DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
MY : The collection is inspired by, the remarkably intelligent Humpback whales, their complex acoustic vocalization, incredible social institutions and their language ability, which gives these sea-creatures, the potential to communicate from north pole to south pole with very low frequency sound waves. The main idea behind my design is the songs they sing during their 68,500 km of migration, while in their deep solitude in the depth of the oceans. Their song consists of moans, cries, chips and clicks that form a pattern and the repetition of the pattern makes a theme and then a song.
DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
MY : it is by far one of the most complex, laborious and yet one of the most precious projects for me with which I have personal attachments and also treasure its philosophical and the scientific depth.
I wanted to acknowledge the importance of these mammals in our ecosystem, for their role of producing large amounts of oxygen for our planet, as well as to highlight the inspiring characteristics of humpback whales. The humpback whales are one of the most undiscovered creatures on our planet to date, the characteristics of these mammals, their vocalization, the tough and challenging journey they go through each year and their intellectual abilities to communicate with each other and us mesmerized me.
"Humpback whale brains are laced with spindle neurons and in humans spindle neurons are associated with language acquisition, social intelligence, facial recognition, and compassion. These humpback whales, they've essentially had the ocean internet for millions of years" said by Dr. Fred Sharpe, Biologist at the Alaska Whale Foundation (AWF), who has been studying humpback whales since the 1980s.
DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?
MY : Winning the A’design award attested to creativity and quality of my work as a designer and will open a wonderful path for the future of my brand, driving me to set more ambitious milestones for it. More specifically for this design I hope to showcase it in prominent locations around the globe.
DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?
MY : It took 4-5 months to design the concept, less than a month to design and make the fabric and a month to finish and showcase the collection online.
DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?
MY : The idea of the collection started to develop during and after a lethal injury that happened to me, during unconsciousness, pain and relapse, I have had recurring dreams about swimming in the oceans, walking bare foot on sands in unknown deserts and watching giant whales breaching out of the water, a sort of repetitive, chain like visions that started to draw my attention to these beautiful creatures and contemplating about them slowly helped me to regain a mental clarity and subsequently my physical health. I felt like they have invited me to share a journey with them as if I am one of them. I started to write those dreams in my notebook and dragged me to the world of oceans waves and sounds.
This is a kind of collection that carries a personal message. For me the bare foot walk on the dunes of sands in my dreams was later like a deja vu, when I was led by the journey of this collection to the city of Yazd, in the heart of the main desert of Iran, to pursue my dream of weaving a timeless and iconic fabric with ikat method.
DI: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?
MY : No, it is not produced or used by another company.
DI: What made you design this particular type of work?
MY : I wanted to design a pattern for the fabric of the collection, that was rich in concept, dazzling in idea, noticeably communicative and illustrative. Also wanted to highlight the art of Ikat making and its craftsmanship in Iran which is started to being forgotten and fading, especially among young generations. The ikat industry faces many challenges which needs more support, consideration and attention.
DI: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?
MY : Yes, Sakiyama Takayuki a Japanese ceramist who draws his inspiration from the sea, specifically the rugged Pacific Ocean seacoast near his home
DI: Who is the target customer for his design?
MY : Conceptual design enthusiasts
DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?
MY : The concept, the role of the nature in designing the garments and the amazing craftsmanship .
DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?
MY : Since the humpback whales and their songs was the main source of the inspiration for this collection, I wanted to name this collection with regards to these amazing mammals, so to directly communicate it with the audiences and also raise their curiosity.
DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?
MY : Hand sketch, Adobe illustrator and Adobe photoshop.
DI: What is the most unique aspect of your design?
MY : It has been the first time ever in the history of ikat in Iran that such traditional fabric has been embellished with modern conceptual pattern associated with nature.
DI: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?
MY : Mr. Jamal Ghadirzadeh the ikat master.
DI: What is the role of technology in this particular design?
MY : Technology was used in extracting the sound spectrums of the humpback whale’s song for design purposes, also in designing tools that speeded up the process.
DI: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?
MY : The humpback whales, their lives and their songs.
DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?
MY : The project took place during the corona virus pandemic, when for the purpose of weaving the fabric, we had to safely travel to the desert city of Yazd in the middle of a hot summer, with restrictions and high risks involved. We had to spend more than 10 hours a day, double masked with poor air conditioning in a 34 degrees warehouse which was at times unbearable. The work started to get tougher when it came down to the implementation of the pattern on the fabric, considering that the real-life size of the long-woven fabric was about 50 meters. Calculating the gaps and covered areas with black rubber bandings around the bundles of yarns, which is a step in coloring the fabric, was an intricate job and quite arduous given the circumstances and the hot weather. To achieve the maximum resemblance to the actual designed pattern, we had to redo the rubber banding process more than hundred times and since the coloring method of the Ikat is quite complicated and hand done, the interpretation of the pattern was a tedious work.
But interestingly the more the journey got challenging the more it motivated us to accomplish the goals of the project and the energy force of the Humpback whales pushes me to finish the job.
DI: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?
MY : I believed my project deserved to be seen and accredited on international scale.
DI: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?
MY : self realization, the limitless power of mind and body also the unlimited, surprising force of the nature and the cosmos .
