Course: Capstone Project, Supervising Instructors: Jon Hannan, Christopher Hethrington
Over eight months, Knot Experienced materialized through iterations of workshops and crafting kits as part of my capstone project theme: DIY and hobby craft. An embroidery kit designed to empower anyone wanting to feel confident embroidering, this kit provides all the necessary tools, instructions and answers, barrier-free and without jargon, for people with little to no familiarity with sewing and needlework.

Through this project, Hayley was recognized by the ECU Design Faculty for her efforts in ‘Community and Participatory Design’ amongst her graduating peers at Emily Carr’s 2023 graduate exhibition, “The Show.”

^{Opportunity Space}

I first saw the opportunity to share my hobby craft and DIY knowledge and skills with others in the fall of 2022. So, I planned and hosted a crochet workshop for beginners to start my research. Hosting that workshop unravelled my initial exploration and made me question what I wanted to say and share. In narrowing the scope of my research and explorations, I decided to try making hobby craft kits as a different medium for teaching crafts.

I wanted to create a similar experience to my workshops where people would immediately have the answers to their questions and be able to see in-depth demonstrations of the necessary techniques. While working on kit instructions, I realized that crochet is not a low-barrier craft, requiring much more patience and even hand dexterity for a complete beginner. My research into different crafts led me to embroidery as an accessible craft to bridge the gap for beginners interested in learning, so I trialled an embroidery kit.

At the end of all the prototyping and kit testing, the feedback from testers had one underlying theme: there were lots of subtle cues that my testers struggled to get ahold of. “How do I make sure the thread doesn’t go through my fabric?” “Why is the thread on the back of my fabric getting all tangled?”

It was these technical nuances that people struggled with, more so than the actual embroidery technique. That perspective from a person who had no prior understanding of anything like embroidery helped me to see the needs of someone starting in embroidery are not only in technique but also in setting up their tools and materials.

With the embroidery kit making good progress in its instructional content, the last bit of instructions relied heavily on the practical aspect of the kit. I ensured that my written directions were clear and left the user feeling empowered to start embroidering, so I wanted the fabric exercises to reflect that. Based on the developing star logomark, I designed three fabric exercises that would walk the user through basic how-tos and eventually give them the autonomy to embroider their ideas.

^{Brand Experience}

To stay true to the handmade feeling of the test kits, I sifted through different fabrics, cardstocks and papers that would visually work well with the kit and work with the risograph and screenprinting methods I was employing. The textures and patterns of my substrates inspired me to include more hand-drawn elements in my packaging and fabric exercises. The star logomark, in particular, suited this textured feeling and became less of a logomark and more of a way to communicate excellence and achievement within my kit.

︎︎︎Acknowledgements