About My Research

This site serves as a reflection of my graduate thesis work in automotive textile design at North Carolina State University.  I began this site in January 2009 and plan to maintain it until my graduation in December 2009.  I have been in the graduate program at the College of Textiles for 1 year of a 2 year program.  During this first year, I have focused on the automotive industry, design, and sustainability.  Now at the half-way point, I have selected my thesis topic and made plans as to how to approach my research so that my work is complete by October 2009.  In the right column of this blog, I have posted my personal timeline to ensure that I am meeting my deadlines.  Please take time to look through all the information included in the right hand column, especially if this is your first time visiting this site.

The purpose of this site is 3-fold.
1) Most scholars are only given 1 chance to write a thesis, and 2 years to learn how to do so.  Sure there are books on research methods and databases of theses to form a background or starting place for your work, but no one really explains to us exactly what this process is like from start to finish.
2) Over the past year, I have learned beyond my expectations about the automotive industry, past, current, and future.  Throughout my next year of study, I have access to resources that would be coveted by any designer in this industry and plan to uncover valuable correlations between design and success.  I will post many images and articles which I find the most enriching.
and 3) Writing my thoughts and progress where it is publicly available will encourage me to meet deadlines and provide a clear platform to keep my committee informed.

My Topic
I will be examining the history of automotive bodycloth development and aligning this with outside factors such as the economy, increase in mass production, increase in technical standards and regulations, the importance of fashion and color, along with what at this time is an unpredictable number of additional variables.  The ultimate question I aim to answer is if there is a concrete way to measure and predict success in order to save time, money, and resources.

11.28.2009

The Fun Never Ends :)

I hope everyone who celebrates Thanksgiving has had a wonderful one with friends and family! For everyone else in the world, I hope that you also take some time to think about all the things you are thankful for!

This past week I did my "final final final" (hopefully) thesis edits. The post "I'm Done" did not included edits from the thesis editor. This is the final step. She edits primarily for formatting (not content) so that the theses are consistent with the ETD (electronic thesis and dissertation) guidelines. I was able to complete these edits in a few hours and have shared with Nancy for 1 last review from her. I will edit one last time according to Nancy's feedback then this "final final final" version MUST be submitted by THIS Friday.

With the thesis almost completely behind me, its time for another project. In order to graduate, I must complete a final project for my Independent Study in Jacquard weaving. This project inspired my 3 architects I admire most: Gaudi, Gehry and Graves. This week I am creating image boards for each designer. From these I will create 2 colorways. I hope to have fabrics in each colorway for each designer, for a total of 6 fabric designs. My goal is to accomplish this in 1 week! This will leave me with a week and a half to prepare these weaves in design software (EAT DesignScope) and weave on either the Staubli and ElTex. Ideally, I will work on the ElTex- which hasn't been used in at least 7 years. This will certainly come with a learning curve. I'm up for the challenge, but the timing is certainly not ideal. I'll power through what I can and keep you updated!
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  1. emilyNovember 29, 2009 at 12:31 AM

    First of all, congrats on submitting the final final final!

    Second, why am I not at all surprised at our similar taste in design? The three architects you named? Amazing, amazing, amazing stuff! I love all three, myself.

    You're also sort of inspiring me to research architecture in more detail in hopes maybe I can be inspired some myself. Definitely need to do some independent design work to add to my portfolio, and somehow, I forgot how inspiring architecture can be!

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