In order to develop a program whereby people can be educated to appreciate and choose the best contemporary designs among the many textiles that are available, it is necessary to know which types of textiles, if any, among those designed in the modern manner, the public accepts, which it rejects, and the factors that influence selection. This study was made to discover those factors -- such as color, subject matter, and utility -- that determine popular choices in a representative group of well-designed modern printed textiles which were available on the Dallas market. The textiles were placed on public exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts.

Textiles may be used as a vehicle to penetrate and exemplify a society's customs and traditions. This dissertation concentrates on the Kuba cloths from Zaire and particularly focuses on the social and political implications associated with these textiles. Part One explores the economic aspects of the cloths and the values of work, wealth, status and titleholding among the Kuba. The Kuba's aesthetic preference for pattern and design will be contemplated in relation to the cloths and as an illustration of this culture's concern with decoration and display. Part Two of this study examines the occasions for which these cloths are adorned. It will be observed that these celebrations and rituals, in conjunction with their ceremonial modes of dress, not only underline the importance of the nation and its ideologies and customs (as examined in Part One) but serve to acknowledge ethnic identity, as well as maintain and perpetuate the social and political order of the Kuba. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / M.A. (History of Art)

This research explored a Digital Laser Dye (DLD) patterning process as an alternative coloration method within a textile design practice context. An interdisciplinary framework employed to carry out the study involved Optical Engineering, Dyeing Chemistry, Textile Design and Industry Interaction through collaboration with the Society of Dyers and Colourists. In doing so, combined creative, scientific and technical methods facilitated design innovation. Standardized polyester (PET) knitted jersey and plain, woven fabrics were modified with CO2 laser technology in order to engineer dye onto the fabric with high-resolution graphics. The work considered the aesthetic possibilities, production opportunities and environmental potential of the process compared to traditional and existing surface design techniques. Laser-dyed patterns were generated by a digital dyeing technique involving CAD, laser technology and dye practices to enable textile coloration and patterning. An understanding of energy density was used to define the tone of a dye in terms of colour depth in relation to the textile. In doing so, a system for calibrating levels of colour against laser energy in order to build a tonal image was found. Central to the investigation was the consideration of the laser beam spot as a dots-per-inch tool, drawing on the principles used in digital printing processes. It was therefore possible to utilise the beam as an image making instrument for modifying textile fibres with controlled laser energy. Qualitative approaches employed enabled data gathering to incorporate verbal and written dialogue based on first-hand interactions. Documented notes encompassed individual thought and expression which facilitated the ability to reflect when engaged in practical activity. As such, tacit knowledge and designerly intuition, which is implicit by nature, informed extended design experiments and the thematic documentation of samples towards a textile design collection. Quantitative measurement and analysis of the outcomes alongside creative exploration aided both a tacit understanding of, and ability to control processing parameters. This enabled repeatability of results parallel to design development and has established the potential to commercially apply the technique. Sportswear and intimate apparel prototypes produced in the study suggest suitable markets for processing polyester garments in this way.

A indústria têxtil brasileira viveu seu apogeu econômico nas décadas de 1950, 1960 e 1970. Seus expressivos números, associados ao clima eufórico nacionalista, contribuíram para transformar esse setor num segmento importante para a consolidação de sentidos acerca da existência de uma identidade nacional, que se teria dado por meio da produção de estampas genuinamente brasileiras. Com base nessa hipótese, esta pesquisa dedica-se a explorar o processo de produção de sentidos nacionalistas e patrióticos implantados e difundidos por imagens, tendo como metodologia principal a investigação dos processos internos da indústria e a observação da divulgação dada à atuação da indústria têxtil naquele período. Procura-se comprovar que os sentidos produzidos foram decorrentes bem mais de um discurso eficiente do que de uma criação autêntica ou genuína que tenha havido nesse setor. / The Brazilian textile industry reached its apogee in the period 1950-1970. The widespread impact it made in a climate of euphoric nationalism, led to this sector being turned into a means of strengthening feelings about the existence of a particular Brazilian national identity, which it achieved by producing printed designs that were genuinelyBrazilian. On the basis of this supposition, this research project is devoted to exploring the way nationalistic and patriotic feelings have been instilled and spread through images, by employing a methodology that mainly involves investigating the inner processes of industrialisation and the observation of the promotion of the textile industry in that period. The study seeks to support the view that the feelings that have been evoked, arise more from an effective discourse than any authentic or genuine creation that has taken place in this sector.

