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Promoting Well-Being Through Textile Design- Initial Ideas

Summer Hope
Oct 3, 2018
3 min read

Yesterday, 1st October, we were introduced to our next section of BA2A, this being 'promoting well being through textile design, either with a fashion or interior context'. We were given a presentation to guide us through the course to know what we need to create and develop throughout, given examples of ideas I have came up with a few of my own.

My first idea for this project was the idea/theme of 'colour' and how this can effect someones mood, anxiety etc, being situated in public areas such as transport, cafes, airports, having specific colours in areas of these places could possibly change the mood of someone. The idea of having this in transport, for example, a bus; these journeys can be quite long and daunting in an enclosed space with people crowded and sitting next to you that you don't know. The introduction to a specific colour scheme/coloured pattern or design could slightly effect someone's journey, having positive colours surrounding you can effect your mood and the overall mood of the interior of the bus. Therefore, this promotes a sense of well-being for people with anxiety, who don't enjoy long journeys, people with depression etc, as it would give them a sense of comfort and in a way, something to distract them from their reality.

Secondly, I came up with the idea of looking at a medical environment, such as, hospitals, medical practices, these places can be very simple and plain, and also scary and daunting for people; they're not exactly a nice place/environment to visit and the lack of colour/character doesn't help this. By creating designs for interior products or wallpapers/posters this could help add a sense of comfort, positivity and reassurance to the medical environment, making people feel less anxious and worried.

Furthermore, the idea of promoting well-being through textile design could be based on having a healthy lifestyle and diet. Nowadays the healthier foods seem to be more expensive to buy, therefore making it easier and cheaper to go for the unhealthy option, there are also many more fast food and takeaway places to get your food from, these can be cheap and are an easy and quick way of getting food, therefore enabling more people to have health issues and obesity. Overall, it's so much easier to go for the unhealthy option, there isn't any inspiration to prevent you from purchasing unhealthy products or to become healthier, by creating a healthy food print/design to place in public areas such as schools and medical environments, this could draw the eye to the design at the same time as promoting healthier foods. Looking more specifically into the audience of this, I could focus on young children in schools as healthy eating is a vital part of their growth and development and having a more visual based design will excite them and make them think if it looks good, it may taste good as well, this would promote well being in the sense that its encouraging people to be healthier and prevent obesity and the easy option of eating.

Lastly, the idea of using light as a promotion for well being could be interesting, an idea for this could be based around night time and darkness, mainly targeted at young children as this could be quite scary and daunting for them, as a child you have bad nightmares about mystical, unrealistic things which can make them feel frightened. From my own personal experience when I was younger, I would have a little night time light that would light up my room just a little bit to stop me being frightened of the dark, adding a sense of light to a textile product could enhance this idea. For example, a pillow, blanket or even cuddly toy that lights up slightly when the lights go out could help this problem, it's a comforting aspect of a child's life, especially adding this into a product that feels soft to touch. This idea promotes well-being through making a child's bed time a happier and comforting time for them.