Chromarama II
Digitally woven tapestry
Laura Luchtman
Chromarama wants to contribute to a (design) world, in which there is room for valuable experiences of people with a visual impairment or disability.
Chromarama II
Digitally woven tapestry
Blue-Blindness simulation
Chromarama II
Digitally woven tapestry
Green-blindness simulation
Chromarama II
Digitally woven tapestry
Red-blindness simulation
Encaustic Embroidery, Birch and Moss (2019)
8 inches diameter
Japanese tissue, encaustic medium, honeycomb, birch bark, glass beads, thread in embroidery hoop
Chromarama II
Digitally woven tapestry
Blue-weakness simulation
Laura Luchtman from Kukka Textile & Surface Design has done a fascinating project regarding colour vision deficiency. Chromarama is a series of five woven tapestries in a series of colours to bring awareness to the topic of colour blindness which affects 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women.
Where are you from?
I was born in Heerlen (The Netherlands) and I live and work in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Where did you study?
My educational background is a bit of a mix and detour. I studied European Studies at the The Hague University of Applied Sciences for one year, then I switched to a BA Communication Studies, with a major in Creative Communication at Inholland University of Applied Sciences in Rotterdam and I graduated. After graduation I worked for one year, but I wanted to do something more creative and I always loved to draw and design. So I studied another four years of Fashion Styling at Akademie Vogue in Amsterdam. After I graduated I worked as a designer of intimate apparel where I gradually specialised in surface pattern design and eventually in textile design. It was a very gradual process which keeps on evolving.
How do you describe your work?
With my work I like to make people think. I usually start from research, where I dig into social or cultural issues. I dissect these subjects, make them my own and then translate them into abstract, graphic simplicity. You have to look for the layers in my work, which makes it exciting. The works are calming or stimulating, but always in balance.
Tell me about your colourblind series
Chromarama is a series of five graphic and colourful woven tapestries, designed for the various forms of colour vision deficiency. While for most of us colour is an obvious part of our visual perception, 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women are colour blind. To avoid loss of visual information, the design requirements were explored together with a colour-blind peer group. This artistic research was then translated into jacquard woven colour studies in the TextielMuseum’s renowned TextielLab in The Netherlands https://textielmuseum.nl/en/. The tapestries are interconnected by materiality and graphic elements, despite the different functions of each individual design.
Within the design field, there is a lot of interest in colour perception and colour psychology. However, little attention is paid to the differences in sensory colour perception. People with CVD experience daily problems when colour is used to convey information. Everyday tasks such as picking out clothes or home decorations, watching team sports, reading graphs, charts and maps, navigating through websites and software, checking ripe or cooked foods, or naming colours are difficult or nearly impossible for some. Although guidelines have been established for functional design for colour blindness, the knowledge of designers and educators often leaves much to be desired. Chromarama originated from my drive to increase awareness about this topic. How can we take visual limitations into account in not only functional design but also decorative design?
On the one hand, my research continues on scientific theories and interviews with colour blind people and colour experts, on the other hand, it is personal observations and interpretations. By imposing limitations on my colour palette, and designing from a colour blind perspective, I created graphic colour studies, specially designed for the different forms of colour blindness. Certain colours and colour combinations have to be avoided for different forms of colour blindness. While in some tapestries colours might still appear different to people with impaired colour vision, the design itself does not. This effect is visualised through various simulations. Using simulations also helped during the design and development process. Despite the different functions of each individual design, the tapestries are interconnected by materiality and graphic elements.
The use of colour is very precise and is sometimes complicated by the medium, as woven yarns give a different colour effect than drawn and digital design sketches. By studying different weaves and combining different colour yarns, matte and shiny yarns, the right contrasts have been achieved.
With juxtapositions inspired by Josef Albers and patterns based on the principles of the famous Ishihara colour blindness test – where colour blind people see different patterns than people with normal colour vision – these graphic colour studies play with shape, contrast, texture, subtle shine and tactility. On the one hand, they are specially designed for different forms of colour blindness. On the other hand, the design tries to convey what it is like to be colour blind because this is difficult for most of us to imagine.
Chromarama wants to contribute to a (design) world, in which there is room for valuable experiences of people with a visual impairment or disability.
Are they machine woven or hand woven and why did you choose this?
The tapestries are machine woven on a Dornier Jacquard loom because I really wanted to work with the TextielLab and their skilled product developers. I don’t have the skills to weave this by hand myself.