Press Release
Xiaoxi Zhang Is Honored with the A' Design Award for Shapes of Light Decorative Scarf in Fashion and Travel Accessories Design
Xiaoxi Zhang honored for fashion and travel accessories design by the international grand jury of the 2021 - 2022 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 28, 2022 /DesignNewswire/ Shapes of Light Decorative Scarf by Xiaoxi Zhang, designed for Johnstons of Elgin, has been granted the A' Design Award in the Fashion and Travel Accessories Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The award was conferred within the 2021 - 2022 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who scored anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
What the A' Design Award Means
The Iron A' Design Award is awarded to good designs that meet the rigorous professional and industrial standards set by the A' Design Awards. This recognition is reserved for works that demonstrate a solid understanding of design principles and show creativity within their execution. Recipients of the Iron A' Design Award are acknowledged for their practical innovations and contributions to their respective fields, providing solutions that improve quality of life and foster positive change. These designs are a testament to the skill and dedication of their creators, showcasing their ability to address real-world challenges through thoughtful design.
Regarding Shapes of Light Decorative Scarf
Shapes of Light is a series of woven cashmere scarves. The series includes three designs inspired by natural and urban scenes: the sunrise on the sea, building lights in the city at night, and soft moonlight in the evening. Illustration concepts were translated into geometric and minimal woven patterns to suit the requirements of weaving. Each scarf is dyed and woven in a Scottish mill, and the surface is raised with traditional hand-worked teasels for a soft finish. The aim is to turn a daily accessory into a wearable art piece.
About Xiaoxi Zhang
An international independent visual artist, designer and writer. Born in Tianjin and graduated in Beijing film academy in China, has published several books such as “Encounters”, “ Style Art Life”, “ No Truth without Ruth”. Art book “ Encounters” won the 11th ICMA bronze award (2021) and project “60 days” won the 64th CA’s illustration award of excellence (2022). As a creator, a “bridge” between east and west, I want to bring the unique warmth and humanity to the world.
Award Record
This recognition makes Xiaoxi Zhang a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Fashion and Travel Accessories Design Award
The A' Accessory Design Award is an international fashion design competition recognizing good accessory designs by leading designers and brands worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to accessory designers, fashion designers, travel accessory designers and luxury goods manufacturers from all countries. Typical entries include handbags, scarves, belts, luggage, hats and travel bags. The awarded accessory designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/accessory
About A' Design Award & Competition
Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://designers.org/134714
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/134714
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!134714
- Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/287053
- Further Information from the Laureate: https://www.nancylightseeker.com
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Shapes of Light Decorative Scarf
- Function
- Decorative Scarf
- Category
- Fashion and Travel Accessories Design
- Discipline
- Fashion Design
- Industry
- Fashion and Luxury
- Colors
- Linen, Silver, Light Gray, Goldenrod and Burly Wood
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Johnstons of Elgin
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Xiaoxi Zhang
- Country
- Germany
- Recognition
- A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2021 - 2022
- Design ID
- #134714
Credits
- Team
- Laura Garner and Aisling Watt
- Image Credits
- Design&Illustration by Xiaoxi (Nancy) Zhang Photography by Teasels(Shanghai) Trading Company Limited
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- "Shapes of Light" is Nancy Zhang's special collaboration design series with the Scottish cashmere expert brand Johnstons of Elgins. For the first time, Nancy expressed her illustration arts with textile technology. The theme of this collaboration "The shape of light" is an extension of her personal illustration project "Light seeker". She made 3 designs to express diverse forms of light: The sunrise on the sea, building lights in the city at night and the soft moonlight in the evening. Light shapes how the environment looks to us, yet the environment we constructed reshapes light in turn at the same time. Does light shape our appearance, or do we construct what light looks like?
- Inspiration
- Design 1 Sunrise-The inspiration of this one comes from the natural phenomenon- the sunrise on the sea, visualised the graphics with stripes and gradient colours. Design 2 Building Light-The inspiration comes from the city night view-warm building lights from people's perspective outside, design with plaid graphic. Design 3 Moonlight- The inspiration was also from he natural phenomenon-soft moonlight in summer evening without clouds, design with gradient colours.
- Research
- In my opinion, this design series is not just a commercial collaboration but my attempt to seek a new form of project creation, transforming my personal project into a tangible painting. As the oldest form of humanistic art, textiles have always been very mature in the transformation of technology and contents. Product design is a way for us to touch and use literary and artistic creations in modern society. I call this collaboration series "The Shape of Light” as an extension of the theme of my personal painting project "Light Seekers".
- Challenge
- As an illustrator and visual artist, the biggest challenge of this textile design collaboration was transforming the illustrations into woven textile patterns without losing the original conceptual expressions. Considering the limitations of woven technology, we had to minimize the genomic shapes for the designs as much as possible. However, it turned out to be quite an enjoyable and meaningful challenge for us both. The whole transforming process was like purification of my visual expressions, which is the charm of the textile design.
- Realization and Technology
- Woven cashmere scarf series. The whole transforming process was like purification of the visual expressions. From dyeing to blending, carding to spinning, warping to weaving, knitting to teaselling and cutting to folding-it all happens in Johnstons of Elgins. 2 Ombres(Sunrise and Moonlight)： Manufactured in Johsntons of Elgin, the craft design department and dye house worked together to create a unique blend of colours for the Ombre Oversized Classic Scarves. With the advanced jacquard machine, we can weave over 10 colours in one scarf and each colour is dyed in Elgin mill. From fiber to final products, on average of 33 craftspeople contribute to the making of each of our cashmere scarves.
- Operation and Interaction
- Scarves are one of the most common accessories to keep us warm during the winter type. Yet these kinds of daily, simple accessories could be "tangible", "wearable" art pieces as well. Based on "Movable Gallery on body" this key idea, the abstract drawings about different shapes of light were created, however, afterwards the graphics were slightly modified regarding to the woven technology requirements.Actually the final result turned out more minimal than before and it also gave people more space for imagining.Special thanks to the reliable collaboration team, it took more than 30 manufacturing steps and 33 craftspeople's involved in total to achieve the final results and everything went...
- Project Duration and Location
- This project designs started in February 2021 in Berlin, Germany and the products finished in September 2021 in Elgin, Scotland. Currently the goods are available in Shanghai, China.
- Specifications
- Sunrise and Moonlight: Length 190mm x Width 35mm Building light: Length 180mm x Width 25cm
- Keywords
- Light, textile, geometric, cashmere, woven, gradient, artistic, scarf, abstract
