Shapes of Light Şaliyekî Xemilandî by Xiaoxi Zhang

Shapes of Light Şaliyekî Xemilandî by Xiaoxi Zhang is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 Xelata A' Design Award a Hesinîn in Dîzayna Aksesuarên Moda û Rêwîtiyê Competition Category.

HesinAksesuar· 2022

Shapes of Light Şaliyekî Xemilandî

by Xiaoxi Zhang

Client: Johnstons of Elgin

Xelata A' Design Award a Hesinîn Winner in Aksesuar Category

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Colors

The Design

About Shapes of Light Şaliyekî Xemilandî

Şêwazên Ronahiyê rêzeyek şaliyên kaşmîری چاڵکراوە. ئەم رêزەیە سێ دیزاینی لەخۆدەگرێت کە سەرچاوەیان لە دیمەنە سروشتی و شارستانییەکانەوەیە: هەڵهاتنی خۆر لەسەر دەریا، ڕووناکی بیناکان لە شار لە شەودا، و ڕووناکی نەرمی مانگ لە ئێوارەدا. بیرۆکە وێنەییەکان گۆڕدران بۆ نەخشە جیۆمەتری و سادەکراوەی چاڵکراو تاکو بگونجێن لەگەڵ پێداویستییەکانی چاڵکردن. هەر شالێک لە کارگەیەکی سکۆتلەندی ڕەنگکراوە و چاڵکراوە، و ڕووکارەکەی بە بەکارهێنانی ئامرازی دەستی نەریتی (تیزڵ) بەرزکراوەتەوە بۆ کۆتاییەکی نەرم. ئامانج ئەوەیە کە کەلوپەلێکی ڕۆژانە بگۆڕدرێت بۆ پارچەیەکی هونەری کە دەتوانرێت لەبەر بکرێت.

The Recognition

About the Xelata A' Design Award a Hesinîn

Shapes of Light Şaliyekî Xemilandî xelatgirê Xelata A' Design Award a Hesinîn e, nasîneke bi prestîj ku ji sêwiranên baş re tê dayîn, yên ku pêdiviyên pîşeyî û pîşesaziyê yên ku ji afirandinên baş hatine sêwirandin têne hêvîkirin tînin cih. Xelatgirên Hesinînê jêhatîbûna mezin, pisporiya bilind, têgihiştina pisporî û kapasîteya afirîner a afirînerên xwe nîşan didin. Tê hêvîkirin ku Shapes of Light Şaliyekî Xemilandî afirandineke pir hatiye rêzgirtin, sitayişkirin û delal, pratîkî û nûjen be. Ev sêwirana bi Hesinînê serketî pratîkên çêtirîn ên pîşesaziyê yekgirtî dike û xwedî taybetmendiyên teknîkî yên jêhatî ye ku bi zanîn û jêhatîbûnê ve girêdayî ne. Shapes of Light Şaliyekî Xemilandî ji ber baldariya xwe tê rêzgirtin û hatiye sêwirandin da ku kalîteya jiyanê baştir bike û alîkariya çêtirkirina dinyayê bike.

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