Workshop about the integration of digital technologies in handweaving

“Hello my name is Esther van Schuylenbergh and I am based in Bruges in Belgium. As a freelance textile designer, my main activity consists of designing woven interior textiles for the industry. As I have a hands-on design approach, I work closely with weaving mills to develop new textures and patterns of high-end materials. Additionally, I work on self-initiated projects in which I like to push the boundaries of traditional weaving techniques, and explore three-dimensional constructions. At Design PF, I gave an introductory workshop to both staff and students on weaving technique and various software programs. Our focus extended to the integration of digital technologies within the handweaving process, and investigating the potential of multi-layered weave constructions, envisioning their role in sustainable fabric production and the optimization of manufacturing processes.

I started my career by presenting handwoven samples to manufacturers at international textile fairs. By weaving hundreds of samples on my handloom I gained an extensive technical understanding of woven constructions. This journey equipped me with a unique skill set which enabled me to drive innovation within the industry."

# digital integration

# handweaving

# sustainable production

Lecture about “The future of marzipan” for Visuelle Kommunikation

“My name is Martí Guixé, and I split my time between Barcelona and Berlin while also teaching in Milan. My background is in interior and industrial design, but my work spans many areas, including food design, graphic design, illustration, interiors, products, and books. Since 1997, I have been exploring Food Design as a discipline, focusing on generating ideas and concepts by approaching design from an abstract perspective.

At Pforzheim, I hold a lecture as part of a project in collaboration with the marzipan manufacturer Liebenzeller. We explore how to reinterpret marzipan, making it desirable for younger, global audiences. The aim is to apply design methodologies that encourage thinking in entirely new directions while staying focused on food design.”

#food design

#marzipan

#conceptual thinking

Digital Blender Workshop

“My name is Joshua Bour and I am a teacher of digital fashion design and digital tools implementation at the Amsterdam Fashion Institute (AMFI), I also live in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At Design PF, I teach a digital workshop introducing students of second and third year to Blender, a 3D tool used for modelling, 3D printing, photorealistic rendering among many other things. In my workshop I take the students through the program and take them from 0 knowledge to understanding the main principles of the software. In my most recent workshop with the students we started off by getting to know the UI of blender, then we modelled a ring, textured, and rendered it according to scale so it could be 3D printed if desired. After this we started with a reference image and modelled a custom sneaker in 3D, textured it, and made a render.

I have been specializing in 3D since my second year of study, since then I have done an internship as a 3D digital design intern at G-star RAW and have been teaching digital design at AMFI for the past 3 years. In my role as a teacher I have been able to continue learning myself and gaining a deep understanding of the digital tools I teach as every student comes with a unique problem even if it’s the same workflow.”

# blender
# 3d modelling
# digital fashion design
# rendering

“Design and make your own Sneaker” workshop during the workshop days

"My name is Roderick Pieters, I live in Arnhem, The Netherlands. I work as a Footwear Designer and Entrepreneur, and I founded SneakerKit @sneakerkit. That’s also what I used as a basis for my two-day workshop, which took place during the workshopdays. The students were able to design own shoes with my SneakerKit. The making process of each shoe is a mindful activity. Wearing a handmade shoe makes you proud, because you made it yourself. When one part is worn out you will be able to repair it. This method is much more environmentally friendly, because the shoes will not be shipped all over the planet and you won't contribute to the shoe industry's unhealthy working conditions.

I have 13 years experience with being a freelance footwear designer; I worked for several international brands and cofounded the Japanese DIY brand Loper shoes and the slipper brand Bill Ringa which is located in the Netherlands. I started teaching comparable sneaker workshops in 2012."

