Lauren Moriarty works with Textiles, she is a 3D designer. She mainly works with product production, designing objects such as cushions and lampshades. These objects though are not the normal products you see in department stores or 'home' shops. They have a certain twist to them.
Different people give Lauren a different label for her type of work, these include:
Textile Designer
Industrial Designer
Product Designer
3D Designer
However, when Lauren was first graduating, she had no idea what direction she wanted to take her work in. I think she knew that we are all about to graduate and wanted to reassure the majority of us who don't really know what direction we would like to go in either!
Her passion was focused on experimenting with material in 3D, and also lace structures, she was drawn to the idea of illusion. She put these practices in her product designs which make them stand out from the rest, they have that edginess about them because of the material used, or the use of interaction between the material and heat or example.

These are the laser cut hand - finished rubber lace panels. I think they look beautiful and very creative!

The 3D cushions she produces are more for the design factor, the look of them, they are on show, pleasing to the eye rather than to use the actual product for comfort. I think it is different and yet very interesting. She had mentioned to us that to create 10 cushions, it would take 10 days to complete! She had said that was the only down side to it, that when she's producing these cushions for a batch order, everyday feels the same, just like groundhog day!

I think the build up of the laser cut neoprene material gives the cushion a geometric feel to the design, I do think that it is really interesting the type of materials that she experiments with, and to then create everyday objects using her ideas, i am very impressed with her use of imagination and creativity.
But what really impressed me about her designs, is one product that she created within a collaboration with a design student. The piece is called 'Solarise' which is a lampshade product. It shows the London skyline which becomes heat reactive. So its starts off black, then within a time span of 5 minutes you get the sunrise effect, which then ends up showing the light risen in London.

It's a simple yet very effective idea, I haven't seen it in motion as of yet, but i really would like to! I can imagine the effect that it has and the type of atmosphere it would create in the home. I was very impressed with this piece.
One more design that I am going to mention is her use of pattern, and the different outcomes she produces with the same pattern.
Her Butterfly pattern has been used to create lampshades and also net curtains. There is a twist to this pattern design also which put Lauren on the contemporary and edginess scale for her design work! This is a motion pattern, the illusion is created by just layering the patterns on top of each other to make the butterfly's look as if they are fluttering. I like the idea of these products, as they are different and i am very impressed that she has put her design ideas into practice and actually has produced everyday products that reflect her imaginative ideas. She had also mentioned that it is good to change your original design ideas to go along with customer feedback. She had shown her butterfly lampshade at 'Pulse' in London, her original design was in black to represent the shadow play, but once people had seen it, she had loads of requests off people for it in pink!


One thing that Lauren Moriarty did mention which i felt struck a chord in me was her advice about doing an MA course. At the time of her presentation I was battling in my head about whether to go on straight to do an MA course which I would feel was more to do with my direction i'd like my work to go in. Her advice was to wait. Not to rush into anything. She had even said that she felt that her own work had developed further in the 2 years she took out to just concentrate on her own style and get her head around what she really wanted to do. Reflecting on her own life in a way. By her saying this, it made sense to me and made me look at my own work in a clearer sense and to realise that i needed a clear head about this type of stuff, it's best to do an MA once my own work has developed a bit more and i know for sure what area i would like to explore.
She has also done some commission work such as the winter lighting project which was help by the council for Camden street lights, Renault car designs, Southbank Windows and design work for the london eye! Her experience with this area was that she had to compromise a lot with the company, simplify her ideas, but when there are quiet periods in your life, then work on commission and with other companies, not just for the money, but to get your name known in the industry aswell.
This visiting practitioner was one of my favourites, she gave out a lot of advice and was very clear on her process and development of her work that she went through to get where she is today.