il est quatre heures

THE IDEAS SHELF
This is a materialization of our ideas. It has been the starting point for introducing material into the graphic design process. It symbolizes the material appropriation of the workspace.

outil #2 on Vimeo.

outil #1 on Vimeo.

BUILDING TOOLS
Building tools characteristic of our process and needs are a way to conquer and become accustomed to the technique.

SMALL-SCALE WEAVING
The first weaving experiments are built on small frames. They have allowed us to test the limits of the technique and to handle it efficiently. Why the frame? Why not weave patterns directly in space?

WEAVING IN SPACE
The “manual printer” gets more interesting as we try larger sizes, larger scales. PAN is the first woven test picture set directly in space without aframe. The temporality expressed by the onomatopoeia of “PAN” contrasts with the technique.

It shows the relationship between a picture and its environment. How does it fit into the space ? How does it communicate? What does the observer feel faced with something of this size? Such experimentation highlights the possibility of playing with the plan superposition, with different levels of interpretation and communication. We have also become aware of the body's role and the investment involved in materially manipulating something of this scale.

moirage #1 on Vimeo.

SUPERPOSITION
The notion of depth is linked to the space. We wanted to invest this depth by composing pictures on different plans.

The superposition of the wefts creates moiré patterns which lend the picture vibration and movement. By testing coloured wefts we have observed visual effects: the weft moves between the warp, the moiré pattern can lead to a coloured tint area when the perspective changes. These superposition effects are an interesting subject for research.

SHAPES
Our research lead us to create an intuitive shapes library, a graphic vocabulary to suit us. It is becoming our tool for building our picture in space anddepth. These shapes are inbetween symbols and letters, and communicate with each other while remaining fully-fledged entities.

SUDDENLY
What happens if our shapes become letters ? We have “re-drawn” an alphabet of letters/symbols. It appears that if they are set on different plans, then different reading levels are created. From one place, they are words to be read, from another they are a landscape off shapes floating in space.

Like PAN, SUDDENLY relates to the semantic field of stories, novels and fairy tales. It reveals a short, immediate and often surprising action. Setting this message on such a large scale demands interaction with the observer. The shapes call out to him and make him stop and look. Taking time to watch, to try to read, to understand, to capture the picture and the material. SUDDENLY can appear from the right perspective... or stay mysterious.

SETTING IN A PUBLIC SPACE
We intend to push the picture/space relationship by setting it in a public place. This is a way of addressing more people and giving meaning to the experience of the material as image.

The public weaved picture fits to its environment, attaches itself to the facades and features and becomes alive in the landscape. We pose the question of city scale and the impact of a picture at this scale. The street is a corridor and by displaying in the street, we force passers-by to face the picture, to stop, even to go around it. We would like him to realize the value of time, the sensitivity of creation, the beauty of gesture and its luxury, and even if the message is not directly comprehensible, the value of the graphic designer's work.

The temporary “prototype” setting would be Erasme Street in the 5th arrondissement of Paris. It would be based on several plans, each one being a weft extended between two pieces of street furniture, on which one or several patterns would be weaved. Different reading scenarios would then become possible on the front, back or even through these wefts.

We don't want the setting to be a completed work, but a view of our project which could be considered in different contexts. We would place ourselves in a certain temporality close to the events, demonstrating the long and meticulous process of weaving in front of passers-by. The value and quality of the object remain mysterious as they are placed in a finished space and duration. The installation would be removed a few days after the weaving demonstration. We plan this installation with the message SUDDENLY, meaning that something is going to happen there. Then the question of the message, of its signification, is asked. Are the words going to override our purpose? Do we really need words to communicate?

SYMBOLS
We are back to the patterns we had drawn and have redesigned them as symbols. Questions about the symbol in a public space and its relation to the passers-by are consequently asked.

The symbol is a defined and somewhat authoritative shape but it also requiries interpretation. The size of a symbol changes the observer's feelings about it. We are used to seeing little symbols in the street so installing a large-scale one is a way for us to attract and surprise the passer-by.

WEFTS
The interest and beauty of the material stem from its aspect from both near and far. The grain of the material is something we want to make visible because it is unusual to see this close-to in a public place.

The various wefts test the relationship between the passer-by and the weaved shape. How can a picture be read in a visual and tactile way from near and far ? How can we make this picture attractive? How can we make people take time to discover it?

PROGETTAZIONE
The final symbol we have drawn is a “free” shape which does not represent anything precise and gives full reign to imagination. It is made with five different shapes/colors which can all be independently read and interpreted.

We hope to communicate with passers-by while weaving our shapes in order to meet and exchange. We want to show graphic designers leaving their offices to communicate with people. The different sizes and textures of the shapes are like an invitation to get close, to touch, to explore the picture through its different dimensions. The setting could be in another place, in another context, with other materials, but always with the intention of portraying and staging the reading of a picture in a public place.

PROJECT
“Weaving” is the focus of our project. We intend via this technique to highlight the work of the hands and the creative process, to show the role of hands and time and to consider them as fully-fledged tools. It is a quasi-political bias to boost the graphic designer's role and quality, as opposed to rapid communication which sometimes hides it.

Weaving is revisited: we have made this technique ours, as a creative tool for shapes and pictures, like a printer working pixel after pixel, line after line. The image is its own medium. It is regarded as a fully-fledged object: it has a front, a back
and also a depth. A large enough picture can be turned around, crossed, touched, understood, “re-invented”. The material plays with lights, colours, moiré patterns. The picture becomes a texture, a printout. It can be touched and felt.
The medium becomes the message.

Our project is defined by certain research highlighting the expression of the material,
its shape and importance in graphic design.
There is no “final object”. We want to express an intention, a concept and reinforce it by showing
its applications in various contexts through
our experiments.