Abstract

An increasingly visible subset of the set of designers today is the Maker/User, who designs, engineers, and constructs objects for personal use. Close to the Craftsperson in terms of aesthetic freedom, the Maker/User’s designer-self has literally no one to answer to but her or his own client-self. The client-self has no compunction about making radical changes to a design brief at any stage for any reason. Some of these changes will stem from the constant stream of new ideas contributed by the designer-self who should, therefore, not complain. This Maker/User was well into the design phase of a complex, fifteen-piece, fantasy stage costume, when the brief was significantly self-revised. I gave an open-ended, anything goes project a due-date certain and a huge new specification: it has to fit into a large Pullman bag on a plane to Ireland; to the extent possible all pieces must be made to lie flat and be constructed without metal. In addition to these new constraints, continuing research on the design inspiration (honey bees), added to the redesign requirements. Then, as construction began, the comments of a trusted advisor led to a complete reconceptualization of the headdress, which meant lots of new research but led to a far simpler engineering/construction approach. This poster visually plots the design evolution of this project, Queen of the Killer Bees, from first inspiration through final design decisions. Notes, drawings, test samples, and two pieces of the actual costume are included.