"Shape of Flight" Installation

During a visit to RISD to view the TechStyle Haus, Cindy was asked to assist with a separate installation, entitled "Shape of Flight".

Graduate students of the school of interior architecture at RISD had made a full size mockup, but were having trouble getting the fabric to take the shape they had designed.

After viewing the mockup on site, Cindy joined the students in their studio, and gave a condensed lecture on how to make a scale model, and then to recreate the model in full scale.

The students paid rapt attention, and the results show in these photos. They were able to move from untested ideas to a finished installation in only three weeks. One student said, "Without Cindy's help, we would not have succeeded." It is important to note that Cindy helped the students execute their own design. 

The project's evaluation critique, three weeks later, was attended by several deigners from Cessna Aircraft Company, who sponsored the installation. They affirmed the importance of art in the design of new products: "Never lose the art of any new product. Art is emotion, and emotion is what moves people to buy."

The Cessna people also confirmed what we have long experienced: at every revision of the design, the artistic element is threatened by cost-cutting, "value engineering", risk aversion, and simple inertia. Constant advocacy and vigilance are required to keep art's central place in our existence!