Seattle Design Festival - Common Threads

Seattle Design Festival

Seattle, Washington

CLIENT

AIA Seattle

YEAR

2022

The Seattle Design Festival (SDF) was founded in 2011 as a strategic initiative of AIA Seattle. Its mission is to promote a dialogue about the role and impact of design in urban life. The festival has three primary tenets: to demonstrate the relevance of design thinking; to empower communities to leverage design; and promote a culture of collaboration.

The theme of the 2022 SDF was Connection – how can design affirm and strengthen critical connections within our community. For our proposal, Bassetti looked to experiences and interests as the connecting elements that strengthen ties in our community. We called our installation Common Threads.

The cylindrical installation was composed of parallel wood slats with pegs embedded in the slats on the outside. The face of each peg is embellished with universally recognizable images and icons designed by Bassetti’s Graphic Design team. Visitors were invited to cut a piece of colored thread of their choice from the thread station and wrap it around a peg whose icon speaks to them, continuing to the next peg of interest, and so on. The icons chosen inform the path of the string, connecting around the installation. The result, is a layered work of art that ties the community together through Common Threads.