Making of the Sensual Empire umbrella

As told by Yana Frank.

When I was offered to design an umbrella I got really excited, it was my first opportunity to make such a complex object just the way I want to. As a rule of thumb, custom graphics for umbrellas come in maximum two pieces alternated on the opposite wedges because it’s simply too much trouble to make eight different pictures for all the sections. Another common practice is to cut the canopy from a whole piece of fabric avoiding patterns following the pie-slice outline too closely. Each umbrella material stretches differently and you have to sew up models time and time again before it gets clear where to place your designs in relation to seams.

In short, I used this project to explore the most difficult ways available for this application. I never saw an umbrella with such complex graphics adjusted to the structure’s physical details and want to say confidently you won’t see another one like that.

Starting with a frame for each wedge.

Filling it in.

Lining up all the fragments to find the optimal order. Images with limbs should occupy every other section while the torso or face pictures should sit on opposite sides.

Coloring it in and making sure the background alternates on every second wedge as well.

This layout with all the pieces in the correct order goes to production to insure proper assembly.