With Intent by alyxjacobs

WITH INTENT

be happy, slowly.

I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have done any of this without you, Ryan.

manifesto as a maker i will

enjoy the making process as much as the final product. make functional items that enhance the life of the user. create a community of caring makers and designers. embrace quality over quantity. use materials that do not harm the makers or the environment. enjoy the way of slow making.

slowly

coming to terms

When I started researching the slow movement I found that a lot of negative ideas are associated with slowing down. Words like laziness, sluggish and inefficiency were what came up when I found â&#x20AC;&#x153;slowâ&#x20AC;? in a thesaurus. This is comical to me, because when it takes me more than twenty-four hours to naturally dye, hand sew and bind a quilt, I feel the complete opposite of lazy, sluggish and inefficient. My craft is slow and I am working to (slowly) push my life in the way of the slow movement. I want to reduce my waste, take care of my body and be happier. My senior thesis revolves around the notion of the slow movement and how I can integrate the values into my life as a designer, maker and human being.

The design world is so fastpaced. There is always a new app being designed, a need for little computer screens under our finger tips, and the incessant clicking if a website doesn’t load in the second that your internet provider boasts about. Living this way was bogging me down. I will admit, I do have an app that tells me when to water my platns and to tell me if I should put a sweater on before I leave the house. Isn’t it ridiculous to think that I could walk outside and feel the air on my skin or have the sensibility to water my plants when they’re wilted? I was falling into the deep, dark vortex of the 21st century, I needed to fight back. This change started in my life when realizing that much of the de-

sign world was spent on a computer with quick turn-around times and even quicker impressions which caused me to throw something together quickly, without much care. I did not like the way that I was working, but I couldn’t change it. I was just waiting for an excuse to do something out of the computer, I had latched onto letterpress because of the slim chance of dirtying my hands but even still, people suggested that I should “scan that into the computer and manipulate it more.” Nothing could just BE what it was without the influence of a computer. I was tired of this. I needed to be surrounded by others who appreciated handmade items for what they were and a break from the oversaturated design world.

figuring it out slowly

Enter the last semester of my junior year: I was in a relationship with someone who didn’t support me creatively, my designs didn’t have much meaning, and it started to feel like my life didn’t either. I felt that my time at the art institute had turned into me sitting on a computer waiting around to get a job and I didn’t want this experience to be wasted. I signed up for a quilting class. My first quilt was overdesigned, the colors were wrong, my thought-process was drenched in the rules and boundaries of the design world. The quilts I was making weren’t even close to perfect although, the act of sitting down and pushing fabric through a sewing machine to create a piece of art that could keep someone

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life.â&#x20AC;? Jessica Hische

warm, sparked something in me. I tried to shove a quilt design into one of my website projects. The quilt became first priority and the design project became an after thought. This is when I realized that something needed to change. My life was changing quickly, I ended my unsupportive relationship and entered into a relationship with the most supportive person Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve ever met. With this support, I decided to spend the next semester in the Fiber department where I would learn how to dye fabric, tighten up my sewing skills and become part of a different community within the school. Instantly my eyes widened with the possibilities of color within the fiber world. It took an hour to get a piece of fabric a deep or-

ange color, when I was used to typing #ef4b35 into illustrator to create a similar color, but much less beautiful color. I was realizing that beauty took time. The first assignment of the class was due in a few days, and I hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even started the final part which had to be sewn by hand. I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just open my laptop up and push a few pixels around the night before, I had to spend time with this quilt so it could get finished. This was hard to get used to, but I loved it. This changed my way of working. I was getting things done days before critiques because I was working more efficiently and I was doing this happily. This was key - doing something you love will make you happier and will, in turn, make your work better.

Slow Design is taking time to do things well, do them responsibly, and do them in a way that allows the maker, designer and the end user to derive pleasure from it.

slow and steady

wins the race

The end of my senior year was quickly approaching. I didn’t know how to integrate my love for quilts into my design work. It was a constant fight trying to explain why my quilts were considered “graphic design”. I didn’t have information backing up my thoughts and I was hitting a wall, but I was still making quilts because I knew that they would be part of my senior thesis one way or another. After many conversations with people who inspire me as designers and makers, the phrase “slow movement” kept coming up. I had never really researched the slow movement in depth. After reading a few books and scanning many websites, I had finally found the reason for all of this.

Slow is the physical and mental process of taking a breath, allowing a human timescale rather than one of a machine, to take control of our lives. Slow Design is taking time to do things well, do them responsibly, do them in a way that allows the designer, the artisan and the end user to derive pleasure from it. After researching the Slow Movement in depth, I realized that I had already slowly been transitioning my life to live in the way of the slow movement. Thinking about the waste that I produce, growing a few vegetables on my porch and buying sustainable products. I also started making this change with my artwork by being mindful of the materials that I use and choosing natural dye processes over using chem-

icals. Living this way made the decision for my senior thesis somewhat easy. I asked the question: In the fast-paced world of design, which seems to only be getting quicker and more disconnected from the influence of the artisan, how can I as a designer use the slow design movement to help influence our culture and society to become more aware of the importance of the human in design? The answer to this came quickly because I knew that I wanted to sell the goods that I had been making and give other makers that I am close with an outlet to sell their items. I answered my question with the slow-down pop-up. This successful one-night only event was my four years as an art student coming to a full circle.