To be honest, I was struggling to find ideas about aesthetics to focus on for my chosen main project: a packable cycling rain/wind jacket. I even considered pivoting to a whole new project. Thanks to Prof Hertzberg, who gave me some ideas and direction, I started exploring the aesthetic to include in this project and regained momentum. I explored many aesthetic movements and found the two that I will focus my project on, which are included below in the 5 constraints.

So let’s get these constrains listed out and hash them out.

1. Time – oh how little and how much time we have. This is an obvious constrain as we have only a few weeks left of the semester to complete this project. I will need to be efficient and fail often and quickly to gain confidence and experience in this new field of fabrics.
2. Money – Money is no object… yeah right. Fabrics are not super expensive but when you need to practice a lot, then buy the more expensive light weight fabrics, it can add up. We have a budget of about $150 which depending on the needs of the project it might be more or less.
3. Experience – This is another constraint as this project involves sewing, which is relatively new to me. I will take the opportunity to reach out and say, if you read this post and have experience in this field, help. After all, we have to do our work trade hours. And in advanced, thank you!
4. Size and weight – Since this is an item I intend to use while riding, I want to make sure is light and very compact to be able to fit it in a pocket or fanny pack. Yes, I said fanny pack. They are a huge thing in mountain biking, look it up.

Figure 1. Mountain biking fanny pack

5. Chosen aesthetics – My chosen aesthetics will be “Action Painting” and “symbolism.” Symbolism is the art or practice of using symbols to express something invisible or intangible such as feelings or meaning. You can see an example below. Action painting, which is sometimes called “gestural abstraction,” is the style of painting in which the artist uses dynamic movements to splash or dribble paint onto the painting surface. An example of this is shown below.

Figure 2. Symbolism: “The War on Peace.”

Figure 3. Action Painting

Thank you for reading!

References

1. Figure 1: https://www.singletracks.com/mtb-gear/patagonia-packs-reviewing-the-nine-trails-14l-backpack-and-nine-trails-8l-waist-pack/
2. Figure 2: https://apictureofpolitics.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/war-vs-peace/
3. Figure 3: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/429812358171002367/?lp=true