My idea for a rapid prototype was to use the digital embroidery machine to embroider cute environmental images with encouraging quotes to promote being eco-conscious. I loved this idea as I think embroidery is beautiful and I also believe that looking after our planet is very important, so I decided to combine them. By utilising the digital embroidery machine, it made the production process more efficient.

Originally I created my own designs as I had a lot of inspiration from pinterest and organisations such as 4Ocean. However, I was later informed that we did not have the software to create our own designs so I was limited to what was already programmed.  Inorder to ideate new ideas I looked at the pattern list, and was able to create what I originally wanted.

As I missed the first week of tutorials I became stressed about whether or not I would be able to produce a prototype as I had gone into the maker studio a variety of times and still had not received the opportunity to use the machine. So I decided to talk to Travis and he ensured that I would get a chance to embroider and stated that one prototype would be sufficient. 

Finally, I got an opportunity to use the machine to create my colourful design. However, once it came time to embroider I was told that the coloured thread does not work so my design had now become a dark silhouette. This still worked, although, I think it would look better in colour.

Buchanan (1992) explains that design thinking is a flexible activity. This helped me understand the design thinking approach. By utilising this methodology in combination with complex systems thinking I was able to enhance my critical thinking and reframe challenges. From this experience I learned that I should’ve conducted more research.

Group pitch – Perfectly Imperfect Co.