Hi, my name is Micah and I use she/her/hers pronouns. I am a prospective Women’s & Gender Studies major, and I am taking this class because I often become frustrated at the lack of concern for any bodies other than cis, male, abled ones in design and would like to learn how to come up with improved design myself. I worked for a installation art museum this summer, and witnessed firsthand how making art more accessible can impact people.
This is a round, shiny, silver earring made of metal. It has tiny star and moon shapes in negative space of the bottom half of the circular earring, and the top half is empty, lined only with wire. It attaches to the earlobe with a short metal post that extends from the back of the top circle, and a small backing that slides on to the end of the post behind the earlobe.
The feature of this design that most enhances the user experience is the chain links between the 3 separate metal components, just large enough to allow the pieces to swing back and forth independently from the attached pieces. This results in a fun swinging effect when wearing them. The earring also “projects” its tiny motif onto the skin when light shines through it. The design of the earring backing is not ideal, as it threatens to slide off of these heavier earrings if the post does not fit perfectly within it. I wonder why they did not eliminate the top circle altogether and replace it with a latch in the wire arc. This product could be reasonably sustainable if it wasn’t mass produced, because it could be created from very small amounts of cheap metals. It probably cost no more than $2 to make, and it is made out of a mixture of metals, perhaps aluminum or copper. It has 7 parts that link together.
It’s great to have you in class Micah! I’ve never seen earrings that take advantage of shadows (or never thought about that feature, perhaps) … how cool! Nice analysis 🙂