Banners and Quilts: Who Am I? What Matters?

  1. Introduction to Banners and Quilts: Who Am I? What Matters? (assignment introduction)
    A Walk Round Banner Culture (video of the exhibition)
  2. Siena Italy, The Palio, 10:47
  3. Asofo Flags: Stitched Through Time, Gus Casely-Hayford, 6:58
  4. Gus Casely-Hayford on Fante Asofo Flags, Artist and Empire, 3:55
  5. Unity Through Design: The Power of Flags, Michael Green, 15:27
  6. Shoton Festival, 1:42
  7. Silk, Satin and Suffrage, 10:18

Banners and Quilts: Who Am I? What Matters?
Your task is to create a soft banner or quilt that expresses who you are and what you care about. This piece should have presence — it is not an intimate object. Whether displayed on a wall, hung in a window, draped over a couch, or carried at a rally, your work should command attention and stand out.

The central focus is you: your values, your beliefs, your identity, or a problem you want to bring into the light. No issue is too small, too mundane, too frivolous, or too large and complex. Abstract and decorative elements are welcome as long as they complement and support your intended message. Your challenge is to find the right balance between directness, clarity, and poetic expression.

Requirements

  1. Context. Consider the space where your banner or quilt is meant to exist. That context should inform its scale, shape, and design.
  2. Completion. The front, edges, and back of the piece must all be considered and finished.
  3. Hanging. If the piece is meant to hang, the hanging mechanism must be appropriate for its intended context.
  4. Size. The shape and size must complement your concept, with a minimum of 4 square feet.
  5. Text. You must incorporate text in any language — even if it is only a name or a date.
  6. Techniques. You may use any combination of the following to construct your piece: quilting methods such as patchwork and appliqué, silk screening with cut vinyl, block printing, resist dyeing, painting on fabric, and embroidery. Technical demonstrations will be provided for basic quilting, silk screening, block printing, and cellulose fabric dyeing.

Design Process
No creative process is the same, and everyone approaches creative challenges differently. The process outlined below is one way of navigating that challenge — not the only way. That said, most creative processes share two essential features: ITERATION and EVALUATION.

ITERATION is the act of expanding possibilities for an idea, whether visual or conceptual. It means taking an idea and finding a variety of ways to express it. EVALUATION is the act of identifying which iteration is most successful. Repeating this cycle — generating possibilities, then judging among them — is what many disciplines call the design process, artistic practice, or brainstorming.

But what makes something SUCCESSFUL? Any judgment of success requires criteria: a sense of what is being valued and why. Those criteria can come from two directions.

The first is internal. Your private values — your personality, your heritage, your social, political, and spiritual beliefs, your experiences, your goals — all shape what you find meaningful and worth pursuing. The second is external. An audience also sets expectations: a teacher, a market, a grant committee, a cultural institution, or even one particular person you want to reach. Both internal and external criteria inform every formal and conceptual choice you make.

In this class, the assignment sets certain parameters that define the outer boundaries of success. Use those parameters to gauge whether your ideas are answering the call. But the assignment also leaves significant freedom to you, the maker. You are responsible for identifying what your own private values and goals are — and for holding your work accountable to them. A useful starting point: ask yourself what you would want this work to do or say if no one were grading it. That answer is worth pursuing.

Design Steps

  1. Identify 1–3 issues or topics you may want to visually express in response to the prompt “What Matters?”
  2. Iterate. Generate 5–10 ways each idea could be expressed visually. Work fast and without judgment. Embrace the imperfect sketch.
  3. Reflect. Answer the following questions to clarify the internal goals guiding your work:
    • How do you want someone who matters to you — a grandmother, a mentor, a person you wish to impress — to respond when they see your piece?
    • What aesthetic style are you drawn to, and why? If you’re unsure, spend time on Pinterest searching quilts, artistic banners, paintings, and graphic imagery. Notice what grabs your attention and try to name why.
    • Some ideas are best expressed in a specific visual language. Are you willing to work outside your usual aesthetic comfort zone if it serves your idea more honestly?
    • Do you have strong opinions you want to express? Will your piece be bold and direct, or quiet and puzzle-like? What makes a subtle visual experience still deliver a clear message?
    • Find one example of a textile work that expresses an idea loudly. Find one that does so quietly. What can you learn from each?
  4. Evaluate. Use the criteria you have set for yourself to identify which iterations are most successful.
  5. Iterate again. Expand on the iterations that are working. Begin making life-size mock-ups in paper and fabric, using pins, tape, and thread when you feel ready. Photograph your progress to document possibilities. Make samples where needed to test physical feasibility.
  6. Repeat the cycle of iteration and evaluation until you have exhausted your creative options and are ready to commit to a final design.
  7. Finalize. Develop your to-scale design. Identify the techniques and color palette you will use. Gather your tools and materials. Create a step-by-step plan with a realistic schedule, balancing time, your technical abilities, and the demands of your chosen techniques.