The Lost Graduation Show: RISD MID ‘21 Students, Ellie Liu and Elena Huang, Showcase Thesis Work
This year, over 170 works of graduate design students from different schools and different countries were exhibited at the Lost Graduation Show in Milan. The Salone del Mobile furniture fair created a chance for those who graduated in the last 2 years but were unable to have a physical show due to COVID to exhibit their thesis works as a way to make up for this loss.
Student works from 48 schools, 28 different countries were displayed. Among them, RISD MID ‘21 students, Jiaqi (Ellie) Liu and Danlei (Elena) Huang, were among those 100s of newly graduated students who exhibited their project in Milan.
Ellie exhibited Kitsch Study: The Shared Happiness, a modular and playful furniture collection with ideas of Chinese happiness by using the visual aesthetics of kitsch to invite people to share the furniture piece together.
Elena exhibited Inter: The invisible Skin, a garment made from squid waste that fostered action-oriented awareness towards sustainable transition.
(Left) Kitsch, by Ellie Liu. (Right) Inter-, by Elena Huang.
After receiving an open call to submit to the Lost Graduation Show from Ayako Takase, the ID Graduate Program Director, Ellie and Elena both submitted their thesis projects in early 2021. Due to travel restrictions and job timing, neither could go to Milan in person, but were able to ship their pieces overseas. Despite some shipping issues, their pieces ultimately were available on display.
Kitsch Study: The Shared Happiness
There is a phrase in Chinese called “mei su”, or “amuse people”, and describes the method of attracting people to make them happy. Ellie noticed that the culture of the toy market in China was the prioritization of making money from the impractical but visually marketable toys, rather than offering higher quality, more useful items.
Ellie wanted to change this system. She wanted to do something that had good aesthetics, colors and shapes, but was also useful and made people happy in the process. For this reason, Ellie chose to make the furniture collection for her graduate project. “If you share the aesthetics with others, you can gain more happiness,” She says. “If you use it alone, you feel like it’s not the right way to use it. But if you have 2 people, you can share the process with others and enjoy the experience more.” Due to her being remote for the school year during the COVID pandemic, Ellie asked family members to test the furniture pieces for her.
Inter: The Invisible Skin
Elena exhibited both the Invisible Skin, a garment made from squid fish waste, and the Gladius, a kitchen utensil for at-home squid processing. Her thesis explores design interventions for fostering action-oriented awareness towards sustainability, and provides a holistic approach towards rebuilding an interconnectedness between humanity and nature. The garment design language is a biomimicry of the taxonomy of a squid, and emphasized the large fins of the squid that are normally removed before appearing in supermarkets.
Elena had created the Gladius to assist preparing a squid for a meal. After a workshop exploring different cultural ways to prepare and cook squid using the squid-gutting tool, Elena was left wondering how to re-use inedible parts of squid material afterward. Inter was also in part inspired by the practice by various indigenous people to use leftover pieces of animals/food to create other objects, out of respect for and having a spiritual connection to nature.
Speaking of their RISD experience, they both miss their student lives at RISD. They drew much inspiration from their courses and peers, and those ideas, added with their personal experiences, were what was distilled and refined into their final thesis project.
Ellie took a lot of inspiration from courses, particularly in subject matters concerning designing for users, taking users into consideration, the use of color, and the balance of aesthetic and practical aspects. Elena learned a lot through the research process and various thinking methods taught at RISD.
“Stay in touch with your cohort.” “Learn from your peers.” “Find a balance between making and thinking.” “Try to think rationally and empathetically.” “Cherish your school time.” --Advice from Ellie and Elena
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Ellie Liu was a 2.5 MID ‘21 graduate who transitioned from graphic design to industrial design. She is currently working in a game company in China doing toy design.
Elena Huang was a 2.5 MID ‘21 graduate with a background in mechanical engineering. She is currently working in Formlabs in Boston.