Ella Son is a textile designer focused on print, concept, and color and material integration design.
︎︎︎ABOUT
︎︎︎CV
︎︎︎INSTAGRAM
︎︎︎COMMERCIALPORTFOLIO
URBAN LOOMS, RECOLORING CITY–RISD GRAD SHOW 2024
Urban Looms, Recoloring City is a color and material integration design project inspired by New York City’s architectural phenomena. I aim to immerse the space with highlights in verticality, luminosity, and reflectivity by light and shadow of architectural phenomena and render them through interior and exterior textile applications.
The rippled surface of building material polycarbonate brings richness and busyness as it combines with the illusionistic textile pattern. As people interact in front of this wall, the verticality and grids in the pattern move with the audience, and the space becomes a dynamic environment.
COLOR & MATERIAL STUDY IN TEXTILES
2023–2024
Focused on each synthetic material’s characteristics and visual effects, I explored color and material interaction through woven pieces. I created several samples and researched the functions and characteristics of each material combination through woven samples.
COLOR & PRINT COLLECTION 2024
As a continuation of my color and pattern studies from 2022–23, this collection is inspired by the interplay between architectural phenomena and light & shadow. During golden hour, I captured the distortion and reflectivity that played on the surface of the window facade.
COLOR & PRINT COLLECTION 2023
Inspired by the city’s architectural grids and the transparent surface of the windows, this pattern collection is focused on visual illusions by colors. This collection aims to utilize dynamic patterns in our daily lives through fashion, interiors, and architectural building materials.
COLOR COLLECTION 2023
Inspired by New York City’s urban environments, I studied each color’s level, saturation, hue, and interaction. In the urban environment, we can easily capture the primary colors through metropolitan, the surface colors of the buildings, and the signs from construction places.
This color collection is an important stepping stone and preliminary to lead my collection development process. The collection includes 64 colors with hand-painted gouache chips that respond to my subjective emotions: cheerful, atmospheric, bold and wild, belonging to a different time and space, and so on. The collection also includes garments and woven textile pieces.
PRINT DESIGN–SILK SCREEN FABRIC 2023
Inspired by facade window shapes, I designed the print with repeated patterns with visual illusions. The motifs are made by a hand-drawing process and apply it into the silkscreen image.
TEXTILES TRANSFORMING INTO FURNITURE 2023
This project was made in collaboration with RISD students Isabel Jane Marvel (MArch ’24) and Maya Weber (MA IntAr ’24).
The design concept was driven by textile folds and lifts from a flat rug into a three-dimensional form of a chair. A fluid piece alternating between soft for comfort and hard for structures focused on sustainability, industrial, and off-the-shelf materials.
THE ARCHITECTURAL COLLECTION 2023
24 Harness AVL Dobby Weaving
This Dobby Weaving collection contains a story about the relationship between the urban environment and the city’s architecture. In particular, I brought reflectivity and geometric shapes from building surfaces into my patterning.
SOLO SHOW
DYNAMISM & BUSYNESS OF A LARGE CITY 2022
Art Space TOMA, Daegu, South Korea, June 17–23, 2022
In my very first solo show in South Korea in the middle of the summer of 2022, I presented some painting pieces, drawing installation work, and some textile works with different materials the story about the city’s dynamism and busyness.
MATERIAL STUDY IN TEXTILES 2022
I explored materials such as synthetic nylon and plastic transparent cords through woven pieces and how these synthetic cords' characteristics: elongation and elasticity create the form more freely function in the woven pieces.
PATTERN COLLECTION 2022
This pattern collection was inspired and focused on the grid and geometric shapes from the architectural surface in the city. It provides to create a structured foundation for visually compelling patterns. I found some repeated pattern sequences in window facades. I explored pattern layouts and motifs through the hand-drawing process before moving to digital pattern work.
MATERIAL STUDY IN TEXTILES 2021
Instantaneous Movement of the City
In my 2021 weaving collection, mostly I used recycled materials like PVC and nylon cord which made the work easy to install and allowed me to create shapes freely with natural materials like cotton. The synthetic materials made the work easy to install and allowed the creation of shapes freely. The natural cotton created more variation of hard and soft textures on the surface. Using the characteristics of the above materials, I freely implemented the form of instantaneous movement in which people repeatedly come and go by walking.
PAINTING & DRAWING 2021
I recreated the dynamic form encountered in walking people's movements. We are always moving forward towards different destinations in the overcrowded city center. Especially in subway stations and bus stops, people scatter at regular intervals and then gather together again. In this repeated behavior, I observe repetitive dynamic forms.
THE STUDY OF COLOR 2021
The Color Study of Overlapping Moments
I reveal elapsing moments of color when buildings and traffic overlap quickly at the same time. The moment a metropolis’ individuals pass buildings on the road is instantaneous. But when they are passing by, it seems like a temporary form and color left in its place. I recreated the color at that moment through cumulate texture.
COLLAGE 2020
The Hustle and Bustle of the City
This collage is a series of works where I express the most visible characteristics of the city abstractly. For example, multiple people's crowded shapes, and their busy steps show repetitive movements in the city. I display this movement through felt cuttings varying in size and twisting wool in intensive colors to illustrate the city's busyness components.
SAMSUNG PROJECT PRISM DESIGN CONTEST, #BeSpoke, ‘Rush’, 2019
I utilized my painting work and applied it to the home appliance industry.
I participated in the 2019 refrigerator design contest hosted by SAMSUNG.
I designed two Bespoke refrigerator models with one of my zoomed-in paintings titled 'Rush’. This design inspiration started when I imagined customers getting off from their busy work. The color inspired by the city's liveliness makes them more comfortable when they take out food from the refrigerator. Following the basic refrigerator model outline, I divided the three sections - the upper, middle, and lower sections - and organized my painting work like a gradient for easy-to-recognize cold storage and freezer respectively.
PAINTING & COLLAGE 2019
I expressed people’s rushing gestures through the mixing brushstrokes reminiscent of when people walked busily and crowded the city street. Rushed gestures of people are temporary, but different people then gather with new gestures. I indicated busyness that gradually changes through brush strokes and colors abstractly.
COLLAGE 2018
The Hustle and Bustle of the City
This collage is a series of works where I express the most visible characteristics of the city abstractly. For example, multiple people's crowded shapes, and their busy steps show repetitive movements in the city. I display this movement through felt cuttings varying in size and twisting wool in intensive colors to illustrate the city's busyness components.
