Florus
Zhenyu Zhou
Bioplastic
2022
Zhenyu Zhou is a designer from China and currently based New York, Brooklyn. Her main focus is on brand image and system establishment and is particularly interested in creating fonts through real-life elements and personal, emotional expression in communications. Recently she has been focusing on how might slowing down in the design process help bring us into a state of appreciation, increase focus, and help us engage with design not as a process of “control” but as “emergent collaboration” with materials, tools, our environment, and other humans.
zhenyuzhouzy.cargo.site
Zhenyu Zhou
Bioplastic
2022
Zhenyu Zhou is a designer from China and currently based New York, Brooklyn. Her main focus is on brand image and system establishment and is particularly interested in creating fonts through real-life elements and personal, emotional expression in communications. Recently she has been focusing on how might slowing down in the design process help bring us into a state of appreciation, increase focus, and help us engage with design not as a process of “control” but as “emergent collaboration” with materials, tools, our environment, and other humans.
zhenyuzhouzy.cargo.site
This project reflects my “slow appreciation” philosophy to resist the accelerated modernist lifestyle, rapid industrialization, mass production, and assembly-line processes. Slow appreciation is a subjective willingness, a spontaneous desire of the person to focus, slow down, and feel the time. This poetic amplifier is designed as an invitation to slow down and relieve stress. My childhood memories inspired the design. My grandma grew many petunias in her house, and I could see them flourish in summer by the window. In order to recall this calming and meditative experience, I created this musical device with organic materials. The music ——Plantasia—— played is designed for plants. Perhaps we should all experience time as plants do.
Working with gelatin-based bioplastic, I modified my recipes and construction methods in order to accommodate the shrinking and warping that occur in the cooling phase. During the making process, the idea of “collaborating with” the materials rather than controlling them takes precedence. It’s an observation of time and space. When designers engage in design practice from a more open and inclusive perspective, embracing the unexpected and mistakes, it brings a greater sense of participation and possibility to design.
Working with gelatin-based bioplastic, I modified my recipes and construction methods in order to accommodate the shrinking and warping that occur in the cooling phase. During the making process, the idea of “collaborating with” the materials rather than controlling them takes precedence. It’s an observation of time and space. When designers engage in design practice from a more open and inclusive perspective, embracing the unexpected and mistakes, it brings a greater sense of participation and possibility to design.
