Make/Use

Make/Use explores what might occur if we consider not only the aesthetic of the garments we wear, but also the way we use them and the waste we create when we make them.

This ongoing research-through-design project questions conventions of the clothing industry. Through developing open-source, user-modifiable, zero waste designs, Make/Use aims to empower users of clothing, and challenges them to question the relationships they have with their present and future garments.

The Make/Use project has provided a platform for genuine interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary practice. The core research team collaborated on the development of the Make/Use system, which extends Holly McQuillan’s zero waste sustainable fashion research, looking to encode a wayfinding system into the fabric patterns. This exercise in design thinking brought together expertise around spatial cognition, visual communication, textile pattern, and an understanding of the translation between 2D surface and 3D form. Further to this, each collaborator also developed elements of the project towards its public dissemination.

I developed a visual identity that builds on the language of encoded symbols used to construct a garment. I also extrapolated this system into a modular typeface that is available as an open source download. Publication material I produced for an exhibition at ObjectSpace in Auckland was subsequently purchased by Te Papa for their collection.

Make/Use: User modifiable zero waste fashion video by Jason O'Hara