Shapes of Light

Decorative Scarf for Johnstons of Elgin

As a scarf design collaboration, Shapes of Light expresses diverse forms of light. The entire project was inspired by natural phenomena: the sunrise on the sea, building lights in the city at night, and the soft moonlight in the evening. The illustration concepts with a geometric, minimalistic visual style were transformed into actual products with woven textile technology. It took more than 30 steps in total to achieve the final result. Based on the idea of a wearable, tangible gallery, these textile designs can be used for daily accessories or home decorations.

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Shapes of Light by Nancy Zhang

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Decorative Scarf by Nancy Zhang

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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.

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.

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.

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.

Image Credits

Design&Illustration by Xiaoxi (Nancy) Zhang Photography by Teasels(Shanghai) Trading Company Limited

Project Overview

Shapes of Light Decorative Scarf has been a Iron winner in the Fashion and Travel Accessories Design award category in the year 2021 organized by the prestigious A' Design Award & Competition. 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.

Iron Recognition

Nancy Zhang was recognized with the coveted Iron A' Design Award in 2022, a testament to excellence of their work Shapes of Light Decorative Scarf .

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Introducing "Shapes of Light" by Nancy Zhang: A Collaboration with Johnstons of Elgin

Nancy Zhang's "Shapes of Light" is a collaboration with Johnstons of Elgin, expressing diverse forms of light through woven cashmere scarves.

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