Press Release
The Armor Costume for a Character by Samantha Chijona Garcia and Vladimir Cuenca Wins the Silver A' Design Award in Performing Arts, Stage, Style and Scenery Design
Samantha Chijona Garcia and Vladimir Cuenca honored for performing arts, stage, style and scenery design by the international grand jury of the 2019 - 2020 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 22, 2020 /DesignNewswire/ The Armor Costume for a Character by Samantha Chijona Garcia and Vladimir Cuenca, designed for Jazz Martinez Gamboa, has been granted the Silver A' Design Award in the Performing Arts, Stage, Style and Scenery Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The award was conferred within the 2019 - 2020 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who scored anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
What the Silver A' Design Award Means
The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.
More About The Armor Costume for a Character
The Armor is a theatrical costume created for the character Richard III in a stage production of a Shakespeare play. The costume is made from recycled and disused materials. Metal lines are sewn onto a twill jacket, while overlapping leather gaiters form a separate structure joined by leather straps and buckles. A chainmail glove closes the sleeve, and a velvet hat lined with metal strips serves as a helmet. The six parts can be added or removed as the character changes during the play. The design reflects both the king and the vulnerable man within him.
About Samantha Chijona Garcia and Vladimir Cuenca
Samantha Chijona is a young Cuban-Spanish Costume designer and Art director. Grown in Habana, she graduated in 2016 from the Complutense University of Madrid in the Design degree and she also has taken courses at The Saint Martins school of arts and the Instituto Europeo di Design. She has been working in Art and Wardrobe Departments at films, advertising, and theater, leading groups in national and international projects since 2012.
Award Record
Samantha Chijona Garcia and Vladimir Cuenca is a winner of 1 A' Design Award, including this recognition.
About the A' Performing Arts, Stage, Style and Scenery Design Award
The A' Performing Arts Design Award is an international competition recognizing excellence in set, stage, and performing arts design by top designers worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to performing arts designers, set designers, theater architects and costume designers from all countries. Entries typically include choreography, dance moves, theatrical sets, dance costumes, stage lighting and opera props. Awarded performing arts designs are published at https://desingers.org/design-category/performing-arts
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://desingers.org/102743
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/102743
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!102743
- Laureate Profile: https://desingers.org/d/268931
- Further Information from the Laureate: https://www.behance.net/SamanthaCHGarcia
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- The Armor Costume for a Character
- Function
- Costume for a Character
- Category
- Performing Arts, Stage, Style and Scenery Design
- Discipline
- Communication Design
- Industry
- Arts and Entertainment
- Colors
- Black, Dark Slate Gray, Dim Gray, Gray and Dark Gray
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Jazz Martinez Gamboa
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Samantha Chijona Garcia and Vladimir Cuenca
- Country
- Spain
- Recognition
- Silver A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2019 - 2020
- Design ID
- #102743
Credits
- Team
- Samantha Chijona and Vladimir Cuenca
- Image Credits
- Image 1,2,3,4,5: Samantha Chijona Photographer/ Samantha Chijona Designer /Richard III/ The Armor /Model: Maria Gabriela Sanchez, 2018
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- This armor, made with fully recycled materials, mixes metallic corset nerves referring to the classic western armor, topped by a butcher's chainmail glove that evokes the bloodthirsty of the character with leather leggings overlapping layers denoting the various faces assumed by the character during the plot. From a modernist vision in terms of fabric, overlapping and weaving of pieces the structure refers to the vulnerability of the King and the man who lives at the same time in Richard III.
- Inspiration
- Having studied for years structures that we use when dressing and that have protected and distancing ourselves from the real world I choose one of my favorite, the armor. I took advantage of the study of Western and Japanese war pieces and modernized it with the use of materials and disused pieces. The text of Shakespeare's play emphasizes the two faces and the physical problem of the character I used it as inspiration to separate and show the two parts of Richard III.
- Research
- My research flew over two essential aspects, the historical and the technical. After having studied for years Western and Japanese armors, the challenge of creating one was wonderful. I had to solve how I should use the historical engineering structures in those garments with the modern materials I had in hand. I read and compiled images and information, of the western armor, I appropriated the metal and the order of the parts while from the Japanese I took overlays of leather pieces sewn with cord. The result was a very visual and modern armor that keeps its basic function, protection.
- Challenge
- The development of the piece became a challenge, I wanted to do something great for the character but working in Cuba is always difficult due to the lack of resources, so while researching, I also located materials. Looking in an antique warehouse I found these old pieces of unused corsets bones and leather leggings and decided to use them. With only one month to prepare the entire theater play with more than 16 characters we were detained in this armor for a week, assembling, testing and sewing piece by piece in search of achieving an attractive but useful result.
- Realization and Technology
- The armor is compound by 6 pieces. 1: The metal structure, it is metal lines sewn on a twill weave jerkin jacket, 2: the leather armor, leather gaiters overlapping forms an independent structure that joins the rest of the set with leather straps closed by buckles, 3: The metal glove, a chainmail glove closes the cuff to give the sleeve a shot, 4: The helmet, a velvet hat lined with metal strips works as an armor helmet 5: The pants, a black twill pants and finally 6: Black leather boots to the knees.
- Operation and Interaction
- The piece is compound by 6 small parts, the main three, armor jacket, pant and boots are easy to put, also it has another leather structure which should be placed with buckles while the hat and the glove are closed by an elastic piece. the interaction between the actor and the piece is determined for the modular form of the main piece, the person can take off the leather part, the helmet, the glove and keep only the base jacket, pants and boots, in the same way he can add more pieces throught the evolution of the character inside the theater play.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project started in June 2018 in Havana, Cuba and ended in September 2018 in Havana, Cuba.
- Specifications
- Armor- 45cmx30cmx55cm Helmet- diameter:57cm High: 23cm
- Keywords
- Costume design, Shakespeare, Richard III, Armor, theater, cuban designer, Samantha Chijona Design, schijonag.
