MDes, University of Cincinnati, 2003, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Design

Home fashion, as it is sometimes called in the home furnishing industry, describes a fashion driven home furnishing collection. Over the past ten years, many fashion designers have been branching into the home product categories, under their fashion apparel brand label, as a way to create an image or brand identity around a lifestyle. Together with apparel fashion, home fashion products extend the mood of a fashion style from what we wear to how we 'dress', or decorate, our home interiors. Evidence in various research shows that our sensibility towards styles in fashion transcends our taste in interior decor; therefore, fashion theory can serve as a conceptual basis for the creation of a complete home fashion style. Contained in this thesis are the theory, design process and illustration of a collection of home fashion designs.

Committee: DR. MARGARET VOELKER-FERRIER (Advisor) Subjects: Design and Decorative Arts

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2006, History

Marianne Strengell overcame sexual stereotypes and established herself as a notable 20th century designer. The study considers Strengell's role as an educator at Cranbrook, innovator in cottage industry development, and active participant in design for architects and industry. Emigrating from Finland to the Detroit area in 1937, Strengell served as weaving instructor at Cranbrook Academy of Arts in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where she inspired numerous Cranbrook weavers who shaped textile design in America and abroad. Strengell pursued various projects outside of the Academy, including the development of a cottage industry in the Philippines. During the 1940s and 1950s Strengell worked with several architects and industrial designers and designed woven car upholstery fabrics. Research methods for this thesis included archival research at Cranbrook Archives, as well as readings in published books, articles, and reports on related topics: woman designers in the United States, Scandinavian immigrants, and Cranbrook artists.

Committee: Douglas Forsyth (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 1968, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

MS, Kent State University, 2022, College of Architecture and Environmental Design

Hybrid structural systems constitute a broad field that expands design exploration toward non-euclidean geometries with double curvature surfaces and lightweight components. The BeTA pavilion is a structural assembly integrating biotensegrity principles with bending-active and form-active components. It constitutes a complex hybrid system due to the high interdependence between its members to assemble and achieve the desired equilibrium and stiffness. Thus, textiles are employed as an active structural component rather than skin, a quality that also challenges the effective control and prediction of the pavilion's structural behavior and final geometry. This thesis aims to develop an integrated platform as an efficient design approach and to predict structural behaviors of hybrid textile systems by exploring the BeTA Pavilion. Existing computational platforms are investigated to identify an effective and efficient workflow that supports an iterative design process for modular hybrid textile components. This research employed physical and digital modeling using Rhino+Grasshoper+Python+Kiwi3D! interface. It was performed in four exploration phases: modules, global geometry, arrangement, and textiles. Each phase was congruent with the design and building process of the BeTA pavilion; however, its application extended toward the development of any hybrid textile structure that combines bending and form-active components. The exploration employed the actual material properties of the BeTA pavilion's components. The study found that it is feasible to control the global geometry of a hybrid textile structure with modular components. Also, It has been found that each new configuration of the knitting influences the mechanical properties of the knitted textile from a linear to a nonlinear structural behavior parallel and perpendicular to the stitch pattern. Thus, even though the textile's mechanical properties can be introduced in the proposed workflow, they should no (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Rui Liu (Advisor); Linda Ohrn-McDaniel (Committee Member); Diane Davis-Sikora (Committee Member) Subjects: Architectural; Architecture

BFA, Kent State University, 2018, College of the Arts / School of Fashion

The research and visual experimentations included in Female Friendship: Strength Found Through Support explore the evolving nature of female friendships and the impact that friendships have on a female's life––in the form of an seven look fashion collection. The most intimate and tenuous relationships in a woman's life are typically with her female friends. With the integration of the Internet and social media into twenty-first century human interactions and friendships, there is a considerable amount of research to uncover in the nature of relationships. The following research touches upon the psychology in female friendships, and what has changed in the dynamics of friendship in the last several centuries. After researching visual iterations of female friendships, the continuous repeated image of various girls and women braiding each other's hair, throughout many cultures, was interpreted in a hand-sewn smocking technique throughout the collection to mimic a braid. A girlish childhood symbol of friendship, the “friendship bracelet”, is researched and included in a textile exploration in the form of hand drawn/designed laser cut acrylic pieces and hand woven bracelet ties that create a colorful, tactile textile relating friendship to memory and childhood. The conclusive visual research within the collection is illustrated in a literal, visual compilation of a fabric print composed of hand-written personal experiences and accounts from sixteen women that I surveyed, entailing varying excerpts of the many experiences with the female friendships in their lives, printed on different fabrics and included in many different pieces of the collection.

