missie ma design

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Illumination Project - Afterlife - Frozen Time

Hi everyone!

Here comes another project for illumination class. The topic is "afterlife", my partner and I chose to make an installation which "freezes" time.

Basically, we got some strobe lights and a bunch of water bottles poked with holes and tied with strings. The idea is that when water drops out from the hole onto the string, it looks like its frozen in the air with strobe lights flashing at the same pace as the water drops.

We set up a long piece of wood drilled with holes which are for the water bottles and put it onto the beam of the ceiling with wires holding it.

After putting it up, we tried to put water bottles into the holes and see how fast the water drops. We found out that the water was dropping too slowly and it might have something to do with the air, so we decided to drilled a small hole on the back of each bottle which lets air in and pushes the water to drop faster.

We then adjusted the direction of the strobe lights, we can't make them shine in front of people and blind them. Therefore, we decided to hang the lights from above to midway and shine from both directions.

The final big piece:

We put a big black piece of paper under the smaller bottles because the color black shows the water drops more clearly and we put a piece of white paper under the bigger bottle because the drops from the bigger bottle form very beautiful patterns and they show clearly on white.

Final installation:

Videos will be up soon! :)

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Monday, May 31, 2010

Term 2 Project - Footlab - Kickster

The project is called Footlab which is to design a footwear retail store located on Melrose in LA. My store is called Kickster.

Kickster is an imported sneaker retail store that provides a stage for hip hop dancers.

As the site being located in the heart of LA where hip hop culture is very popular, I decided to combine sneakers and breakdancing.

Kickster welcomes everyone who is into sneakers or hip hop dancing.

The brand name Kickster refers to someone who wears the coolest kicks and does the best breakdancing moves.

The logo is designed in order to contrast with the brand structure. It is simple and bold at the same time. The extended letters K and R represent the bold movements of breakdancers kicking outside of the box.

The signage of the space is very flashy. The exterior signage is located in the middle of the facade. The small dots in the background give out an illusion of depth. There is also an interior signage which is in the stage. The stage is broken into transparent layers. There are letters on each layer, they all together show the word "Kickster".

The entrance is located on the side facade which gives a private feeling. I made that decision because when breakdancing first came out, it was usually held underground or in some closed space.

Sneakers are displayed under the glass stairs. There are blue lights shinning from below the stairs.

There is a color code next to each sneaker which leads customers to the drawers at the edges of the stage. Customers will find a drawer with the corresponding color and they can get the pair with their size. It is all self-served because my target audience is someone who is into raw and new experience.

Customers can try on either on the stage or at the other side of the stairs. The stairs are designed into angles because breakdancing is all about different moves. Each angle cut represents a move in breakdancing.

After trying on, they will pay at the DJ booth which serves as the cash rack in daytime.

During night time, breakdancing events will be held. The whole space transfers to a different experience. The DJ booth becomes a construction lift and it goes up to warm up the audience and to play music for the dancers. The blue lights from below will dim and stage lights will be on. The display areas will become seats for people to sit on and enjoy the shows.