2011
Guiding Hat
Design: COMPANY (Aamu Song & Johan Olin)
Client: Gwangju Design Biennale
Makers: No Sun Geol, Lee Young Bok, No Ji Sun.
Location: Gwangju & Dam Yang, Jeolla Do provice, South Korea.
Material: Bamboo

Company was invited to participate Gwangju Design Biennale 2011. Our mission was to create uniforms for the guides working at the biennale. Jeolla Do province (Gwangju) being known for its bamboo craft, we decided to work with local bamboo masters and create a new types of hats for the Biennale.

Guiding Hats

Guiding Hats

View from the exhibition.

View from the exhibition.

31.08. Opening ceremony of Gwangju biennale. We were unable to be at the opening but luckily our friend and collegueTuomas Toivonen performed in the opening – wearing our Guiding Hat. Kamsahamnida T.T.

Aamu and bamboo master No Sun Geol talking hats.

Johan & No Sun Geol and the first hats.

We are producing all together no less than 50 hats for the biennale.

Top parts for the type 1 hats.

No Sun Geouls sister No Ji Sun joins us in making of the type 2 hats.

In m aking of the type 2 model hat we use thicker bamboo strips.

No Sun Geoul trimming the rim of the type 1 hat.

Weaving of the hat can start.

And made thinner and thinner.

The bamboo strips are then split thinner.

Trunks are then cut in desired lenghts and split in strips. Master Lee Young Bok in front.

To prepare the materil for hats the bamboo trunks are first peeled and polished.

Dam Yang. Buying material for the hats.

How the Guiding Hats are made? (Read from left to right, starting from top left corner). Drawings by COMPANY.

Study pieces before finding the final forms.