Product design students look for ways to showcase their work | Arts & Culture

16 students from UO’s product design program pooled their work in textiles and furniture to create an exhibition titled Woods and Wovens on Feb. 1. The showcase featured garments, themed lookbooks and wooden chairs which the students crafted during their junior studio course –– PD483.

Rónan Keenan, a junior studying product design, had several garments featured in the showcase. His collection, “Behind the Pale,” utilized natural and organic materials and was inspired by Keenan’s Irish heritage. “I was taking influences from a lot of stuff throughout my childhood that I’ve experienced relating to Irish culture like storytelling and poetry,” Keenan said.

Keenan explained that the inspiration for the name of his collection was also related to his Irish heritage. “It was an expression that was used to describe barbaric and unexplored areas of Ireland beyond the settlements of English settlers in the 1600s,” he said.

An aspect of Irish history that particularly fascinated Keenan was the use of bogs to preserve perishable foods, specifically butter. The tradition of Irish bog butter dates back to over 3,500 years ago, and was made from milk fat that was buried in the bogs. A study from the University of Dublin explained that the low-oxygen, high-acid environment of bogs made them ideal places to store perishables.

Inspired by these bogs and their importance in Irish history, Keenan attempted to utilize the idea via his fabrics. “I actually tried to dye some stuff in this muddy, marshy area over by Millrace,” Keenan said. “It was outside of the science building and these security people went over and dug it up. They thought it was drugs or something.”

Despite the bog-dyeing process being unsuccessful, Keenan still implemented a personalized touch by hand-dyeing all of his fabrics. The garments have a washed-out look which was the result of scouring and hand-over dyeing with indigo, a process Keenan thought gave his line more personality.

Orion Hubbard, a junior in the product design program, also had a garment collection titled “Post Americana” in the exhibition. The garments were a take on 1940s to ‘50s workwear, playing with traditionally masculine features and accentuating details. “It was my take on traditional workwear,” Hubbard said.

Tom Bonamici, Hubbard and Keenan’s professor for PD483, an advanced garment studio, encouraged open-ended visions. “He gave us a lot of direction, but it wasn’t like ‘You have to do this or that,’” Hubbard said.

“This has been the first garment studio where we were able to make clothes, so I really embraced the challenge of that,” Hubbard said. “And, by far, this is the most enjoyable class I’ve taken.”

Product design is offered as a major within UO’s School of Art and Design, offering courses that prepare students for careers in the industry. Woods and Wovens was put on by Industrial Designers of America (IDSA), a club at UO. The exhibition was split roughly half and half with textile projects and wooden chairs.

“Outside of what IDSA does, I feel like product design doesn’t get the best representation from the school,” Keenan said. “There’s a lot of other competing majors so we kind of get pushed around.” Keenan expressed frustration that a lot of the product design reviews occur at the downtown studio during the middle of the day.

“I felt personally that a lot of our friends and other people at the university don’t know what we’re doing or get to see our work in the best light,” Keenan said. “I think having galleries is really important so that we can display [our work] in the way we want.”

Both Keenan and Hubbard look forward to future exhibitions and the opportunity to showcase more work from the students in product design. Stay tuned for this spring, as Hubbard and Keenan are already brainstorming a potential showcase featuring work from their backpack-making course and a lamp and lighting studio.