Products Designed and Made by MICA's Graphic Design Students

In this interdisciplinary class, students took a do-it-yourself attitude to design and make collections of clothes and accessories that reflect their inspirations and passions. The outcome was a range of fresh products, from compartment jewelry to typographic lamps, from felt-flower-adorned t-shirts to graphic throw pillows. At the same time, students designed logos and brand identities for their products, and offered them for sale in varous ways.

Threaded through the work are ideas of repurposing and revival. Antonaccio recycles guitar strings into earrings; Hook and Loop, Cycle and Young Folk revisit traditions of crochet and quilting in fresh new ways. Students, it seems, have a collective urge to remember a time prior to their own: My Memory embellishes suspenders with the macrame of friendship bracelets, while Not For Got laser-engraves obsolete recording media onto wooden cuff links. Finally, there is a felt fascination with references from diverse spiritual practices; L(aura) yoga mats are illustrated with Hindu chakras, while Polymorph t-shirts draw inspiration from Maori tattoos.

The project was approached from a graphic design perspective, with special attention paid to the design of a logo and brand identity for each project. Students produced images to present their work to their intended audiences. The work was offered for sale at three venues: Art Market - a school-wide sale at MICA, The Shine Collective - Baltimore's trend-setting boutique, and Etsy.com - an online marketplace for hand-made goods. The Shine project, in particular, gave students an opportunity to work in a team to design, build and organize a month-long set-up of their work in the store, and celebrate it with an opening event on December 4, 2009.

Looking forward, the goal of Fashion Graphics is for graphic designers to envision themselves as form givers, problem solvers and producers, and to join forces with established makers and sellers in order to present projects on a larger scale. This class seeks to be a launching pad for entrepreneurial students looking to author their own products from the outset of their careers.

Fashion Graphics
Fall 2009
MICA - Maryland Institute College of Art

Faculty: Zvezdana Stojmirovic
Graduate Teaching Intern: Wesley Stuckey
Undergraduate Teaching Intern: Ben Bours

Special Thanks MICA Graphic Design Department
MICA Office of Research
Melissa Kirby of The Shine Collective

Website designed by Zvezdana Stojmirovic.
Fashion Graphics logo designed by Zvezdana Stojmirovic with Wesley Stuckey.