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EXPLORE JONATHAN LOUIS PRODUCTS
By Collection
By Product
Jonathan Louis x Otis College of Art & Design Class
Read our last installation? Go ahead and skip the intro.
Developing the next generation of talent is a big part of our ethos (see here, and here for our talent development series). We’ve extended our efforts outside of our four walls to Otis College of Art & Design. From installations to trends, Otis students have been active participants in our market-focused endeavors.
This fall, we’ve expanded our collaboration with Otis College to sponsoring a Product Development Studio I class. Open to third-year students, the class is a hands-on, “project-based course bringing consumer products from concept to market.” The goal of class is to better understand how to incorporate practicalities like manufacturing into the design, and “to gain a greater understanding of how to translate a concept into a product for sale in the market.”
Projects include individual home decor and the Jonathan Louis sectional group project. At the end of the semester, we will select one team’s concept, and work with them to build a final piece to display at Spring 2023’s High Point Furniture Market. Follow this blog to see the progress of these students as they deconstruct, explore, play, ideate, and create.
Mono Material Project
Theme: "Context"
Students were asked to select a material to explore. Over two weeks, the students experimented on the material–burning, tearing, melting, breaking, and so on–with the goal to explore the physical limits of the material. Using the learnings from interacting with the material, the students need to create something that could be considered home decor. Students were encouraged to make something strange, ugly, or unexpected.
What material would you have picked? Which did you think was the most unexpected?
Jason
Material: Yarn
Decor: Versatile centerpiece
Method & Findings:
Had to learn to crochet and make a pattern for this experiment. Started with a thinner yarn, and wanted different textures. But when assembled, it crumbled. Switched to a thicker yarn, and wanted to make a hanging wall piece–but it stretches out because it’s heavy, so it became a table piece. Could be arranged in a variety of ways; also a wearable piece.
Abigail
Material: Wood
Decor: Unknown
Method & Findings:
Cut a bunch of strips without thought, without pre-expectation. Planned on steaming the wood, so started by soaking the strips in a bathtub. Disaster struck, however, when the steamer didn’t work, and then the shop closed, so the wood grew moldy before they could be soaked. Originally, the jig had square dowels, which resulted in sharp edges and breaks as the wood strips dried. Switched to round dowels for a smoother bend. Discovered that skinnier pieces work better with a bigger radius, and that oak, ash, and beech are good for steaming because of the open pores. Previous attempts include twisting, rubber bands, bent by hand.
Reimagined:
The jig and the woven wood together could be a home decor object, rather than the jig being a tool separate from the finished object.
Dillon
Material: Cardboard
Decor: Wall Art
Method & Findings:
Soaked the cardboard in water, cut the cardboard with holes, then burned it so that it would expand and leave different marks on the edges. Burned it with a BBQ lighter; this effort created a lot of smoke–even with glasses and a mask it was hard to breathe. Blew on it to stop the fire to create the uneven burn marks, eyeballing when to stop. Wanted to make sure you could see all the layers. Sometimes it would burn too far, and pieces would fall off. Spray painted it.
Takeaway:
Figure out a way to put it out without destroying it. Materials will sometimes behave in ways you don’t expect–you can’t totally control it when you’re burning it.
Cristana
Material: Bioplastic
Decor: Dreamcatcher
Method & Findings:
Used a recipe from Materiom; started with vegetable glycerin + water + cornstarch and was achieving texture, but not the transparency (it also stank); switched to vegetable glycerin + water + agar agar–which took one week to dry out (but was odorless). Supposed to be flexible once fully dried. Creating shapes was a challenge as the bioplastic would break when peeling it from the mold.
Emily
Material: Clay
Decor: Wind Chime
Method & Findings:
First tried creating impressions using fingers. Also tried weaving the clay. Ended up making hanging pieces of shards of dried clay–super thin clay stayed curved through the firing. It’s so thin that a light breath can move it. Flat pieces were spread by fingers; the curled ones were rolled out. This would be hung in a series.
Unexpected:
Clay is usually thick and presented as serving utensils, with a glaze. With this treatment of the material, you wouldn’t be sure what the material is.
Additional Reference:
Alexander Calder’s “Circus,” a kinetic form of sculpture
Audrey
Material: Acrylic
Decor: Wall hanging
Augie
Material: Steel
Decor: Sculpture
Method & Findings:
Started by heating it up and trying to get it super hot to see if it was pliable, but there isn’t a forge, and the torch was taking too long. Then tried rolling together some of the bent pieces. Primarily used plasma cutting and welding to create a sculpture that doesn’t have a particular direction that it needs to sit in. The way the burned part of the prototype rusted suggests life after creation. Cesar Baldaccini inspired this work.
Additional Reference:
Alberto Giacometti, known for his steel structures, was able to mold steel in a way where it doesn’t feel like a fixed object, that there’s motion in the metal.
Anushka
Material: Packing foam
Decor: Fruit bowl + dunce cap
Method & Findings:
Cut foam into strips and started weaving. Strips were hot glued into place. Wanted to make a hammock but didn’t have long enough strips. Turned into a fruit bowl, which was spray painted black.
Additional Reference:
Seussian, can see it in a variety of sizes. The texture is reminiscent of a pineapple–this could be a whole line of foam fruit, that’s fruit-scented.
Alex
Material: Steel
Decor: Horseshoe crab
Method & Findings:
Made a wood mold and started texturing the wood. A full one melted and lost all shape. A plasma cutter was used to cut shapes and then was welded together. One side was hammered for texture, the other side was torched. Polished with a sanding disc. Folded like a piece of fabric. Pushed it so far that it cracked.
Taking It Further:
Another step of the experiment is to see how it goes all the way through to the end by trying different sorts of finishing techniques like polishing, sandblasting, etc..