capwear
material study & re-purposing
wdka second year assignment
february → march 2023
recycled fabric swatches, made out of metal bottle caps
custom individual packaging,
featuring a process & statement mini-booklet
simple process website & physical logbook
recycled fabric swatches, made out of metal bottle caps
custom individual packaging,
featuring a process & statement mini-booklet
simple process website & physical logbook
about the project
an apparently simple task - re-purposing an already existing material. keeping in mind its uses, sustainability factor and strong visual aspect, i chose to re-interpret the simple metal bottle cap.
metal bottle caps have been utilized for centuries in order to preserve carbonation in fizzy drinks. they feature a steel or aluminium crown-shaped circle and a backing, most commonly made out of pvc. due to this plastic backing, they are more often than not non-recyclable.
by removing the backing and only preserving the metal part of the caps, they can be re-shaped into many things. i chose to alter them by flattening them and punching holes out of them with various tools, linking the resulting hollow circle shapes with jewelry rings. i chose to try and preserve as much of the color and visual of the bottle caps as i could - given that they are an essential branding element for a beverage company, they more often than not feature fun design elements (ie. the vibrant red heineken star, the fritz-kola portraits) and bright colors.
the result was ‘capwear’, a prototype line of chainmail-like fabric, which can be used in different areas of design - from creating garments, to using as a backdrop within photography, to even creating texture within graphic design. i created three different swatches with three different patterns - striped, checkerboard and square-in-square.
the final fabric swatches come packaged in cardstock boxes, complete with a small statement mini-booklet. complementary to the actual physical product were the process website and physical logbook, which included various experiments, steps taken and iterations of the product.
for more in-depth information about ‘capwear’, access the process website here!
an apparently simple task - re-purposing an already existing material. keeping in mind its uses, sustainability factor and strong visual aspect, i chose to re-interpret the simple metal bottle cap.
metal bottle caps have been utilized for centuries in order to preserve carbonation in fizzy drinks. they feature a steel or aluminium crown-shaped circle and a backing, most commonly made out of pvc. due to this plastic backing, they are more often than not non-recyclable.
by removing the backing and only preserving the metal part of the caps, they can be re-shaped into many things. i chose to alter them by flattening them and punching holes out of them with various tools, linking the resulting hollow circle shapes with jewelry rings. i chose to try and preserve as much of the color and visual of the bottle caps as i could - given that they are an essential branding element for a beverage company, they more often than not feature fun design elements (ie. the vibrant red heineken star, the fritz-kola portraits) and bright colors.
the result was ‘capwear’, a prototype line of chainmail-like fabric, which can be used in different areas of design - from creating garments, to using as a backdrop within photography, to even creating texture within graphic design. i created three different swatches with three different patterns - striped, checkerboard and square-in-square.
the final fabric swatches come packaged in cardstock boxes, complete with a small statement mini-booklet. complementary to the actual physical product were the process website and physical logbook, which included various experiments, steps taken and iterations of the product.
for more in-depth information about ‘capwear’, access the process website here!