# shoe design
# footwear
# handmade shoe
# sustainibility

Drawing workshop for Katapult, ‘Drawing and the Imagination’

„My name is Chloe Briggs (@drawingisfree_org), I run an Online Foundation course at Paris College of Art where I teach online and in person, and I have created a company called ,Drawing is Free’ where I create educational materials, workshops, and events to encourage people to draw. In my workshop for Katapult, ‘Drawing and the Imagination’, we explored, questioned and worked through a series of drawing prompts designed to activate our imaginations. And we embraced what it is to PLAY.
I think in drawing one can never call oneself an expert. Drawing is always humble, always teaching us things, always on the way somewhere and requires dedicated practice. If anything, I am an expert in how to accept this process and encourage others to fearlessly do the same.“

# free drawing
# creativity
# imagination
# playing
# dedicated practice

Workshops 'Design Between the Disciplines', '2nd Life of Leather Goods'

„My name is Annette Weisser and I currently live in Fécamp, France. I work as a designer and am the managing director of AWA-Studio. In Pforzheim, I lead the impulse workshop “The second life of leather goods” for accessory design students. Here they learn how to repair and personalize leather items with polyvalent design elements. In practical work, they then tried out various stitching and crocheting techniques. I graduated with a degree in fashion from the university here in 2001 and now focus on upcycling in the textile and leather sector and work on alternative repair methods.“ annetteweisser.com

# inter- and transdisciplinarity designwork
# challenges, obstacles and difficulties
# best-practice collaborations
# required skills

Lecture 'The Art of Simplicity: How Scandinavian Design Shapes Volvo Cars'

„My name is Katharina Sachs (@katharinasachs), I come from Bavaria and now live in Gothenburg, Sweden. In my lecture, I introduced the transportation design students to the world of Volvo. The brand's design is closely linked to Swedish history, architecture, and lifestyle: simple, clear, and minimalist. I studied in Pforzheim myself and it was nice to be back here again. At Volvo, the C40 was my first big project, a facelift. After that, I worked on the facelift for the XC40, and in June 2023, a new small SUV will be released that is a completely new character in our line-up. I have been with Volvo for six years and previously completed internships at VW and BMW.“

# exterior design
# concept phase
# clay modelling
# scandinavian design

Workshop 'Fashion & Brand & Contemporary Concepts'

„My name is Bernhard Allner, and I live in Paris. I studied fashion design in Trier and at Parsons School of Design in New York. As a qualified fashion designer, I work as a freelance consultant in the fields of design, merchandising, and sales. I share my experience on the topic of “Fashion & Brand” with 6th semester fashion students. The students learn the definition and classification of these terms and, at the same time, how to classify their own creative DNA and future placement in the industry. In a case study, they examine the terms fashion & brand, which they re-evaluate, analyze, and discuss. It is important to illustrate structures and boundaries in order to define and position oneself convincingly as a future fashion designer. In my 30 years as a fashion designer, I have found that the field of fashion design can range from classic design work to corporate consulting for work structures, positioning, and sales.“

# project brief
# design concept
# diversity & inclusion
# understanding criticism
# new approaches to design and fashion thinking  

Workshops 'Memory between Art and Design'

„Hello, my name is Ildikó Dánfalvi, I come from Hungary and live in Germany and Hungary. I am currently a freelance artist focusing on jewelry. I am here because I am leading four workshops on the theme of “memory” in the art department for semesters 1-7 of all degree programs. Each participant brings a personal item that is memorable to them. The independent work then involves translating this memory into art and giving the personal story a new form. I completed my degree in fine arts in the jewelry department and have remained focused on jewelry. But I also draw a lot, make collages, and do printmaking... I am interested in the relationship between image and object.“ ildikodanfalvi.com 

# discursive perception of memory
# understanding professional practice
# communicate creative processes
# new means of expression
# exploration of remembrance
 

Lecture & discussion within the framework of 'KoKi zockt' with Prof. Dr. Thomas Hensel 

„I am Leonhard Müllner from Vienna. I work as a media researcher and filmmaker. During my visit to the university, I spoke about topics such as Marxist criticism of the imagery used in video games and about the collective ‘Total Refusal’, which I co-founded. totalrefusal. I gain my specialist knowledge through media research and media art, and through artistic appropriation strategies for video games."
The open collective ‘Total Refusal’ criticizes existing gaming practices and opens up a new perspective with tools for appropriating and repurposing game resources. Since its founding in 2018, it has been awarded 27 prizes.