Esta pesquisa objetivou identificar padrões formais, plásticos, sintáticos, semânticos e simbólicos eventualmente mais característicos de estamparias têxteis voltadas ao vestuário de usuárias das classes sociais média e alta. O estudo, de natureza mista, quantitativa e qualitativa, apresentou caráter essencialmente fenomenológico, buscando percepções de usuárias e especialistas (designers), ao comparar padronagens de estamparias gráficas utilizadas por mulheres das classes sociais média e alta. Do ponto metodológico, a pesquisa foi dividida em três estágios principais. Em um primeiro estágio foram selecionadas quatrocentas amostras de imagens de estampas voltadas para usuárias das classes média e alta, sendo duzentas amostras de cada classe. Estes dois grupos de duzentas amostras foram, então, reduzidos, aleatoriamente, a dois grupos de vinte amostras. Cada amostra, a partir deste ponto, foi minuciosamente isolada e abstraída do desenho da roupa, da pessoa que a estivesse trajando e de seu entorno, evitando-se variáveis contaminantes. No segundo estágio, as vinte amostras, já isoladas e abstraídas, foram individualmente apresentadas a especialistas (designers), com objetivo de estimulá-los a verbalizar categorias conceituais que pudessem ser utilizadas como norteadoras de um diferencial semântico a ser elaborado no terceiro estágio. Por fim, no terceiro estágio, sete amostras de cada um dos dois grupos foram reunidas, aleatoriamente, e apresentadas a dois grupos de respondentes (especialistas e usuárias) de maneira a atribuírem valores numéricos de 1 a 5 quanto a dez parâmetros (bipolarizados) induzidos a partir das análises obtidas dos dados oferecidos por especialistas no segundo estágio. Participaram do terceiro e último estágio 55 respondentes, sendo seis designers e 49 usuárias. Os resultados deste estudo foram, então, estratificados em vários quadros, entre os quais: amostras apenas da classe média, com respostas de especialistas e de usuárias; amostras apenas da classe alta, com respostas de especialistas e de usuárias; amostras da classe média e da classe alta, com respostas apenas de especialistas; amostras da classe média e da classe alta, com respostas apenas de usuárias; e amostras da classe média e da classe alta, com respostas da média de especialistas e usuárias. O cruzamento geral destas várias estratificações revelou singular e pouco antecipada convergência das respostas de especialistas e de usuárias sobre padrões de estampas têxteis atribuídos às classes média e alta. Notou-se, por exemplo, coincidências acentuadas nas respostas nas categorias simbólico/literal, cromático/acromático, sofisticado/rústico, linear/aleatório, clássico/moderno e geométrico/orgânico, entre amostras de padronagens têxteis voltadas às usuárias das classes média e alta. Divergências discretas foram, entretanto, observadas nas categorias equilibrado/desequilibrado, simetria/assimetria, comum/incomum e figurativo/abstrato. Este estudo conclui que variações qualitativas no vestuário das classes média e alta estariam, portanto, localizadas menos no âmbito das características formais, semânticas, simbólicas e estéticas das padronagens têxteis, residindo, muito possivelmente, sobretudo, na qualidade da impressão, acabamento, coloração, fiação, tecelagem, costura e em minúcias de seus desenhos apenas perceptíveis pela proximidade física e tátil dos referidos tecidos e peças de vestuário / This research aimed to identify formal, syntactic, esthetic, semantic, and symbolic patterns possibly more closely associated with textile designs geared to the clothing of female middle and upper class users. The study, of a mixed nature, combined both the quantitative and qualitative approaches. It was of an essentially phenomenological character, searching for the perceptions of both users and design specialists, as they compared graphic design patterns utilized in the clothing of middle and upper class women. From a methodological standpoint, the study was divided into three main stages. In the first stage, 400 samples of photographs of textile design geared to female middle and upper class users, 200 corresponding to each group, were randomly selected from a variety of sources. Out of these two groups, another selection was then randomly conducted as well, narrowing both groups down to 20 samples each. Each textile sample, at this point, was thoroughly isolated and taken from the actual design of the clothing, from the person who might be wearing it and from its surroundings, therefore avoiding contaminant variables. In the second stage, those 20 samples, already isolated and taken out of their surroundings, were individually shown to textile and fashion design specialists, aiming to stimulate them to verbalize conceptual categories that could be utilized to guide the elaboration of a semantic differential in the third stage. Finally, in the third stage, seven samples from each of these two groups were randomly ordered and displayed to two groups of participants (design specialists and users). They were asked to grade them with numeric values from 1 through 5 regarding ten parameters (bipolarized) which were previously developed based on data provided by design specialists during the second stage. In this final stage, 55 respondents took part, six of which were design specialists and 49 of which were users. The results of this research were then stratified and displayed into various tables and charts, amongst which were: exclusively middle-class samples, featuring answers of both design specialists and users; exclusively upper-class samples, featuring answers of both design specialists and users; samples of both middle and upper class, featuring answers exclusively of design specialists; samples of both middle and upper class, featuring answers exclusively of users; and, finally, samples of both middle and upper class, featuring combined answers of design specialists and users. Cross-referencing of the various data stratifications revealed a unique and little-anticipated convergence of answers from both design specialists and users regarding textile graphic patterns linked to either middle or upper class clothing. Significant, coinciding patterns of responses were noted in conceptual categories such as symbolic/literal, chromatic/achromatic, sophisticated/rustic, linear/random, classic/contemporary and geometric/organic, among samples of graphic textile patterns associated with middle- and upper-class female users. Discrete divergences were identified, however, in categories such as balanced/unbalanced, symmetrical/asymmetrical, plain/rare and figurative/abstract. This study, then, reached the conclusion that qualitative variations in graphic design patterns in clothing of middle- and upper-class female users might, therefore, occur less in the realm of the studied formal, semantic, symbolic and aesthetic graphic textile patterns, as they seem to most likely reside, above all, in the printing quality, finishing, coloring, threading, weaving, sewing and in minute drawing details of the actual graphic textile patterns which can only be ascertained and appreciated by means of physical and tactile proximity to these graphic patterns and the actual clothing itself

