Reset Embroidery
Research, Service Design, Product Design
March 2020
M.Sc. Product Design for Innovation at Politecnico di Milano
Role: Research & Product Design
Reset Embroidery is the name of a research that started upon discovering a practice community devoted to embroidery. The research resulted in the creation of a series of services and artefacts devoted to enhance the knowledge sharing.
Resources
About the Project
Reset Embroidery was born aiming to strengthening existing networks and situations in the Colombian territory, promoting women’s autonomy while also creating products that favor social and economic development.
Within this project it was identified an opportunity to create microeconomics and promote the transmission of knowledge thanks to an existent community of Colombian women dedicated to embroidery. This opportunity contains resources of various nature, such as the handicrafts or technical sewing skills, the embroidery techniques, and a digital practice community where women share projects and comment on them.
Once the available resources were understood, the project methodology was structured including research and experimenting tools such as the “go & see” and “build-measure-learn”.
Reset Embroidery’s vision is to encourage women to produce garments and embroidery products able to generate an exchange value and thus create small communities of women who work on embroidery as a beginning of a potential economic development.
Test summary
The Research
A photograph of the situation was built by exploring the state of the community, the practice, the people and the existing economic dynamics.
Immersing in the 40.000 followers community showed their behaviours and motivations. Individuals share their work and feel satisfied to be able to build objects with their own hands and the chance of obtaining economic benefits through this practice.
Participating in workshops organised by a major yarn company at Milan’s Triennale Caffè.
Interviewing DMC’s marketing representative in topics such as comapny’s profile, business and sustainability.
Immersion in the community
Embroidery at Milan’s Triennale Caffè.
The Strategy
First step to define the strategy was to identify the actors. Beneficiaries are the women in the community, the working team is formed by a designer, an artisan and a communicator.
The exchange scenarios are workshops and video tutorials, the artefacts are embroidered products and kits with materials to carry out he projects.
The valorisation strategy puts the community at the core aims to maintain it and increase it.
Project Strategy
Valorisation model
The Experimentation
A series of prototypes were created to test the products and sharing scenarios. The testing phase allowed to do the cycle of building-measuring-learning and thus refine details of the strategy.
Testing the project kit
Testing the exchange value
Testing the content
Testing the scenario and didactic material.
The Platform
A platform offering an inspiring showcase of embroidered garments and supports them to commercialise their creations by giving them the tools and strategies to make their own pieces.
A logo inspired by the hoops that support the embroidery practice and introduces also embroiderers signature to give them back the protagonism they deserve.
Sharing scenarios where participants get to build a garment on each session.
Branding
System map
The Product
Considering the itinerant nature of the workshops, the first artefact developed was a container that would allow to carry all the materials and tools. It is called Mabo, abbreviation of “Maleta de bordado” or embroidery suitcase. It has an iconic shape, it is transparent in the way that it communicates its content, it is also expandable and transportable.
The design focused on dematerialising the bag, therefore it took inspiration from Furoshiki, the Japanese technique that turns pieces of fabric into packaging using only knots.
Mabo’s starting point is a square of flat weaved fabric that turns into a container by folding it, buttoning it and an embroidery hoop adds the closure and handles. On the inside there’s a removable container with small compartments for the embroidery tools and where yarns can be placed just as a coloured pencils.
Mabo concept
Folding sequence
Mabo prototype
Mabo interior details
Mabo Kit
Mabo Prototype
Mabo is a bag that can be build using few materials, that allows to contain and transport the embroidery tools. It can be auto-build or made through the kits and materials offered by Reset Embroidery, just as these women already did.
As a final test, Mabo was launched during a 2 hours workshop with 7 women who joined a call launched on the community challenge. They were happy to leave with a finalized project and to connect with fellow embroiderers.
Mabo Workshop
Mabo Workshop
Mabo Product Video
