Alin Yang
Projects
About
Product Design, Furniture, Cooperation, Concepts, Full scale
Behind the project:
Resew’s Sewing Cart
Turn the sewing process to a live performance.Team: Individual Project
Timeline: 2019. Sep - 2020. April, 6 months
Scale: 75 x 130 x 150 cm/ 29.5 x 51.2 x 59.1 inches (before extended)
Material: Wood, Metal, Wasted Bands, Fiberboard
Industrial-Academic Cooperation Project
Client: Sewing Ltd. Co
Research
Knowing their role, strength and weakness, and their workflows
Sewing Co.Ltd. (now named REHOW) is a foundation founded by Siruba, an industrial sewing machine company. They started the project called “Resew’s Lab”, to promote sustainable fashion by collecting wasted textiles discarded by factories and turning them into beautiful artwork. They also hold courses to invite the community to join in this project. The revenue they earn through selling their work and holding events are used as operating funds and supporting people in need.
designer
- Stable sources: With collaboration between factories, they have sound wasted-textiles sources.
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Unique textiles: They have a wide variety of fabrics in small amounts, making their materials unique.
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Professional equipment: The mother company provided them with various kinds of industrial machines. Some of them are rare in daily life.
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full-time well-experienced designers
- stable collaborations with individual designers
- New founded: As a newly launched project, they needed more brand exposure. Also, they had limited funds.
- Lack of employees: They only have five female staff as full-time employees.
How they usually work?
I interviewed the staff of the foundation, learning how their outside-foundation events were launched, and how they feel during the whole process.
Since their previous events were held indoors, so I also interviewed the engineers and the designers about their concerns of working outdoors.
I interviewed the staff of the foundation, learning how their outside-foundation events were launched, and how they feel during the whole process.
Their previous events were held indoors, so I also interviewed the engineers and the designers about their concerns of working outdoors.
The Form
Different form and function
Initially, the goal was to maximize "mobility" while gradually incorporating the needs for "stability" and "material storage" during discussions with the foundation. Ultimately, the design was modified into a cart form.
Testing the function and the structure
I created several scale models to test the feasibility of different concepts. This helped the client to understand the proposals and provide more relevant feedback intuitively. As the final version neared completion, I produced a full-scale working prototype, allowing foundation members to install the sewing machine on the model for testing.
Identity
In addition to the brand's signature "bright orange" color, the foundation's base has distinctive elements, such as pegboards for display, wooden furnishings, and displays. They often repurpose existing items to showcase and store their collected materials.
Therefore, I incorporated the primary colors of orange and natural wood into Resew's Sewing Cart, added woven ribbons with the company's insignia in detail, and used pegboards as a display method to enhance the connection between Resew's Sewing Cart and the foundation's base.