Pre-Hispanic geometric art forms In Peru and the Andean Area are taken to be an outgrowth of textile techniques. Textiles and fibre arts predate ceramics by several millennia In the Central Andean Area. The artist who created these textiles developed an art style which was to go largely unaltered until the arrival of the Spaniards. The foundations of the Andean art form date to the Pre-ceramic. The restrictive, rather Inflexible nature of the warp and the weft of the cloth (the geometric grid) was to influence the methods of represention that were to follow. Geometric designs were well suited to fit Into the rigid framework. A series of conventions were developed for the representation of symbols. With the development of ceramics, there was leeway for a new style to come Into being. However, this was not to be the case. The potter borrowed extensively from the weaving tradition and Its associated styles (only in Moche times did the potter make a break the highly geometric style developed centuries before, and even then this break with tradition was a short lived one). The pre-Columbian artist often portrayed birds, cats, fish and reptiles. Many of these designs were used frequently and repeatedly throughout the centuries, but none, I would maintain. was represented as frequently as the double-headed serpent, and with so few variants. Andean art Is a truly distinctive art form; very different from European art, and through Its geometricity It conveyed and still conveys a totally different approach to nature and the world surrounding Andean man.

Most people might not reflect upon textiles as anything more than the soft material in our clothes. As a crafts practitioner, I gain knowledge of woven materials that go beyond that. The knowledge of weaving and materials is developing the ideas that form the concept of this project. From the tacit knowledge, derived from years of practically working with textile materials, an intellectual understanding of materials and the worlds they construct is growing. In this project, I decipher my own ideas of the woven structure in order to invite others to experience the universe within textiles. I look at the weave as a structure, built up by small particles in forms of threads. If seeing the weave from a distance, each repeated pattern can in turn be perceived as the smallest element. By seeing woven materials from more than one perspective, I believe that the understanding of the construction itself can develop. As this understanding grows, so does the ability to judge the quality of the material. In this line of thought, the tools used to reflect upon what materials are, how they are made and what they signify, becomes greater. To visualise the knowledge I have of the textile structures I make, I work with a waffle weave structure, together with a dyeing technique called Ikat. I also draw connections between the woven structure and that of a map – as a tool that humans use to understand their surroundings. The use of perspectives and scale is another tool that is used to widen our perception of the world around us. In order to create an experience of the universe within textiles and to invite others into that world, I draw parallels between the miniature scale of the woven material and larger, architectural structures. The final outcome of this project is a textile installation, consisting of three weavings that together form a larger construction. The construction is open for people to enter and experience. Inside the construction a smaller woven piece is presented as a map over the woven world. This weaving initially contains the same information as the large structure, but on a much smaller scale. / <p>Image no. 16 has been removed due to copyright reasons. A link to the image can be found in the <em>List of References</em></p>

Today, backpacks and duffel bags are often designed with a focus on a specific area of use, which makes it difficult to use them on other occasions. A clear example where the differences are noticeable is between functional mountaineer bags and urban bags. It is not uncommon for people staying in these environments to have far beyond two bags in their possession. Overconsumption is harmful to the environment, especially when it is from an industry that is pursued with poor working conditions and dangerous emissions in nature. Therefore, multifunctionality and sustainable design have been of high priority when the products in this project were developed. In this thesis, two models of bags have been developed through a human-centered design process. A large number of user interviews and expert interviews, as well as a focus group, laid the foundation for the requirements and needs of the bags. Spektrum’s company values, as well as the identity of their current products, were interpreted to create brand recognition in the new products. Idea generation was performed through various creative sessions, prototyping, and through a workshop. Evaluation and concept selection was performed by representatives from the target group in the form of personas, as well as by Spektrum. Finally, detailed technical drawings of the concepts were created in Adobe Illustrator. The first model is a backpack designed to work just as well on the mountain as in the city. The other model is a duffel bag that can be carried both on the back and in the hand. It is also designed to perform well in both mountain and urban environments. Both bags are made of polyester from recycled PET bottles and the material is controlled and approved by the highly rated environmental certification bluesign®. The metal parts of the bags are made of recycled aluminum. Both models are adjustable to fit all users within the 5th to 95th percentile. The thesis resulted in the ordering of two alpha prototypes of each model, factory-made by my technical drawings. According to Spektrum, the designs have created great interest among retailers and company shareholders. Both models will, therefore, be put into production and released to the market within two years.

