Taking cues from the Japanese art of Furoshiki we are excited to launch a range of reusable wrapping cloths just in time for the gifting season. Designed by Hongli Chen, Zifeng Chan and Seda Kalkici, students studying MA Interior Spatial Design at Camberwell College of Art, the limited-edition cloths are the first product designed and produced entirely in-house at UAL. Designed by students, digitally printed by the dye lab at Wimbledon College of Arts and fabricated by Making for Change at London College of Fashion.
Making for Change is London College of Fashion’s Portal Centre of Social Impact’s training and professional production programme. They operate across two fully-equipped sites, in HMP Downview and Poplar Works in East London. Underpinned by the idea that skills-based training can inspire positive life changes, they offer an accessible and experimental space to explore, test, and innovate fashion production to its highest quality standard.
This project marks the third Design LAB collaboration between not just a shop and MAISD. Design LAB started in 2021 as a space for those interested in setting up their own design company or had an idea for a product that could be developed for sale. Well received, students asked if it could be expanded to all students the following year. Through guest lectures and workshops, in dialogue with Mini Moderns, students designed origami paper patterns that referenced the UAL Digital Collections, printed by Aldgate Press. And in 2023 designed wallpaper in response to the River Thames, printed by John Mark in Preston, Lancashire, currently on display in not just a shop and available to order.
We’re committed to giving students paid opportunities to explore product design and having a fully transparent supply chain and working with an in-house not for profit really is the bow on top of the present!