Shapes of Light 장식용 스카프 by Xiaoxi Zhang is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 A' Design Award 철상 in 패션 및 여행 액세서리 디자인 Competition Category.

철액세서리· 2022

Shapes of Light 장식용 스카프

by Xiaoxi Zhang

Client: Johnstons of Elgin

A' Design Award 철상 Winner in 액세서리 Category

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Colors

The Design

About Shapes of Light 장식용 스카프

'Shapes of Light'는 캐시미어 직물 스카프 시리즈입니다. 이 시리즈는 자연과 도시의 풍경에서 영감을 얻은 세 가지 디자인, 즉 바다 위로 떠오르는 일출, 밤의 도시를 밝히는 건물의 불빛, 그리고 저녁의 부드러운 달빛으로 구성됩니다. 일러스트레이션 콘셉트는 제직 공정의 요구 조건에 맞추어 기하학적이고 미니멀한 직조 패턴으로 재해석되었습니다. 각 스카프는 스코틀랜드의 방직 공장에서 염색 및 제직되며, 표면은 전통적인 수작업 티즐(teasel) 기법으로 기모 처리하여 부드러운 촉감으로 마감됩니다. 일상의 액세서리를 착용 가능한 예술 작품으로 승화시키는 것이 이 디자인의 목표입니다.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 철상

Shapes of Light 장식용 스카프, 이 작품은 A' Design Award 철상 수상작으로, 잘 디자인된 창작물에 기대되는 전문적·산업적 요건을 충족하는 좋은 디자인에 수여되는 권위 있는 인정입니다. 철상 수상작은 창작자의 뛰어난 기술, 높은 전문성, 전문가다운 이해, 창의적 역량을 보여 줍니다. Shapes of Light 장식용 스카프, 이 작품은 높이 평가받고 감탄과 사랑을 받는 창작물로서 실용적이고 혁신적일 것으로 기대됩니다. 이 철상 수상 디자인은 업계 모범 사례를 통합하며 노하우와 재능으로 연결된 유능한 기술적 특성을 갖추고 있습니다. Shapes of Light 장식용 스카프, 이 작품은 철저함으로 존중받으며 삶의 질을 개선하여 세상을 더 나은 곳으로 만들도록 디자인되었습니다.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

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?

It is not only a fashion design collaboration, but also an artistic endeavour.
Dimensions & Packaging: Sunrise and Moonlight: Length 190mm x Width 35mm
Building light: Length 180mm x Width 25cm
Tags: Light, textile, geometric, cashmere, woven, gradient, artistic, scarf, abstract
Production 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. The signature ripple finish is achieved by using traditional hand-worked teasels to gently raise the surface or 'nap' of the completed accessory, achieving a beautifully soft handle.

Building light：
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. On average of 33 craftspeople contribute to the making of each of our cashmere scarves. The mill uses use dobby loom to weave this particular cashmere scarf, and each colour is dyed in Elgin mill. The signature ripple finish is achieved by using traditional hand-worked teasels to gently raise the surface or 'nap' of the completed accessory, achieving a beautifully soft handle.
Design 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.
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". And all my research from my personal experiences in nature went into this: during traveling the seaside in the Izu Peninsula, a building lights view in Shanghai and the clear summer moonlight in Berlin. These physic phenomenon were turned into graphical ideas in my mind while I was looking at them. In other words, I would have painted them anyway with or without this design collaboration. It was a pleasure to work with the Johnstons of Elgin team, JOE is a cashmere textile expert in the industry. During the cooperation, I was able to entrust the technical realisation and manufacturing part to professionals. That was the ideal teamwork experience.
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.
Project Duration: 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.
Operation Flow: 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 smoothly.
Patents: Johnstons of Elgin (2021) Jenny Urquhart
Team Members: Concept Artist/Creative Director:Xiaoxi Zhang
Craft Designer: Laura Garner
Craft Designer: Aisling Watt
Image Credits: Design&Illustration by Xiaoxi (Nancy) Zhang
Photography by Teasels(Shanghai) Trading Company Limited