This is an investigation of Chinese store signs.
"Why are store signs in China so damn ugly?" is the starting point of this project.
I conducted researches onto this matter.
reasons can be concluded as below:
1. Not worth it--short lifespan of shops and restaurants
2. Can't afford it--bad economic environment for individual shop owners.
3. Don't know about it--lack of knowledge about design
That's why no effort and money is spent by shop owners to create their shop signs, leading to the situation that the aesthetic is no longer valued. Instead, signs needs to be as eye catching as possible, which results in these hideous visuals with max saturation and zero balance in every element, constantly destroying people's optical nerves.
Chinese elements are popular design elements nowadays either in fashion or furniture or architecture, etc. However, artists and designers always pick from the beautiful side of Chinese elements: the culture, the history, etc. However, the less aesthetically pleasing elements are never touched. these shop signs are rooted in the most fundamental class of living environment in China; they are what I grew up seeing everyday, yet nobody explores them as they are obnoxious as hell.
So I decided I will, I will dig into the dark side of Chinese Graphic Design and employ this obnoxious language onto my own work, loud and proud.
No matter what, the goal of these signs are to advertise the store, so, the goal of my project is to advertise myself, as I am a graduating senior that is looking for a job. I will design my resume in such language, and make them into garments, shoes and accessory pieces. I will print my resume, business cards, contact onto fabric with the language of Chinese store signs. I will wear these functional garments to interviews and job events to advertise myself and communicate to recruiters with them.
And this is what I call Resume Project.
research and mind map for my subject of matter
Some concept sketches of the collection.
DIGITALLY PRINTED FABRIC
Digital Fabric printing was employed to create textiles for this collection. Graphics was created and printed onto cotton twill, cotton sateen and canvas in order to utilize the fabrics' different textures and different reaction to pigments.
All printed fabrics need to be steamed and washed to reveal the true colors. And since there are drastic differences between colors shown on screen and colors on fabric, several experiments were conducted to get to the final desired color palette. Printed colors are matched with digital files to identify the HEX codes of the colors, which later to be used in the final prints.
SHOE
Iteration sketching of the shoe and rough layout of graphics, and potential attaching mechanisms.
A prototype was built to test out the upper. Zippers were used in the prototype to connect tongue to upper, but its rigidity assigns too much shape to the upper, almost distorting the desired silhouette. Therefore the final version applies velcro as the connection method.
After finalizing the pattern, Graphics was designed in Illustrator then imported to Rhino to edit, then imported back to Illustrator to assign colors according to the results of the color tests.
Every segment of the tongue is cut, insulated and sewn together.
A layer of Veg-tan leather was sandwiched between the lining and upper to increase thickness and stiffness.
The letters on the counter were stitched around to make a puffing detail.
I put a orbital sander on my knee to make my own sole sander, since rubber can potentially damage belt sanders in our shop and we don't have any machine for shoemaking.
Welting were wrapped around the shoe first to trace out lines to sand to, because they are pre-dyed and can't be sanded together.
PHOTOS
JEFF SHEN DESIGN
The uppers have my phone number and name printed on them.
The front of the shoe tongues state the tasks I am able to perform.
The back of the shoe tongues, prints my resume, and QR code to my WeChat.
The shoe tongues are attached to the upper with velcro, so it's easy for me to rip them off of my shoes and hand them to recruiters.
Thick insulation keeps you warm in the winter of job hunting,
yet hunting with style and dignity.
The day I go home without a shoe tongue on,
is the good sign that I might have found a job.
I better get hired.
More coming soon in Resume Project:
• Providence Sweatshop Hat
• Pants with Chinese-trashy-ad-sticker style business cards, business cards are also printed fabric, attached onto pants with zippers, for me to zip them off and hand to recruiters.
• Chest Rig designed to perfectly fit an iPad (to show portfolio), Resume, pockets for my business cards and the recruiter's business cards, velcro to stick on patches of companies that I've worked for.
Stay Tuned
Thanks for viewing
Better get a JOB!