Emma Friedlander-Collins applies design process and creative thinking to help solve wicked problems such as sustainability issues around what we wear. Her tools include crochet hacking, remaking and sharing tutorials via Instagram which she juggles alongside lecturing, writing books, teaching two small children and nurturing a tiny backyard ecosystem during lockdown.
Based at Brighton in the United Kingdom, Emma used a design process to adapt their family living space, moving two boys into one room and converting other room into a tiny office and studio by painting the walls white. Emma’s used to working around the children, always adapting her work to the needs of the family.
“I did a Masters’ degree in sustainable design and learned how we can use design as a problem-solving tool. To apply creative thinking process to wicked problems, such as sustainability and what’s going on with our planet. Using this visual process, I teach a fashion communication course and talk a lot about changing how we think about fashion. I use my Instagram feed consciously to make sustainability look gorgeous – rather than how we expect it to look which is green, grainy, earthy and wholesome. That’s the traditional visual narrative but I want to make it cool, using an authentic voice.”
Emma says it has been really transformative to see how we have connected with each other all of a sudden during the lockdown. “We’ve gone from disparate busy lives to slow-paced connected lives and I would love for that to stay here. I hope we keep the beautiful change allowing for nature to come back into the world as we have stopped driving and flying, and found other ways of communicating by phone instead of gallivanting so much. I hope we remember the real positives coming out of this and hold on to them – including the ability to change our clothes as we grow and evolve.”
Listen to Jane Milburn’s conversation with Emma in the video below, read notes below the video, or find out more about Emma on her blog or on Instagram @steelandstitch