In our AMA (Ask Me Anything) series, industrial designer Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman answers questions about design and process from Instagram and LinkedIn. Rebeccah is the founder of Interwoven Design Group, a design consultancy that specializes in soft goods design and wearable technology. She has over 25 years of corporate design experience and has held positions as Design Director for Fila, Champion and Nike. She is the author of Smart Textiles for Designers: Inventing the Future of Fabrics, and speaks internationally on design, innovation and the future. In this issue she answers the question, how do we find the the right materials for a design?
Watch the vide or read the transcript below for Rebeccah’s explanation for how do we find the right materials for a design.
How do we find the the right materials for a design?
Traditional industrial and product designers understand the importance of selecting the right materials, such as plastics, resins, metals, foams and other rigid and semi-rigid materials for functionality, aesthetics, and ease of manufacturing. As soft goods designers we also take into consideration the textiles for each project. It’s when combining rigid and semi-rigid materials with textiles to consider how they interact with each other.
We have discovered that not many industrial designers or project managers realize that textiles have more variables to consider than most materials. Variables such as stretch, weave, stitch structure, chemistry, finishes, adhesives, melting points, dyes, elongation, recovery, pilling, crocking, yarn gauge, tensile strength, specialized equipment, yarn structure (and more!) that can affect the performance of a finished good. As textile experts we can help select the best materials for each project.… And here at Interwoven we specialize in wearable technology and soft goods. If you’re curious about what our work looks like, get in touch. You can follow us on our website or on our Instagram @interwoven_design.
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