Creative Design: Undergraduate

Black Coffee Gossip

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Abstract

Design Mentor Statement: This work was a class project in my creative design processes class. Students were challenged to incorporate two or more fabric manipulation techniques into a wearable art ensemble based on their design research. Each student engaged in an extensive design research process, seeking information from a variety of visual, verbal, 2D, and 3D sources. From the research, students created 20 sketchbook pages, juxtaposing images and text from a wide range of sources with their own inspiration sketches. Each student created a mood board (Figure 1), their patterns, first sample, and final ensemble. Students were mentored with formative feedback at two points during the design research process as well as throughout the creation process. I selected to submit this student’s work because it has a very strong concept. The student has really thought about how to visually represent the different ways in which the concept—the dangers of gossip—can be interpreted by the viewer of the piece. The student also did high-quality work, putting much effort into the patternmaking, figuring out the supporting inner construction and hours of work on the fabric manipulation techniques. The outcome is striking and thought-provoking.

Statement of Purpose: Purpose and context. In my design research process, I found the poem Black Coffee by Gould (1949). “Smiling sweetly, respected trulls / Drinking coffee from polished skulls. / A touch of arsenic, ‘One lump, or two?’ / And the cups go round with their deadly brew. / The Atomic Bomb is an awesome thing / But so is woman . . . / Gossiping!” I sought to convey the meaning and feelings of this poem in a three-dimensional piece of wearable art. The intent of this design was to create a garment that reflects a societal issue or norm: gossiping. I wanted to bring awareness to this issue and give the intangible a presence that is thought provoking. I wanted to create something worthy of someone’s time to analyze and see the story within it at a closer glance. Finally, I wanted to give the audience freedom to interpret the garment as they see fit.

How to Cite:

Simon, C. & McKinney, E., (2018) “Black Coffee Gossip”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 75(1).