ARK/ELLIA DESIGN
Art Cube exhibition pics – Yatoo GNAB
Laetitia Barbu / Designer and artist
Exploring Peripheral Intimacy — futures shaped through care, craft, and inner ecologies.
_DESIGN WORKS
Laetitia Barbu is a designer, founder of Ark-Ellia Design and Co-founder of Illustrious Lab. Laetitia has conducted and contributed to several projects supported by the European Union, Nordic Council and Governments, but also the French Government regarding cultural heritage and innovative design for sustainable development.
Her work is particularly addressing new meanings through innovation and design as well as intercultural and cross-sector opportunities and she integrates her creative skills into her projects and activities within Ark-Ellia Design and Illustrious Lab.
_RESIDENCES AND EXHIBITIONS
– 2025 – Residence at La Parcelle, the cultural garden of Le 19M (The House of Crafts of CHANEL, Paris-France) as part of the BLISS LLab – EU Creative FLIP project
– 2024 – Participation in the exhibition ‘Fair Play, design et métiers d’art, beaux joueurs de l’inclusion ?’ at Le JAD. Exhibition of Wear-Abouts/Care Wear and Tell Me projects with Illustrious Lab and In2FROCC at Le JAD in Sèvres/Paris.
– 2024 – Creation of the ‘Inner Nature’ artwork exhibited at the “Nature Art Cube Exhibition” organised by Geumgang Nature Art Biennale, South Korea, where artists share their artistic messages on nature.
– 2023 – Hisse et Oh! ‘Tissus d’émotions et d’imagination‘ Art – Design residency/workshops with Studio Abi – France/Paris area-Pantin
_ILLUSTRIOUS LAB
Illustrious Lab is a living lab co-founded by Ark-Ellia Design. Visit Illustrious Lab website
Illustrious Lab is a research activity using a Design Driven Innovation approach. It builds as well on a dedicated approach around the potential of using co-creation to generate innovative and sustainable solutions with and through design. Pic-Toast Studio
RECENT PROJECTS
Learning Labs – BLISS LLab Bridging Learning in Sustainable Styles
EU Creative FLIP Learning Labs (LLabs) on Sustainable Fashion & Textile, coordinated by Goethe-Institut Brussels. Cross-sectoral cooperation programme brings together schools and organisations from the Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries at local level. Read more
Hisse et Oh! ‘Tissus d’émotions et d’imagination‘ Art – Design residency/workshops
Hisse et Oh! ‘Tissus d’émotions et d’imagination‘ Art – Design residency/workshops with Studio Abi – France/Paris area-Pantin. Deepen creativity with textile art, revealing the almost infinite narrative potential of fabrics, immersing oneself in patterns and using them as a support for expression and a material for creation , to realize with the team and the families an installation which will become a new playground and stories for the children… Read more
Creative mentor – AFD
Creative mentor for AFD (Agence Française de Développement) – Afrique Créative incubation programme. AFD is a public financial institution that implements the policy defined by the French Government. It works to fight poverty and promote sustainable development.
Asian Design Futures
Asian Design Futures is the little sister blog of Cirkel Kids – Nordic Design Futures. The purpose of Asian Design Futures’ blog is to share interesting news, thoughts and innovative approaches coming from Asia. More
IN2FROCC – Tell Me
French and International projects involving directly children and fostering a better consideration and understanding of children’s voices in the field of children’s clothing and identity and beyond. This is the first project with children, developed under the umbrella of D4CR as part of the IN2FROCC programme. Based on the visual analysis of what children wear. More
STIMULI – Designs stimulating children
Series of prototypes aiming to stimulate physical and mental activity for children and the family. More
Cirkel Kids – Nordic design futures for children
Cirkel is a valuable resource for new parents and parents-to-be sharing information and research about sustainability aspects for Nordic children products, with a focus on “Scandi” fashion for kids. More
North at home
North at home is making use of Nordic cultural and educational items, physical and digital (mostly illustrated ones) to transmit the Nordic spirit and the themes associated to children and their parents around the world. More soon…
Illustrious North – Nordisk Kulturfond
Learn more about ILLUSTRIOUS NORTH project, launched in January 2020! ILLUSTRIOUS NORTH is a Lab concept that makes use of children illustrators work to rethink the relation between young people and their environments. It is developed based on concrete needs to foster cross-sector collaboration (bring together the experience from different sectors to identify and analyseContinue … Read more
Interactive illustrated apron using AR – PARTAGE Geneva food bank
We have worked in 2019 for PARTAGE, la banque alimentaire genevoise, the Geneva Food Bank (Switzerland). A great collaboration for Wear-Abouts Design to educate around food waste and the work of food banks through an interactive illustrated apron using augmented reality and allowing you to visit the hall of the Partage foundation in a newContinue … Read more
Helsinki Children’s Design Week 2019
We are delighted that our workshops designed for schools and children/families, entitled “A secret garden” have been chosen by the Helsinki Children’s Design Week and will be held in September 2019 at the Annantalo house in the heart of Helsinki! This year’s theme is about ‘learning climate’ and the workshops will be held in relationContinue … Read more
Events, blog posts and publications
| EVENTS |
| STIMULI project presented at #CultureforHealth Report Launch |
| Irene Fernández Arcas and Laetitia Barbu will present the STIMULI project at the #CultureforHealth Report Launch on the 24th of November 2022. The event will be a meeting point for policymakers, arts and cultural practitioners, and health and wellness experts to discuss the reports findings and current policies. https://www.cultureforhealth.eu/events/24-november-launch-of-the-cultureforhealth-report/ |
| Tell Me – An online exhibition based on children’s way of telling about their clothes |
| This is the first project with children, developed under the umbrella of D4CR Scottish and French local chapters as part of the IN2FROCC programme. Based on the visual analysis of what children wear and how they define themselves in fashion, the “Amis-habits” (frocks-friends) of schools around the world share their daily interactions with clothing. |
| PUBLICATIONS |
| IN2FROCC network |
| Illustrious Lab co-authored “Towards an Informed, Participative and Sustainable Approach of Children’s Fashion and Clothing: IN2FROCC in Action” academic paper, in connection with our activities within IN2FROCC network and published in the academic journal “Emerald Studies in Child Centred Practice / Establishing Child Centred Practice in a Changing World, Part A” https://www.emerald.com/…/978-1-80117-406…/full/html |
| Illustrious North project |
| “Designing for Longevity and Neutrality: Investigating How the Swedish Children’s Clothing Industry Implements Circular Economy Principles” with Dr Taylor Brydges, Dr Claudia E Henninger, Laetitia Barbu and Dr Ruxandra Lupu, in connection with Illustrious Lab – Illustrious North project supported by #NordiskKulturfond (#NordicCouncil). Published in the academic journal “Fashion Practice”. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17569370.2022.2118968 |
| Innovation/Collaboration NDPC |
| Illustrious North is mentioned in the new study ‘Collaboration and Innovation in the Northern Dimension Countries’ |
| Creative Networks |
| Joining the Dots – Understanding the value generation of Creative Networks |
| Biocolour – Exploring Sustainable Colour exhibition |
| Our work with children and families (Illustrious North/North at home) will be presented on the BioColour website in connection with the Biocolour -Exploring Sustainable Colour exhibition (in collaboration with the University of Lapland Faculty of Arts) at the Arktikum Science Centre and Museum in Rovaniemi, Finland from the 14.10-5.12.2021. |
| Interactions with food |
| Through the Zoom Glass: Drawing Design Inspiration from Mediated Playful Interactions with Food and Child Personas |
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