Committee: Linda Ohrn (Advisor); Sara Snyder (Committee Member); Janice Yoder (Committee Member); Brett Tippey (Committee Member) Subjects: Design; Fine Arts; Textile Research

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1985, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Fine Arts

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1975, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Home Economics

BS, Kent State University, 2014, College of the Arts / School of Fashion

A creative project consisting of a fashion women's wear collection for the summer/spring 2014 season inspired by the artwork of Henri Matisse. Contains relevant information on how the collection came to life, including a chapter about Henri Matisse's life and his own design inspirations, research about the season’s trends, other sources of inspiration (including fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and artist Sonia Delaunay), the chosen printing process to create the prints that make up the garments, and the presentation of the garments, which is accompanied with brief individual explanations for each one of the 19 looks that make up the collection. Each look was inspired by a different Matisse art piece, which served as an influence for both the silhouette of the design as well as the print that appears on the garment.

Committee: Jean Druesedow (Advisor); Gianna Commito (Committee Member); Trista Grieder (Committee Member) Subjects: Design; Fine Arts

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2012, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture

Those in power have traditionally defined the historical narrative in a tangible way, with monuments and physical symbols of culture. Those without the resources to build leave only traces of their narrative behind; these traces may become harder to discern as those who created them fade into the past. These fragments left behind in an urban fabric are accumulated and their organization lends itself to the framing of an overlooked narrative. The archive is a physical manifestation of the processing of these fragments. The works of John Soane, Carlo Scarpa, and Peter Zumthor, in addition to the writings of Alois Riegl, Michel Foucault, and Rem Koolhaas, address a means of working with the fragment in architecture and history. Within the structure of the archive, there are three ways of working with fragments. First is a chronological, layered approach, focusing on the origin of the fragment. Second, the fragments may be sorted and classified according to their similarities or differences, focusing on typologies. Lastly, the fragments may be combined in a way that crafts a fictional narrative that presents history as it never truly existed. Through an examination of the methodologies of archiving, a framework can be developed for the appropriation of fragments, both tangible and intangible, in Philadelphia's Old City. This framework will structure the crafting of the overlooked history of Philadelphia's industrial workers during the nineteenth century.

Committee: Aarati Kanekar PhD (Committee Chair); Michael McInturf MARCH (Committee Member) Subjects: Architecture

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2010, Industrial, Interior Visual Communication Design

This thesis will attempt to identify the importance of a designer in encouraging consumers to use creativity in repurposing textiles. Through the 1920s- 1950s in America designers helped encourage fun, stylish, and easy repurposing of textile bags. This background will provide useful inspiration for how these methods can evolve to current day practices. Fast fashion is a major component in textile waste and is driving consumers to want the newest wardrobes long before the garments are worn out. This barely worn clothing is designed without any additional purposes for after it's planned life cycle. I propose an approach to designing repurposed garments based on co-creative design methodologies. Participatory design methodologies will be used to learn about how participants feel creative, how they are creative with their clothing, and how they wish to be creative with their clothing. Further, I plan to create future opportunities for new design systems that engage consumers in repurposing their garments.

Committee: Tony Reynaldo (Advisor); Elizabeth B.-N. Sanders PhD (Committee Member); Paul Nini (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

MFA, Kent State University, 2009, College of the Arts / School of Art

A series of five fabrics, printed by hand and then hung, is draped or installed in space in different ways. The goal in developing this body work was to juxtapose surface pattern with a physical object. The surface patterning is created through the use of two motifs which are in a triangular format in order to maximize the amount of arrangements possible. One motif is created with drawn lines and the other with black electrical tape on acetate. Surface patterning is formulated in an unsystematic, serendipitous way. Surface embellishment is used to cover, enhance or fill space, which then creates different shapes. A composition with a balance of elements that uses pattern to create a field of activity contrasted with solidity is ultimately the goal. The objects in the series are, at first, displayed in a more regular, banner like format but become more sculptural and non-representational as the series progresses. The physical plane of the cloth is manipulated in ways that are greatly influenced by fashion and interior design. Pleating and draping techniques, commonly used for apparel and furnishing fabrics are used to physically transform each piece into a peculiar, undefined object.

Committee: Janice Lessman-Moss (Advisor); Michael Loderstedt (Committee Member); Robin Haller (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Art History; Design; Fine Arts; Materials Science; Museums; Textile Research; Theater