Dezeen Magazine

Toolform by Jiarui Liao makes fashion manufacturing a "collaborative process"

Toolform by Jiarui Liao makes fashion manufacturing a "collaborative process"

OPPO x RCA Humanising Technology: ToolForm is a conceptual "self-service platform" by Jiarui Liao that introduces end-users into the fashion industry's manufacturing processes.

Toolform, which focuses specifically on the design of glasses, represents how collaborating with customers can make the fashion industry more sustainable and its products more ergonomic.

The service relies on parametric 3D-model generation to help customers to tailor a pair of glasses to perfectly fit their features before they are 3D-printed with zero-waste.

While offering a way to make the fashion industry more resource-efficient, Liao's intention is to also propose a shop model suited to the future to help existing retailers survive and grow.

Liao developed Toolform in response to a brief set by OPPO London Design Centre – the design hub of global technology company OPPO – while studying the Royal College of Art's MA Design Products programme.

"It applies a self-service platform, using physical interaction and parametric 3D model generation, to reduce the waste of production materials and large inventory in the fashion industry," explained OPPO London Design Centre.

"This collaborative process forms a future manufacturing interface, to allow the end-users to participate."


Global technology company OPPO is presenting seven people-centric projects by five Royal College of Art students that were developed in collaboration with its design hub, OPPO London Design Centre.

The five featured students were among eight of those mentored by the global technology company while studying the MA Design Products programme, during which they answered a brief entitled Humanising Technology.

See OPPO's selection of projects from the OPPO x RCA Humanising Technology collaboration here.