This semester, Marissa Maximo, Director of Concept and Color at Urban Outfitters, was invited to Philadelphia University for an 'Industry Project' with our current graduate students in Textile Design -
Objective: Study a textile product within a specific Home or Apparel company (Retail or Wholesale) from a design and business standpoint. Understand it's selling history and create an original textile collection that will meet the business needs of selling history, but at the same time be new and exciting.
'PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE FROM CONCEPT TO FINAL PRODUCT'
Objective: Study a textile product within a specific Home or Apparel company (Retail or Wholesale) from a design and business standpoint. Understand it's selling history and create an original textile collection that will meet the business needs of selling history, but at the same time be new and exciting.
Marissa met with the students four times through the semester, and held a final critique with all the Textile Design faculty this week.
Susan Smilek - pictured above - wrote:
'For the industry project with Marissa Maximo, we had to choose a company (or create our own) and create designs based on our target market and our customer base. The project included not only industry trend forecasting but also researching our own company and our competition. The other requirements were to put together a mood or concept board and report, which would lead to the development of 5-10 original designs.
I chose to create my own modular carpet company ModDesign whose introductory line was designed for children’s rooms. Modular carpets offer a greater degree of customization and allow the buyer to change the look of an area at minimal cost simply by rearranging carpet tiles.
My concept was inspired by nature, children’s books, modular furniture systems, and meeting the needs of the ever-changing family household. The motifs created consisted of simple renderings of bees, dragonflies, and ladybugs. The individual carpet tiles are intended to be interchangeable so that the customer could essentially create their own carpet pattern. The collection was entitled “My Own Backyard” and was meant to stir up images of the hidden, whimsical world of bugs and flowers that can be found in a family’s yard or garden.'
I chose to create my own modular carpet company ModDesign whose introductory line was designed for children’s rooms. Modular carpets offer a greater degree of customization and allow the buyer to change the look of an area at minimal cost simply by rearranging carpet tiles.
My concept was inspired by nature, children’s books, modular furniture systems, and meeting the needs of the ever-changing family household. The motifs created consisted of simple renderings of bees, dragonflies, and ladybugs. The individual carpet tiles are intended to be interchangeable so that the customer could essentially create their own carpet pattern. The collection was entitled “My Own Backyard” and was meant to stir up images of the hidden, whimsical world of bugs and flowers that can be found in a family’s yard or garden.'
Thank you to Marissa for adding an extra dimension to our program, and challenging our students with this project.