# sisyphus machines & computer games
# detournement as an artistic strategy
# role & impact of computer games
# semiotical twists & visual re-coding,
# critical forms of visual communication in a hypermedia world

Workshop 'Sustainability' 

„My name is Miriam May, I live in Bregenz/Lindau and work as a Sustainability Manager at Wolford AG. I am here at the university to teach the 1st and 4th semesters of the Fashion degree program. I teach students how sustainability is making an impact in the textile industry and we talk about challenges and opportunities. I gained my specialist knowledge on these topics through my training as a Sustainability Manager and my many years of experience in the textile industry.“

# sustainability
# textile industry
# fashion jobs

Workshop in Conceptual Design Approaches, Contextual Design Development

„I am Lucas Maethger (@Lucas_maethger), originally from Chemnitz, but currently living in Pantin near Paris. I head the Fashion Department at the Paris College of Arts and am conducting a workshop on development and concept here in Pforzheim with first-semester fashion students. We focus on design thinking and concept development, with students working on the design of referential and abstract creative development in the fashion industry. I have over 10 years of teaching experience at SCAD, Savannah College of Art and Design in the USA in the field of experience and program development, and at PCA.“

# think, work and design with altered perceptions, changing perspectives and paradigm shifts
# personal observations and subjective interpretations
# culture-based coding & deciphering
# shapes, silhouettes and looks
# narrative design concepts
# challenges to face complexity and the unknown 

Talk about Trend Research & Forecasting

"Hello, my name is Anneloes Ouwehand  and I live in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. My job is to work as a marketing manager & product developer at UNTAG. I have a background in trend forecasting and design. I'm here for a lecture, in which I talk about forceasting and give insights into researching where trends come from, how to spot them, and how to implement them in your own design process. Because trends seem to pop up out of nowhere, but if you know how to look, you can spot them a mile away. I'm also still here to lead a workshop for the Accessory Design students to bring their mood boards into the design world of UNTAG. They will sketch some ideas, and in the second part of the workshop they will work in teams to create mock-ups of their sketches. Students will learn with me to explore their own conceptual thinking and see how they can implement their own concepts for other brands or disciplines. They explore gender expression through accessory design and create gender-specific objects. Thanks to my extensive experience in trend forecasting and design, as well as my master's degree in consumer marketing, I have a wealth of knowledge about trends and how to use them to create designs that consumers are actually looking for."

# trend research & forecasting
# trend spotting
# sketch, mockup, present
# gender expression

Seminar “Medial Thinking,” lecture and discussion with students on the topic of “transdisciplinary research with image archives”

"My name is Anika Schwarzlose, and I conduct research on collaborative production cycles—specifically on the function of archives, the repurposing of images, and reproduction techniques.
Using photo installations, video works, and films, I examine photographic and photography-related recording media, in particular the influence of the distribution, adaptation, and composition of images on the socio-political narratives they disseminate. I am currently exploring ideas about the connection between the biosphere, geosphere, and technosphere; kinship relationships between humans and minerals; machines as a technogenic impulse for evolutionary developments; and metabolic connections between life and non-life. In my talk, we discussed the relationship between experimental photographic methods and socio-political processes, using examples from my work."

# media art
# research
# photo, video, film
# socio-political narratives
# biosphere, geosphere and technosphere

Lecture and Workshop

"Hello, my name is Nicolo Giusti and I am from Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Currently, I work as Sourcing & Production Director at Tommy Hilfiger, at the same time, I founded SustainableAcademy.org. In our session, we went into the most significant taboo of sustainability in fashion: DURABILITY.  How can the fashion industry produce more durable products while maintaining profitability, and what might be the future business model for the fashion industry? A big part of the lecture was exploring materials and weighing their pros and cons to determine if and how we should incorporate them. Our discussion was not a one-way lecture; it was an open dialogue because sustainability is not a standardized concept but rather something subjective. To deepen the students' understanding, we played in a workshop where the students had to identify materials first visually and then blindly, relying on touch, smell, and sound. In the end, it all boils down to our senses.

I worked for 17 years in fashion across different high hand companies, but also material producer and premium brands. My role has started from material research and with the time moved into innovation, sustainability and sourcing."

#sustainability

#sustainable fashion

#materials