After a semester of creativity and planning, BA design students’ blueprints have finally materialized.
The Panoply Design Show is the final hurdle for more than 70 design students who were enrolled in the BA Senior Project class. The show will be curated by senior design students featuring projects ranging from furniture pieces to high-concept, interactive productions.
After five months of research, critiques and panels, a group of faculty members handpicked 19 seniors out of the 70 in the class to display their crowning masterpieces. The selected students will present their works to industry professionals and designers outside of campus, who will comment on their work.
“[A panoply] is collection of things so impressive due to the quantity and diversity that make up the compiled work,” said Branigan Black, show Captain the head coordinator of Panoply.
Each of the students created panoplies of their own through works that were both functional and artistic, some with a “green” purpose and others just innovative and creative.
Branigan invented a new bottle to package Teavana’s line of ready-to-drink teas aimed at the millennial generation.
“No one is really interested in going out of their way to recycle,” he commented.
Branigan’s concept is made of starch plastic and soy-based ink, making the bottle completely biodegradable. The packaging also employs thermo-chromic plastic that will react and change colors to the drinker’s warm hands. The innovative lid also uses a pressurized air canister to deliver shots of natural sweetener allowing consumers to control the taste of their tea.
Another student, Phillip Huynh, whose design emphasis is in furniture, created “Fragment.” His project is a modular furniture system, which is intended to be a strong and lightweight shelf system that can hold magazines, clothes and vinyl records, and fold flat when not in use.
“It has an industrial feel to it, but the uses are endless,” Huynh said. “A larger scale version could be used in classrooms as cabinets, but I intended it for people living in small spaces like apartments,” he added.
Unlike industrial or interior design majors, the BA design program allows students to explore the design world and find their own path.
“The degree is flexible to the interests of each student,” said Jennifer Cadieux, the public relations captain for Panoply. “We were able to develop a project that suits our design style and exemplifies our strengths.”
Cadieux project, “Trapezium,” is a concept intended to engage the audience’s senses and shape their concert experience. “I love experiencing music and going to festivals, but I thought the stages were lacking,” Cadieux said.
She created a series of interactive, moving structures, which would use projection mapping to paint the sculpture with awe-inspiring images and graphics that move in sync with the music.
“When you create art, you speak a language not caring who understands it, but designers have to speak a language that people are going to understand and use,” Cadieux said.
The Panoply Design Show will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m, through Thursday in the Duncan Anderson gallery located in the Design Building.