Rough Product Ideas

Napkins

"DON'T RESIST" NAPKIN

Resist-dyeing methods are some of the most basic techniques for patterning textiles. Parts of the textile are concealed, either by clamping, stitching, covering in wax, or tying, as the material is exposed to a colouring agent.

Here, we view the dining table as a resource for dyes. The diner is asked to conspire in patterning napkins by donating the natural food colourings to their napkin. Throughout the meal, they transfer ingredients from their chins to the napkin. Their napkin has been constructed in such a way that at the end of the evening, they can unfold it (or unstich, untie, or open it) to see the design effects of their messiness. This is a cheeky reference to our parents' tie-dying phase, full of wonder at very basic crafting techniques and mutual admiration for the results.

"TRANSFORMER" NAPKIN

Imagine napkins with seemingly random shapes and lines, yet when folded in a certain way to illustrated instructions beautiful figures and patterns appear. Think MAD Magazine's back cover, drawn up by textile designers.

I like the idea of a different course relating to a different set of folds. Perhaps the napkins are at first rolled or pleated and as they are unfolded as people use them a message or pattern appear relating the dish or experience they are having. Could be controversial - eco, organic, famine etc. Create something that would lead people to really think about what they are eating, doing, food wastage. The patterns could relate to food, New York, London or just be decorative.

"FRANKENSTEIN" NAPKIN

Sometimes, a white napkin gets too dirty. You might want a black napkin. But a black napkin might disguise some gloopy ketchup that will sneak its way onto your skirt. Maybe you just want a paper napkin, but then again, is it strong enough to wipe up that soup spill? Why do we only get one kind of napkin for an entire menu?

The Frankenstein napkin in a kind of Swiss Army Knife of wiping, giving diners a "toolkit" of materials to call on for their particular mess.

"DRY CLEANING" NAPKIN

Paper napkins are famously disposable. The barrista behind the register at Starbucks probably just shoved a handful into your take away bag, even though you only ordered a muffin. They seem to proliferate in our lives, showing up in our purses, our cars, and finally our trash cans. We begin to feel guilty....

This idea challenges our relationship to paper napkins. The napkins are hand-sewn into miniature tuxedo jackets. It's a surreal experience for the finger-food diner as they wipe their greasy hands on a handmade tailored suit (haha, a kind of glorious moment for these people who are obviously excluded from the suit jacket set eating in a fine restaurant). While they might think twice about trashing this delicate napkin, we are asking them to go ahead and do it anyway. They're elevated to the status of "imporant guests" for whom we will provide labor-intensive ephemerality. It's for them to enjoy!

"SECONDHANDWIPE" NAPKIN

This idea would provide some storytelling and provide an emotional link and talking point to archived materials.

We would send each designer out with a small budget to search second hand and charity shops for interesting textiles. After cutting down into a napkin size, the designer would then individualise the textile with printing or handcrafting. Each designer would attach a label with stories, memories etc about the fabric's history and the designer's individual response to their choice.. We would hope this would spark conversation and spark memories with the diners too.

"RUBIKS CUBE" NAPKIN

A puzzle and an education tool in the same napkin!

Have fun and learn good manners with a colourful napkin that teaches you to fold it in the right way.

NAPKIN MENU

Diners select the napkin they want to have. This could be expanded in a number of ways. You could provide the diners, as they are seated, with a formal, leather-bound menu (i.e. wine menu) from which they choose the type of napkin most suited to the material of their dinner (as opposed to the taste of it, which determines the wine) and the quality most suited to their budget (i know they won't be paying, but it would reinforce the wine metaphor)

Or, the menu could give diners the chance to choose from a variety of napkin games (maye all of the other proposals) or from a variety of 8 patterns (one design by each of the puff&flock people)

Placemat

"PLACEMAP" PLACEMAT

What appears to be a plain black placemat transforms into a secret guide to a city. It would be a map of part of one of our cities - NY, London, Paris, SF, and Copenhagen. The city that is revealed could relate to something else in the dining experience. For instance, you could think of the restaurant as a world map, and those seated in the areas that coordinate most closely with Copenhagen, for instance, would have the Copenhagen maps hidden in their placemats.

Espresso Cups

"DID YOU KNOW..." ESPRESSO CUPS

After the diner selects their dessert, they are served coffee.

