Mood board 4: The Hulk Buster pod from The Avengers 

- As Doomsday is nearing the future, the Hulk Buster Pod dawned on my mind as it is futuristic and doesn't come into work unless something bad is to happen. 

Mood Board 1: Shoes from the Plato's Atlantis collection for Alexander McQueen 

Mood board 5: Plato’s Atlantis, a greek philosopher in which the designs are referenced too.  

Models were in sand and covered by vibrantly coloured snakes.

Colours and textures shifted with the transition from species to species. Camouflage prints of roses, and jacquards depicting moths in green and brown tones, referenced life above the sea; amphibious snake prints suggested a transition to water; and designs in blues and purples incorporated images of ocean creatures, such as stingrays and jellyfish. Here McQueen perfected the use of digital printing techniques with each design engineered specifically for individual garments.

McQueen developed a host of new shapes, tailored to mimic marine features: pronounced hips and shoulders gave way too amorphous forms; a fluted miniskirt resembled the folds of a jellyfish; puffed sleeves were folded and pleated to connote gills.

The collection before his death the Plato Atlantis is focused on evolution and evolving with the world of nature , it was about doing what us humans do best which is adapting to the world around us with melting icecaps and in how we returned to the ocean where everything originally came from.

Alexander McQueen believed his design needed to connect with the earth. He thought things that are processed and reprocessed loose their substance. 

References:

 https://www.vam.ac.uk/museumofsavagebeauty/rel/encyclopedia-of-collections-platos-atlantis/ 

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COLLECTIONS: PLATO’S ATLANTIS)

https://catherinegracebaldwinfashionblog.wordpress.com/2017/02/20/alexander-mcqueen-inspiration-from-the-platos-atlantis-ss-2010-and-ss-2012/)

The following reading materials are scanned from 

The Nature and Art of Workmanship - David Pye, London, Studio Vista; New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1971.

Colours have the ability to impact on the emotional well being of human beings, either by stimulating or tranquillising, exciting or depressing, or to provoking and antagonising (Pavel 1980:132, Fontana 1993:66). - Demirbilek, Oya & Sener-Pedgley, Bahar. (2003). Product design, semantics and emotional response. Ergonomics. 46. 1346-60. 10.1080/00140130310001610874.

The four different categories of pleasure in product use given by Jordan (1997) are:

1. Physio pleasure - related to touching and holding a product.

2. Social pleasure - related to social relationships and communication that a product enables. 

3. Physcho pleasure - gained when a product helps the user to establish a task.

4. Ideo pleasure - related to values that a product and its use represent or support. 

Event or situation ~ Emotions and behaviour ~ Thoughts attitudes belifs 

These designs that are shown above are produced with the design intention to enclose a piece of thread from Alexander McQueen’s Plato's Atlantis collection. 

In the end I had chosen to do this brief as I found it the most interesting with many different stories and historical elements which could be used and sought for in my designs.  

When designing, I like to create concepts, then continue to research for further ideas if I am jaded. These 5 concepts above are my current ideas, however I have thought about doing more and changing these up. 

Top left: This is based off the armadillo shoe from the collection, a pair was given to pop singer, Lady Gaga and used in one of her most viewed music videos, this was a gift before Alexander McQueen committed suicide. This gave me a sense of life, hence design inspiration. 

Top right: Plato Atlantis was a greek god, and in greek history there is many pieces of art which are dogs with three heads, this is where the idea for this design came for. 

Centre: This design was intended to show the greek structure of design in a form of statue, such like a perfume bottle. This would be more so a museum piece. 

Bottom left: A similar idea to the previous model, but in the shape of a dress. This was to show the detachable model that could be half an encloser and half a stand for it, this was given the scene of "opening up" and fashion can hold a lot inside a person, hence the shape of the body. I like my idea and cannot wait to further develop it.  

Bottom right: The half and half body, like a museum piece. This was a greek concept of a dress. 

Art Nouveau is an international style of art, architecture and applied art, especially the decorative arts. I thought that looking at this style would help me with patterns, and external elements of design, which it did. 

I found that Alexander McQueen in-fact implemented this international style of design into his designs in patterns I had already looked out - I know that I will have to incorporate this into my redefined models.

I think for this collection, birds would be the perfect pattern to use because of the ideas that Alexander McQueen had adapted from Plato Atlantis. This would give a sense of being free, nature and could create nice forms.

The Dutch artist M Escher’s, used optical illusions to merged art, science and mathematics. I think for my designs, this will be handy because I love to use interesting patterns that can be seen in certain ways.

By manipulating perspective, playing with mathematical patterns and biological evolutions he created designs which fell under the category of Art Nouveau. 

The two designs above are developments from my concepts.

The top design started with a precendent from the Armadillo warn in the collection then given to Lady Gaga prior to McQueen's suicide. The original middle pattern then was extruded and used as the shell for the enclosure. 

I wanted to perceive a museum like model for this first concept because of the "Haus of Gaga Las Vegas" which is a mini-museum featuring her most iconic looks, the shoe being one of them. 

I then added some abstract Art Nouveau patterns onto the shell, the thread is to be enclosed in the bottom right end with the pre cut out Art Nouveau inspired bird. 

Once further developed with rendering, this enclosure will portray a museum giving statement of design. 

The bottom design above is an enclosure which represents Alexander McQueen and his connection to lady gaga. On the outer side, we have a heel of a shoe sketched from a precedent of the Plato’s Atlantis Collection, then turned into a pattern to represent a shrine to the main feature, which is the middle design. 

This was inspired by Lady Gaga who enclosed herself in an egg for the 2011 Grammys (see photos below), a year after McQueen committed suicide. 

