You Might Want to Sit Down for This

Three of Otis' Interactive Product Design (IPD) students have their work featured in the September/October issue of Spaces.

The shelter magazine publishes editions in various parts of the US and the Los Angeles version has a great piece (pg16) by Howard Stier that praises the work of Antonia Martinez, Kevin Melchiorri and Mae Ling Lam. In citing their work Stier said "We may see high-end folding furniture and laser-etched table surfaces in the home design market a few years down the road but some forward-thinking students are already crafting them now." He went on to point out the impact IPD has made in the short time since it started- "...housewares manufacturers such as Target and Moen are taking note, looking to the Los Angeles school for fresh and exciting products to develop."

You can find Spaces at select locations or you can read the current issue online here using the very cool issue.com site.

Image from 2008 IPD Junior seating exhibition

A Stitch Online

A little more than a year ago Otis launched its own YouTube channel presenting a mix that included presentations by guest artists, helpful tips on how to navigate the educational experience at Otis and a whole "how to" series that features our faculty.

Among the more popular of the how to videos are the ones from the Fashion Design department. Anytime there are over 1000 views, you know someone is watching beyond the Otis community but its not that often that you find out who they are. Thanks to Google alerts however, sometimes you find at least one of them.

Ann's Fashion Studio is a blog by Ann in Brunswick Canada. It appears to have a loyal following and covers a wide range of things related to fashion and garment construction. In her recent post "Great reference for Sewing Techniques" she gave a great plug for several of the Fashion Design videos! So, thanks Ann!

I've embedded the first one she mentioned "Stitching Techniques for a Tailored Jacket." You can find the rest of the Fashion series here.

Hooping! Who Knew?!

A few weeks ago I posted about Fashion Design alum Emily Brandel ('02). She was one of the participants in this year's season of Project Runway. Well, unfortunately her time on the show is already over but as you might expect, the experience generated a LOT Of buzz. Case in point- Google her name and you'll get over 6,000 entries (including my post if you go about 17 pages deep)! Even allowing for garbage blogs and duplicates- that's pretty amazing.

And this example might just be my favorite-

I had a Google alert this morning that led me to Hooping.org and what do you know, Emily is a bit of a hula hooping maven. She's featured on their site in this video.


Enjoy!

PS- this is the 100th post for The "O" Observed. I'm looking forward to writing many more. -M