Critiques

Niamh

Her mood board addressed politics and climate change. It also includes pictures of cats, hashtags and flowers. I can see that the dress efficiently brought the viewers back to the political past, by using the brown beige color, and displaying the rough texture of the dress as well. I love how the upper part of the dress is a corset with bones, which makes the dress look like something that wealthy women in history would wear. Other than that, it is a tiny bit unclear about the link and connections between the dress and the mood board. I would love the dress or the mannequin itself to represent the theme of nature more (beside just flowers). I think she could do this by adding more natural details, maybe to a hat, or a cocktail hat. 

The object is tangible, and it has a function. People could use this to display and use it as a model for a real dress. I love the idea of making a dress on a small mannequin, since it definitely gave the audiences a view of how the dress would look like on a real person, and how big it is compared to a human size, which would be perfect for designing. However, its function is not too practical. It is not something that we could place an impact on, or use it on something else. 

One big thing that Niamh has greatly done is finding an inspirational artist that would really help her on building her ideas for the dress. Her artist follows the theme of hyper-realism, about a new reality with emotional, social, cultural, and political themes. I could see clearly the relationship between her mood board and the artist. 

Peter

His mood board links to his final design, which is a fish hook. As I can see from his mood board, his main theme was about the combination of colors, fishing and water. He also added a great combination of colors to his fishhook, which is totally relevant to his design. 

Personally, his idea of fish hook is one of the most creative products, as it is a very creative idea  that not everyone can think of right away. Thus, it also shows how much time he spent on thinking about the projects. His design is tangible, light and portable. Its function is clear, usable and could be applied to reality. One tiny but creative thing that he did was making a little red fish to his fish hook, to better define its function. 

His chosen artist is Andy Goldsworthy, whose artworks are about environment and outdoors themes. I think that Peter successfully used information from his artist to help him with his mood board and design, which he had included in his presentation.

One thing I especially want to point out is that the flowers Peter glued on his fish hook is real flowers, so it is safer for the fishes if he actually used his design in real life. If the flowers are fake, it can cause pollution and harm the fish as well. 

Betty 

Her product is a white bag, and inside the bags are flowers.I think the link between Betty’s product, mood board and the artist is very clear. She included lots of pictures of flowers and her artist’s major is about color photographs of nature, which is relevant to her final object. 

Her product is portable, simple, but still looks beautiful. The white base color of the bag really helps to boost the colors of the flowers, and the colors of flowers in overall mixed well together, as if she is carrying a garden with her. When I looked closer to her bag, I found out that she had a small camera and butterfly icon in the front. This is a small detail, but it is very related to her artist, a talented photographer. 

Regarding the function, the bag obviously has its function, but there is a little concern. If she actually uses it, she would have to take the flowers out so that she could put her things in. When that happens, the bag would only have a white base color without the great colors of the flowers. To solve this, I think a great idea would be sticking small flowers and leaves to the bag handle, so she could use the bag and the bag itself would also look beautiful without the actual flowers inside. 

Toby

Toby's idea about magnifying glass keychain is very creative. His object is portable, light, and because it’s a keychain, he can carry it around anytime. By that, he could observe nature with different perceptions anytime he wants. 

Toby’s product is different from others, as he did not try to put flowers or plants on his product, so he could follow the theme. However, with a magnifying glass he can totally have so many different perspectives/views of nature. This also links to his artist, Grace Fussell, who takes photos of  sky, trees, and wood texture, as he can use his glass to see the textures of so many things. 

Furthermore, I think that Toby can add very small details to his keychain such as flowers’ petal, leaves to make it look more colorful.