Shapes of Light Kitambaa cha Mapambo by Xiaoxi Zhang

Shapes of Light Kitambaa cha Mapambo by Xiaoxi Zhang is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 Tuzo ya Chuma ya A' Design Award in Usanifu wa Vifaa vya Mitindo na Usafiri Competition Category.

ChumaKifaa Tanzu· 2022

Shapes of Light Kitambaa cha Mapambo

by Xiaoxi Zhang

Client: Johnstons of Elgin

Tuzo ya Chuma ya A' Design Award Winner in Kifaa Tanzu Category

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Colors

The Design

About Shapes of Light Kitambaa cha Mapambo

Shapes of Light ni mfululizo wa vitambaa vya shingo vilivyosukwa kwa cashmere. Mfululizo huu unajumuisha miundo mitatu iliyopata msukumo kutoka kwa mandhari ya asili na ya mijini: mawio ya jua baharini, taa za majengo mjini usiku, na mwanga laini wa mwezi jioni. Dhana za michoro zilibadilishwa kuwa miundo ya kijiometri na rahisi ya usukaji ili kuendana na mahitaji ya ususi. Kila kitambaa cha shingo hupakwa rangi na kusukwa katika kiwanda cha Scotland, na uso wake huinuliwa kwa kutumia miiba ya jadi inayofanyiwa kazi kwa mkono ili kupata mwonekano laini. Lengo ni kubadilisha kifaa cha kila siku kuwa kazi ya sanaa inayoweza kuvaliwa.

The Recognition

About the Tuzo ya Chuma ya A' Design Award

Shapes of Light Kitambaa cha Mapambo ni mshindi wa Tuzo ya Chuma ya A' Design Award, utambuzi wenye heshima unaotolewa kwa miundo mizuri inayokidhi mahitaji ya kitaalamu na ya kiviwanda yanayotarajiwa kutoka kwa kazi zilizobuniwa vizuri. Washindi wa Chuma huonyesha ustadi mkubwa, utaalamu wa hali ya juu, uelewa wa kitaalamu na uwezo wa kibunifu wa waumbaji wao. Shapes of Light Kitambaa cha Mapambo inatarajiwa kuwa kazi inayothaminiwa sana, kupendwa na kuenziwa, ambayo ni ya vitendo na bunifu. Muundo huu ulioshinda Tuzo ya Chuma ya A' Design Award unajumuisha mbinu bora za tasnia na una sifa za kiufundi zenye uwezo zilizounganishwa na ujuzi na kipaji. Shapes of Light Kitambaa cha Mapambo inaheshimiwa kwa uangalifu wake na imebuniwa kutoa maboresho ya ubora wa maisha yanayosaidia kuufanya ulimwengu kuwa mahali bora zaidi.

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