The set of coffee cups would be designed to reflect the variety of dessert offerings in some way. They would be printed with a set of maps that reflect the origins of the dessert recipes, or with a key ingredient from the dessert recipes. That pattern would be hidden by a layer of thermochromic glaze which disappears when the hot coffee is poured and reveals the pattern. The diners would compare their different prints and it would be a way of expanding the narrative of their food choice.

Puff&Flock Original Fabric Materials

Woven light

Kathy Schicker is a skilled weaver who has been exploring all the available avenues to integrating luminescence into the fabric structure, and even developing some new avenues of her own. Her collection includes solar reactive, UV reactive, fiber optic, phosphorescent, reflective, and flourescent textiles - all handwoven.

Woven metal

Melissa French has created some very strong metal sheets by bonding copper, steel, and silver wires through traditional weaving techniques. Thanks to the chemical composition of the "fibers", she is able to harness the environmental reactivity of metals (oxidation, patina, rust, etc) as a kind of "printing" process. The result is a jarring juxtaposition between the hardness of an industrial material like metal and the delicacy of jacquard woven pattern.

In particular, woven copper placemats could be interesting. Think of the bright "stains" left under a glass of lemon water when the acidity bleaches out the tarnish on a copper tabletop.

Creature comfort fabric

Amelie Labarthe opens up a playful world of fun through her Creature Comforts textile products. Her mess-eater wallpaper transforms the hard, impenetrable surface of a wall into an elastic membrane with hidden pouch bubbles that you can stuff your clutter into. Her forget-me-knot scarf is covered in eyes and holes, and you can spend hours twisting it around to create various characters. Her plushions are a hybrid between a low-tech fischer price robot and a beanbag. They come to life with simple mechanisms, like unzipping the mouth to reveal a big pocket with a tongue inside or using the body heat of your hands to activate the thermochromic eyes. Underlying all of Amelie's work is an understanding of the precious bonds that we have with our most treasure childhood keepsakes.

Modular shading material

Jo's fascination with the visual effect of cast sunlight inspired this odd light shade material. It is modular. Each unit consists of two layers - a coloured translucent plastic "screen" backed by a concave sheet of ply. The ply has been lasercut to have a pattern of holes in it, and when light seeps through the holes, it is projected onto the "screen". Throughout the day, as the angle of the sun wanders, the projection slowly moves on the screen. This sublime effect captures our attention. As a bonus, the longer we stay to watch the projection move, the less time we spend in the skin-damaging sunlight!

Inflatables

Elisabeth Buecher treads the line between artist and designer. Her work presents us with provocative solutions to the problem of water shortage. She has developed a knowledge of inflatable textiles, which she uses to create a sense of theatre in each product. In her world, an overlooked shower curtain has the power to subvert shower lingerers. After four minutes in the shower, it begins to slowly expand, eventually attacking the offender with its threatening long spikes.

Recycled felt

Aysseline Roy has developed relationships with felt manufacturers as well as industrial wool yarn spinners. Her aim is to link the consumer with various fiber processors in order to encourage recycling. Some of her pieces use virgin wool, but in a way that maintains their suitability for recycling. Others of her pieces are very clever upcyclings of recycled felt, whose dull appearance has historically been an insurpassable aesthetic barrier.

Thermochromic

As a group, we have access to a variety of "smart" textile ingredients. Among this selection, thermochromic inks are particularly interesting for this project. Since they disappear upon contact with heat, the typical meal, with all of its hot plates, bowls, and cups, could potentially activate a material printed with thermochromic ink. The sequence of courses could determine the pattern, so that a story unfolds during the night.

Charity shop

London's secondhand materials reflect its identity as a city. By sourcing materials here, we could present New Yorkers with an intimate picture of another city, strengthening the comraderie between these two urban communities.

Layered table

Like a puzzle made of stacks of paper, Aurelie's tabletop is designed to engage our curiousity. Diners create unique surfaces by choosing the configuration of their tabletop pattern. Some people might prefer a uniform surface, where all the pieces fit tofether to create a pattern. Others might prefer an eclectic approach. Aurelie also makes wallpapers with parts that can be lifted up or torn away.

I think her idea of a layered table surface could be downsized to placemats.

Magnetic fabric

Jenny Leary is exploring the potential of magnetic fields in all aspect of textiles, from pattern making to enabling new techniques. Through this broad lens, she has developed materials such as "automatic tiles" (gauze-like leaves of soft iron that lend a reconfigurable surface to walls) and the "magnetizing glass" (a world of illustrations or words that are hidden just below the surface, and eerily revealed when a small lens is passed over).