themes and, of course, the item must be suitable for manufacturing using a 3D printer.
“So many young people have great ideas so we’re delighted to be able to support some of them into reality through this competition,” said Cat Drew, chief design officer at the Design Council. “By asking students to design products with communities, we can train the AI-enabled printing service in a truly inclusive way.”
Send entries to competition@batchworks.co.uk by 15 December. For more information on how to submit your submission, go to Batch.Works
