I am a strong advocate of technology and new discoveries, but in some cases, technologies tend to fast-track processes that are meant to take time. Especially in the textile industry, fast fashion, mass production, and the automatization of confection drastically displace the typical, traditional, and hand-made techniques. Due to this current issue, I decided to take it upon myself as a designer and experience how to learn and make a woven piece. On the other hand, graphic design tends to stay on the screens or on a simple textured paper; thus I decided to create a tactile experience for the audience to understand the difference between both.
LEARNING HOW TO WEAVE
1. SELECTION OF COLOR
This project started by selecting a color I wanted to learn more about. I was immediately drawn to pink because I grew up watching it around me due to its substantial presence in my Peruvian culture.
2. WEAVING PROCESS
While learning how to weave, I spent many hours understanding the basics of this activity and then practicing the actual weaving. Through my process, I noticed how by learning the rules of making, you can gain freedom of creativity, which can also be applied to other creative realms like design. Scheduling me a good 20 hours to achieve this small woven piece which was completely inaccurate by completing almost 50 hours invested in learning how to weave and make it.
DIGITAL PROCESS
For the digital piece, I set some ground rules and only used tools provided by technology. First, I only used basic shapes out of the shape tool in Illustrator. For the color palette, I used the eye dropper and did not hand changed the hue I got in the first hand to stay true to the idea of what the technology was providing. For the printing process, I proceeded with the default settings and paper.
THE EXPERIENCE
Some of my central values as a designer are interactivity and learning through the senses or in divergent ways. This experience consisted of breaking the paradigm of untouchable artwork and allowing the audience to feel both analog and digital and take away their texture and sensation.
