Pojagi Works

February 13th, 2010

This weekend marked the end of a six week short semester at RISD. It has certainly been a busy month and a half. I took two classes: one art history class called Architecture and Psychoanalysis, and a textiles class called Pojagi and Beyond. In the class, we focussed on both traditional Pojagi patchwork techniques as well as experimenting with different shaped fabrics, materials, and how to use a sewing machine as a drawing tool. Pojagi is a wrapping fabric, I think similar to a Japanese Furoshiki, and it is made by hand to wrap a precious object. It can be used in other ways as well, like the creations of installations artwork, wall hangings, and practical objects like bags and clothing. The class was a good break from graphic design, and I enjoyed working with a sewing machine (though my skills are very limited.) I’m relieved though, that the six weeks are over. It felt like I was breathing and living only for my Pojagi class because of the amount of work, but overall, I’m happy with the outcome of it. Thursday night our class had the studio show and invited the rest of the school to come see our works. Below are some photos of from the show.

Some process works and assignments


Joomchi paper works


My final work titled Journeys. It represents the journeys people take and combines them together to try to make a universal story. The piece is entirely made of yarns, and the different colored paths roughly match up as they travel down the piece. I was interested in making a cumulative narrative from smaller journeys.


Me with a close-up of the work. I’m also wearing a purple pojagi made for the show.


Our class at the end of the show! Congrats to all!
(And time for rest!)

Pojagi Details

February 13th, 2010

Some beautiful details from people’s works from the Pojagi and Beyond class.

















Photos from Winter Trip to Tokyo 2

January 16th, 2010

Shopping Alley in Shinjuku

Daruma Dolls

End of Year Sales Campaign

Just walking

Photos from Winter Trip to Tokyo 1

January 4th, 2010

Flying over Detroit: Very cold looking below

Sunrise above the clouds.

Isetan Window Displays

December 22nd, 2009

Christmas day is almost here and I am excited to go home to Tokyo. I really want to see the Isetan Department Store window display in person before it gets changed after Dec. 25. After being in a class about Exhibit Design, I’ve become especially interested in window displays. The Isetan windows currently show scenes from a Christmas story, illustrated by Finnish illustrator Klaus Haapaniemi. There is even a website that goes along with the store windows, but this is only viewable until Dec. 25th as well. Please hurry to take a look. It takes viewers through various scenes of the enchanting story.

Package Design Competition: Kaffee & Kuchen

December 21st, 2009

The fall semester of my senior year has quickly come to an end. The last few weeks were really busy with final projects, making process documents, and with RA work. I’m exhausted! Now with the snow storms in New England, my flight home was cancelled so I’m stuck in the city for a few more days. So with this extra time in my dorm room, I decided to enter the Dieline Package Design Contest with one of my projects from the Package Design class. Here are the pictures I sent in.

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The project focused on creating an identity and package design for an imaginary German-style bakery in Boston. The bakery’s name, Kaffee & Kuchen comes from a German tradition of enjoying afternoon coffee and cake around 4 PM, and suggests a cozy and warm gathering with friends. The bakery would sell traditional German cakes, cookies, and offer seasonal baked goods for holidays. In addition, there is a cafe corner inside the store so that visitors may take a break from their busy day and enjoy afternoon coffee and pastries.

For the project I created three types of cookie packages. The largest is a gift box that holds an assortment of cookies. The smaller box with a tapered top would hold individual types of cookies baked fresh in the morning that would then be packaged and sold the same day. The third package would be a small cardboard shopping bag to fill up with any mix of cookies and sweets a customer would choose from behind the counter.