Concrete Wardrobe

 This a shop based in Edinburgh with really interesting pieces in it, which is co-owned by James Donald and Fiona McIntosh . Pop in if you are passing by. Check out the facebook link which is below to see designs, I hope it will knock your socks off:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Concrete-Wardrobe/97177794380?sk=wall

Weave, Weave, Weave....

Doing research into James Donald, a weaver. I feel that it is important to also look at others in a simliar discipline and see what they are doing. So I did my homework so to speak and looked up other weavers and their work. I found quiet a list. I am going to leave some of their names and links to information to them, so  you can look at if you wish:

http://www.theweaveshed.org/172/margo-selby-publication/
Margo Selby

http://www.caa.org.uk/exhibitions/archive/2003/bob-crooks-and-ptolemy-mann/ptolemy-mann.html Ptomlemy Mann

http://web.mac.com/charlottegrierson/www.charlottegrierson.com/Experimental_Work.html
Charlotte Grierson

http://www.isminisamanidou.com/
Ismini saminidou

http://laurathomaswoventextiles.blogspot.com/
Laura Thomas

http://www.rickettsindigo.com/chinami/ChinamiTextiles.html
Chinami Ricketts

I feel looking at others work to be a great inspiration, as it can help you with your own work and help to develop you as a designer, regardless of what your discipline is.

A Few Facts about the designer James Donald:

James Donald:

Currently:

Co-Owner at Concrete Wardrobe

PT Lecturer at Dundee College 1997- present 

Designer/Maker at PickOne

Past:

Designer Maker at National Museums of Scotland 

Weave Tutor at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art

Student at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art

Education: Duncan Of Jordanstone

Design in the Market... Why?

In a lecture I had earlier in the week, we were asked, why we were doing what we are doing. This got me thinking. I am doing textiles firstly and simply because I enjoy it, but another aspect of design that intriuges me is that I want to design, in order to help people and to help improve their lives. I am very interested inhelping others and making people around me happy, I get a great satisfaction out of that when I suceed. I feel I need to broaden my horizons in my design field and perhaps dabble in another discipline, in order to survive in the design world.
Another part of me would love to be  running  a textiles/fashion business. Being in management of an important company making the contacts, negiotiating good deals, doing presentations, holding meetings, making decisions and ideally helping to make alot of money.
Who knows what the future will hold for me, only time will tell...

Desginer Reasearch: James Donald

In my group for design and the market we have decided to look at the Weaver James Donald, however he puts his hand into other disciplines too, not just weave. However particularly in today's climate, it seems you have to be a more versatile designer in order to be a sucess. You have to strike the right balance between being a "jack of all trades" and "pigeon-holing" yourself.

Here is a link to his site Pick One, so you can check out his designs:

http://www.pickone.co.uk/

I love how his inspirations for his designs have come from nature, I feel it helps to give them an organic feel to them.

An innovative piece of design...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEWleweyiuU&feature=colike

 This video demonstartes a concept that I helped in the process of developing. It uses the idea of scent and smell to enable sniffer dogs to track down a theif when they have broken into your home. The team consisted of myself, Sam Key, Lucy Robertson, Kyle Jackson and Duncan Perkins. I hope you enjoy this video that has comic effect but could also be used for security with a few tweeks here and there. Enjoy Folks!

selective attention test

During the summer holidays I read a rather insightful book called the invisible gorrilla the video above here demostrates one of the points made in the book. Watch carefully and count how many times the people in the white shirts pass the ball to each other before reading on....

Did anybody see the Gorrilla? When I first watched this clip I did. But not everyone does. It doesnt mean anything where you do or you don't. However it is shown that if some people aren't expecting to see something they might miss it.