I know that McQueen and Gaga had a strong relationship, which I wanted to bring back in this design. The original Armadillo shoe gave Gaga inspiration, therefore why in my design the egg is holding the key piece (where the thread would be inclosed) while the shoe holds her. 

I thought it would be respectful while still elegant to make a design to enclose thread based off the original person who this collection was based on; Plato Atlantis. He was fabulously wealthy, and I thought a design based off of wealth and the greek statue designs would be good. 

This design won't be fully visionary until it is properly rendered in white stone or glass, with the components to hold thread being contrasted against the body material (black in photo, to show where they would be). 

My idea for this design was to be a kind of statue piece that would look great in a white marble studio/ display etc. 

This design was intended to be the three headed dogs, which are a Greek myth. The dog's name is Cerberus, it stands guard at the entrance to the underworld. Cerberus' job is to let you into hell but prevent you from ever leaving. One head of the dog represents the past, one the present, and the third is the future. I thought this was a very fitting theme as Alexander McQueens suicide followed the Plato's Atlantis collection, who in fact was a Greek myth. Instead of going with the three head idea, i developed it into a singular form, with a body inside. This is to represent the matryoshka dolls, but being protected like a Cerberus. I thought this was interesting also because in 1998 McQueen payed tribute to the Russian imperial dynasty through another collection. 

It also has a breakable shell, which will be made out of an egg like structure, and once broken you are able to access the enclosed thread in the inner body. 

This design is simple but effective. The idea came to mind as a perfume bottle, using one half for a stand and one half for the actual perfume (see below). This idea would be a cool way to hold the thread, giving it a stand which is why it is formed as a dress like object. once rendered, the top middle part which isn't filleted will be where the enclosed thread is, being transparent while the bottom half will be a stand made out of a heavy material that compliments glass well. 

The shape of form is from a particular dress from the Plato Atlantis collection, while the pattern inspired by the grounds of nature.  

This design was formed from the concept on the 2011 Grammys (Lady Gaga's entrance)  

This is the transformation of design 

From the basic form of the first render on the left, I was able to develop my "Matryoshka Doll" inspired design. Once rendered, this gives 3 values. Which are transparency, sheltered an enclosed which I believe represents how Alexander McQueen felt pre suicide.

Notes: 

Concept 1: This first concept was based off the Plato Atlantis theory of global warming, creating a cross over in the design where land meets sea. The bottom represents see, with translucency for rocks. The top half, is where the thread is contained to show that it is above and beyond reach. I then reimagined this design to set an idea of a dress, and represented this concept through fashion shapes. 

Concept 2: Lady Gaga's entrance to the 2011 Grammys influenced this design, although this was the concept it had been developed a lot more which you will see shortly. 

Concept 3: The idea for this design was three words, past, present, and future. This was originally the idea of three headed dogs, which are a Greek myth. Once developed this will be shown and explained better. 

Concept 4: The importance of the torso. The torso is what we dressed, we need to protect it. For the piece of thread I thought that this was the best idea, to protect a sacred element in the heart of what is loved, the design. The greek thought this importance of design, and Alexander payed tribute to them earlier in his work in the 90s, as well as the Plato Atlantis collection. I believe this design is great, and rendered in the greek stone which we see in statues.

Notes:

Concept 5: Please see refinement for explanation. 

Concept 6: This was representing a classic thread structure but with the depth of other meaning. 4 detachable parts representing transparency and hiding. This is what we would've wanted to see from Alexander McQueen despite his suicide, which was him hiding.  

Refinement of 3: The idea was formed by using loft motions to represent the 3 points I wanted to shape. The past, present and future was originally the idea of three headed dogs, which are a Greek myth but I wanted to use a different way to showcase this. I then researched to finding Matryoshka dolls, which are a representation of a chain of legacy. I thought this was perfect. With both these ideas, they related to Alexander and his work. 

The outer body represents the future, as it's transparent. You never know what the future holds. This is why the outer body is glass. 

The body in the middle represents the present. You know whats going on party, but theres somethings you don't know - hence the material of a mesh 

The inner body, made of full copper. This is where the thread is held, in the idea of the past, but sheltered by the future and the present. 

Refinement of 2: Lady Gaga received a pair of armadillo shoes post the collection. There was only 21 made, this showed importance for her fashion influence, hence the reasoning behind this design. Lady Gaga entered the 2011 Grammy's in an egg, surrounded by people holding her up. I believe this is to protect the prize, perfect for this project of holding a thread. Hence the design. It has spikes repeated around the bottom to represent the tough, hard life of mental struggles McQueen was facing, a nice formed body to show relationships to Gaga, and to show the thread inside when it comes to fashion and his passion.

Refinement 4: The importance of the torso, as previously explained it's what we need to protect. For thread, I think this was one of the smartest options. It has three detachable pieces which inclose thread, while sitting pretty in stone like an ornament. 

The torso of McQueen was intact after his death, showing the importance of it. The place in the body which his heart is found in, and he loved fashion. I think putting thread where his hard is, and the organs that kept him alive were was important because fashion was his purpose on this planet. 

While thinking of this, I still wanted to pay tribute to the collection and the history prior to the collection, hence the form of a stone looking greek bodied torso. 

Refinement of 5: The shape of this body is like land, and water represented by the gaps in the body. The design was originally inspired by the armadillo shoe, and the uniqueness of them, but was formed into something much deeper. The thread is kept at the front left, inside a small pod, and that carries the body because of the weight. We have glass birds throughout the design to show the freedom of land, and how McQueen flew to heaven after his tragic death. These birds are also inspired from the Art Novau era, an era which we see has an influence on McQueen and his work. 

(Design not used in final presentation)

(Design not used in final presentation)

PROJECT 2 (SEPERATE BLOG LINK)

https://www.behance.net/gallery/97927179/INDN211-P2