The character of woven textiles is dependent on both the materials and the loom technology used. While digitally-controlled jacquard looms are a major development in weaving technology, they have mostly been used in developing representational and pictorial weaving. Such three-dimensional weaving as exists, utilises materials in predictably similar ways. Here, through systematic experimentation, three shrinking and two resisting yarns have been combined in multi-layer weaves in order to explore their potential for form-generating behaviour. Three-dimensional form occurs when the shrinking yarn/s place the resisting yarn/s under tension. To relieve this tension, the resisting yarn moves within the weave, creating waves or folds. The resulting form is highly sensitive to variation, demonstrating emergent behaviour, and identifying the woven textile as a complex system. Demonstrating the variety of form possible from a limited number of materials, the results represent a small body of work aiming to re-form weaving. The exploration of synergistic material combinations is therefore shown to be an exercise of value to fields from art textiles through to industry. It demonstrates that there is great development potential in woven textiles. Understanding the behaviour of materials is fundamental to furthering form-based weaving.

O estudo descrito nessa dissertação abrange conhecimentos referentes às áreas de Biônica, Biomorfismo, Artes Visuais e Design de Superfície propondo um procedimento de projetação voltado para a elaboração de estampas têxteis com referência em elementos naturais. Considerando a natureza como fonte de referências visuais para a projetação no Design de Superfície, percebeu-se que associar pressupostos estéticos presentes na área com etapas de métodos de Design de Produto baseados em estudos de Biônica, poderia contribuir com a produção criativa dos desenhos de estampas. Desse modo, disponibiliza-se à audiência acadêmica e profissional um procedimento de projetação organizado a partir de um estudo exploratório-experimental com abordagem qualitativa, estruturado por revisão bibliográfica, entrevistas e experimentações. A primeira organização do procedimento foi realizada através da adaptação de etapas de três métodos de Design de Produto com base em estudos de Biônica. O procedimento resultante foi avaliado e aperfeiçoado a partir de quatro experimentações realizadas com estudantes e profissionais da área. O resultado é um procedimento com oito passos voltado ao desenvolvimento de estampas com referências biomórficas. A pesquisa aponta que o contato direto do designer de superfície com o elemento natural, aliado ao resgate de técnicas de desenho manual e à reflexão contínua dos procedimentos adotados durante a projetação, contribui com o planejamento e processo de desenvolvimento de estampas pelos projetistas. Ou seja, projetar a partir de etapas organizadas e adaptáveis conforme as necessidades de cada briefing facilita o processo de projetação de estampas com referências naturais e converge para novos resultados na perspectiva de contribuir com as produções disponíveis no mercado atualmente. A conclusão do trabalho oferece algumas possibilidades de prosseguimento da pesquisa, como a organização de cursos envolvendo conhecimentos das áreas de Design de Superfície e Biônica e a verificação e aplicação do procedimento aqui proposto no âmbito industrial. / The study described in this dissertation covers knowledge regarding areas of Bionics, Biomorphism, Visual Arts and Surface Design to propose a procedure for developing textile designs which incorporate natural elements. Considering nature as a source of visual references for projecting in the surface design, it was realized that associating esthetic assumptions present in the area with steps of methods of product design based in studies in Bionics could contribute with the creative production of drawings in prints. In this way, it is made available to the academic and professional audience a projecting procedure organized based on an exploratory-experimental study with qualitative approach, structured in literature review, interviews and experimentations. The first procedure organization was performed through adaptation of steps of three methods of product design based on Bionics studies. The resulting procedure was evaluated and improved from four experiments performed with students and professionals in the field. The result is a procedure with eight steps focused on the development of patterns with biomorphic references. The research suggests that direct contact from the designer with the natural elements, coupled with the rescue of hand drawing techniques and continuous reflection of the procedures adopted during the development contributes to the creative process by facilitating the search for visual references. In other words, projecting from arranged and adaptable steps according to the projective needs eases the procedure of prints projecting with natural references and converges to creative and differentiated results which can contribute to the products available nowadays in the market. The conclusion of the study offers some possibilities for further research, as the organization of courses involving knowledge of the areas of Surface Design and Bionics and the verification and application of the procedure proposed here in the industrial field.