This spring term I took the elusive Sustainable Outdoor Transport PD485 studio co-taught by Taylor Winegar and Jessica Swanson. This studio had a whopping 20 ish students and no one knew how this class was going to go. When the first day of class was a lecture on lucid dreaming, I was seriously confused what the hell I signed up for.
I am used to rigidity and structure. Everything has a place, every assignment has a purpose, every ideated sketch contributes to the final product. This is a learned behavior from the weekly assignments, order of operation checklists, and consistency I have found in Tom Bonamici's, the Arndts', and the Seleks' teaching style. I know how to play the court and turn everything in without fear of whether or not I "met the brief". This class was quite a wake up call.
With virtually no structure, this class started with a broad discussion on sustainability and how we sleep as college students. I was told to track my carbon emissions and transportation for 14 days the first two weeks of school and see how close to zero I could get. I am not the most sustainable person. I will admit that. This assignment was a serious perspective shift on just how dependent I am on my car. I go to the gym at 9 am and the idea of walking the 23 minute walk to rec at 8:30 am does not appeal to me. On top of this I stacked my MW schedule this term to work out at 9 am, go to BA317 at 10 am, go to HC441 at 2, and finish the day off with History of Design at 4 pm.
I was also told to track my dreams for these two weeks and try different lucid dreaming methods to attempt ideating while sleeping. Typically, I only dream about my Product Design projects when I've been locked up in the sowing studio for 10-12 hours in a day. Something about staring at a sowing machine and seam ripper from sun up to sun down brings these dreams. But this time it was so early in the term I had to try a different method.
Picture this:
Baby Saachi is on a beach in San Diego with my lovely mom and dad. My younger sister is about 2 years of age putting me at about 7 years old. We are building a sand castle with sea shell and rock decorations on the exterior. There is sand all over our hands and hair. My dad is on his knees digging into the beach with a kid-sized red plastic shovel and my mom has her big round sunglasses on. Life is good. I put the shells and rocks in my dad cargo pockets when we are done at the beach. We pack up and go home all warm and red from the sun.
This was my dream some night of Week 2 after trying simple statement dreaming tactics. I don't know where it came from but it inspired my entire rest of the term project. The feeling of discovering all colored and textured shells and rocks has been a common experience with mostly all children experiencing the outdoors. I wanted to create something that was playful, cleanable, easy-to-use, and meant for kids to get outside. Taylor and Jessica let us handle the order of operations schedule of our products all on our own. We got to pick what parts of the ideation process we wanted to do. For me, I always start with some mood board creation.
Primary colors and fishes was the vibe.
Next was ideation sketches, here we were encouraged to get roughly 100 drawings completed just to mess around with different ideas, colors, forms, and functions.
Next was prototyping and patterning. I have never in my life made something organic or sculptural with sewing so this was obviously going to be a new challenge for me. I had the idea of creating side panels with some photos of whale sharks I found and then measuring the bottom perimeter to create a belly panel. After 13 full scale prototypes, I developed a fish shaped double inverted pouch with zipper running down the center of the bottom belly panel and webbing loops for adjustable strap. I took many trips to local thrift stores with Tyler Furtado and found all the materials for my final prototypes. Fabric scraps at Mecca of orangey red, golden yellow, and vibrant blue made with a slight two-way stretch and super soft feel was the final fabric decisions. The color palette felt playful, bright, and welcoming.
Early into the construction of the final set of bags, I figured out the warm-white fabric I picked for the belly panels and interior lining frayed like nothing I've seen before.
There was no way to fix this beside careful construction which meant spending around 36 hours in the studio. The first two red prototypes I made did not result in something I was proud enough to call a final due to this fraying so I spent an extra few days essentially living at the studio to make up for lost time.
My younger sister got out of school for the summer super early and came to visit the week of memorial day long weekend. I wanted to be done with my final set of bags before then so we could take them for a test drive at our favorite beach in Florence, OR when she got into town.
Finishing the physical work by Week 8 was perfect timing. I was able to study for and ace my Marketing midterm Week 9, sit and focus on my 19 page proposal paper regarding the Deep Horizon Oil Spill Week 10, and still enjoy my time with my friends as we all wrap up our junior year and go to our separate places for summer.
I got some awesome shots of the bags with Tyler Furtado and Olivia Cleary and put everything together well before the deadline. My favorite OfficeMax printshop friend (Greg) helped me get the book printed and review was Friday of Week 10.
It felt good to hear the amount of interest in the bags. It seemed like people no matter the age connected with the spirit of exploring the big vast outdoors as a kid. Back when everything feels so new and so exciting.
My biggest win of this term was that Wonhee Arndt came by my table at review and showed me the sweetest video of her kid wearing one of my blue fish bags on a hike. He was putting little wildflowers and leaves into his pouch. If you know Wonhee, you know how specific her eye for design is. She has easily been one of the most intimidating professors in this program over the last three years so seeing her and her son enjoy my product was the best feeling I could receive from this work.
I will be making even more of these (after giving out the 10 I have) and selling them on instagram here and there so if you want a fun little fish pouch for you or yours keep an eye out. It is such a joy seeing so many people interesting in gifting their kids these bags and getting them involved in the outdoors. Being outside is the healthiest habit to build.
I am officially a senior and will be commuting between Portland and Eugene next fall term. I will be taking the Footwear Studio with Tom Bonamici and Lindsey Johnson where hopefully (finger crossed) me and Tyler Furtado get to collaborate and do a duo project. I'll also be finishing my Sports Business minor with SBUS 456. Lastly, I'll be starting my thesis research this summer as the Color and Material Intern for Adidas up at the NAHQ.
Every season this year has brought me a new opportunity to be excited for. I am just SO grateful for the people and the chances being given to me lately!
As always thank you for reading. Now go outside, enjoy the sun, and have a good summer!
Saachi Poddar
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