THE SUNGLASS DESIGN CHALLENGE

If have you ever been to the optometrist's, sunglass section of a department store or even online, you know the choices when it comes to sunglasses are truly endless. The amount of different lens shapes and colors as well as style of frames to consider will make your head spin.
 
Try this fun sunglass design challenge!  It not only helps focus in on a perfect pair, either for you or as a gift for someone special, but also teaches fashion terminology and elements of design. And glasses gifted with a beautifully framed custom created portrait are even better. 
 
I hope you enjoy playing around with this fashion challenge and create something beautiful that makes your life sparkle. ​

Check out this absolutely fascinating TED talk on the history and function of eyeglasses!  I think you will find it very inspiring and informative. ​

Materials & Supplies:
Art Supplies: Glue, watercolor paint, paint brushes, chalk or pastels, markers, coloring pencils, pencil and eraser, beads, stickers, sparkles, stick-on gems
X-acto Knife and foil (optional - to create reflective sunglass design)
Photograph of the person you are designing for (optional)
-Printout of face shape(s) - preferably on good quality watercolor paper
-Sunglass Detail cubes –print and assemble

 
Directions:

1. Arrange all the art supplies nicely on the table along with the face printout and sunglass detail cubes. If you are designing with a specific person in mind choose from the printouts attached a sketch of the face shape similar to the face you are designing for and print enough to create your first collection of sunglasses. Have a photo of them ready to reference as you design. 
2. Allow the child (or yourself!) to come to the project and express freely without any limitations. The cubes and face shapes are there to help spark imagination if you don’t know where to start and what to draw. Roll the paper cubes like dice and draw whatever pops up. One cube represents rim shape, another frame style and last cube represents lens color. You will get prompts from the cubes like “sparkly gem frames”, mixed with “pink reflective lenses” and “heart shaped lenses”. Use them to start creating the sunglasses on the sketch of the face. Draw in the hair, ears, neck based on the photograph and sketch in the sunglasses using a 6B pencil so you are able to erase if you make a mistake. Chalk and pastels are really useful for rendering skin tone. The portraits don’t have to be perfect and in fact abstract portraits with yellow faces and square noses are fun and beautiful as well. 
3. After you design a collection start narrowing down to one pair that will suit the person you are purchasing sunglasses for. What is their style? How do they dress on a regular basis? Playfully? Classy and simple? Creatively? Sporty? Are they serious or wild? What is their favorite color and print? To design a pair of reflective lenses, cut out the lens part of the sunglasses after you design them and tape in the foil in place from the back. Color the foil with a marker depending on what color reflective lenses you want to create.
4. Look these glasses up at a local store or on-line. By filling in the defining characteristics of the glasses you designed you should be able to be led to similar looking glasses. 

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Alternatively you can gift your collection of portraits and allow your friend to purchase the kind of sunglasses they want based on what you designed. Fill in the blanks of the template letter to show them your design thought process.
 
A few interesting style facts and tips to consider!
 
-Sporty People will find sunglasses with curved lenses and UV protection useful
-Playful people will like sunglasses in unique shapes like fruit, heart and star and funky frames that are in print or bedazzled with jewels
-Classic shapes of sunglasses that are always in style are cat eye, round, tear drop (or aviator) and rectangular
-Cat eye sunglasses and sunglasses with large lenses and frames exude a quality of mystery. Are you or your friend mysterious? 
-The basic styling rule to choosing the perfect sunglasses is the shape of the sunglasses should be the OPPOSITE of the shape of the face. If the face shape is round, to create balance, design sunglasses with sharp angled frames like on cat-eye shaped sunglasses.

 
Happy Creating!

Click here to get PRINTABLE FILES mentioned in the article.

You might also enjoy reading "How to Find the Perfect Sunglasses to Suit your Face Shape".  It was written by Pala Eyewear founder, John Pritchard and featured on Eco-Age, our go-to source for information on how to be ethically and environmentally fashionable. ​