Burak Eceral

Hollywood Tragedy

Class of: 2024

Major: Product Design BFA

Medium: Place Setting

Faculty: Aaron Krach

Prompt: In this assignment, our professor assigned us to study a particular design style and come up with proper utility to design a place setting that radiates that era. We also got assigned to properly display our designing process using mind maps, mood boards, and sketches. In this particular project, I intended to focus on the style “Old Hollywood Glamour” and design a place setting that radiates its dark and luxurious energy.

For this piece, I used the ceramics in my household and repurposed them with the decorations I bought from a dollar store. While creating this place setting, I wanted to re  ect on all the aspects of the chosen style without stepping out of the requirements of this assignment. Most importantly, I decided not to recreate the authentic dishes in the given period. Rather than that, I intended to portray this style as to how I imagine that era today. Also, I noticed that the media is only familiar with the attractiveness of the Hollywood Glamour era, and they are unaware of all the dark secrets of it. In this place setting, I exposed all of it…One of the darkest facts about Hollywood in the 1930s is that there was a high percentage of drug usage among all A-level celebrities. Sadly, it even led to overdosing and the passing of a very talented bunch. So, by displaying powdered sugar on the plate, I visualized this issue and brought awareness to it. Also, I realized that, at those times, people used to have a crystal bowl to offer their guests cigarettes. I intended to combine these two concepts in my place setting by placing imitation cigarettes in the bowl. Moreover, I decided to include an additional utility to the collection which is a little hand mirror. I imagined the glamorous actresses checking their lipsticks after taking a bite of their food or checking if they have a nosebleed for obvious reasons. For the champagne glass and the silverware, I used pearls to give them a romantic look that radiates sexuality and wealth at the same time. I strongly think that pearls are stable for this particular era and style.