Portfolio

For my senior thesis project, I created modular, transformative furniture for new parents. The goal of this project was to create environmentally conscious furniture by extending product lifetime. While I was focused on reducing furniture waste, I was also focused on facilitating meaningful interactions between parent and child. My final product is a rocking loveseat that executes the functions of a rocker, cradle, doc-a-tot, tummy time mat, and toy storage container, all in one. The cradle, once outgrown, can become a storage ottoman with either a hard tabletop or a soft top. The fabric storage drawers and cushion covers are easily removable and machine washable to accommodate the everyday messes of family life. The rockers are removable and, when removed, can be stored in the fabric storage drawers. The goal of this design is to facilitate convenient and meaningful interactions between parent and child, whether it be in infancy by providing a space for rocking, napping, and feeding, or in toddlerhood and childhood by providing a space for reading, learning and playing.

A majority of young adults wear makeup, but let’s be Frank, how many of us actually wash our makeup brushes? While it is recommended to wash a makeup brush every two weeks, most never wash them at all. The result? Acne threatening to compromise the confidence and style achieved through the makeup.

Through a simple alteration of the ubiquitous, traditional makeup brush, Frank not only facilitates cosmetic application, but also encourages dermatological hygiene, maximizes space, and reduces waste.

The subscription-based Frank makeup brush set is designed to keep makeup brushes clean and skin clear. The set consists of one reusable handle and interchangeable brush heads, reducing the amount of plastic per brush and likewise the amount of counter space they occupy. The brush heads come in a variety shapes designed to suit a wide range of applications and can easily be swapped from the handle via a magnetic strip. The Frank system takes the burden of cleaning makeup brushes off of the customer, and keeps the soiled brushes out of the landfill.

We believe the customer should never have to choose between healthy skincare and their time or budget, but we also believe the solution shouldn’t come at a cost to our planet. Frank is made of recycled and recyclable materials, and eliminates the need to discard brushes once they’ve past their prime. The handle may be used indefinitely and the brush heads may be returned and repurposed.

Frank responds to and is born of the modern cosmetic market. In the era of social media, people are more interested in curating their appearances, but are also increasingly informed about both application tools and techniques, and skincare best practices. Like its adaptive, modular form, Frank nimbly remedies multiple issues associated with the traditional makeup brush in one elegantly simple design.

Frank (Previously named Pura) is one of the 2020 winners of the MICA Up/Start competition, a competition that awards seed money to entrepreneurial ventures.

For this project, I designed a device that facilitates convenient at-home music therapy for Parkinson's patients. Music therapy uses rhythm, melody, and preferred movement to address issues that commonly affect people with PD, such as bradykinesia (a slowness of movement that can lead to difficulties with activities of daily living). The main device is a rounded square plastic shell, which houses the sensor. The shell has rails on all four sides so that it can be inserted into the different cases in any direction. I designed two sets of hand and foot cases, one for mild symptoms, and one for severe symptoms. The cases for mild symptoms include a silicone watch strap, similar to the Apple Watch Sport strap, and a plastic clip, which can attach to a wide variety of shoes. The cases for severe symptoms include an elastic wrist strap, which easily slips onto the wrist, and a pocketed sock.

The sensor tracks dexterity and mobility in the arms and gait tracking in the feet; it then feeds information to the phone app to assess the success level of each session. The device collects data on the accuracy of the patient's ability to walk and/or clap in tandem with the speed and beat of the songs. The device records the patient's ability to step and/or clap on the beat, and the app adjusts the music accordingly to improve patient performance.

This project was a sponsored project with a company that creates devices to better facilitate music therapy for stroke patients. Due to confidentiality agreements with the company, the logo in the renders has been removed and replaced with the series of lines, and the logo on the prototypes has been blurred. Information regarding how the sensor and app work together and how the music is manipulated for successful music therapy is also confidential.

Tanglow is a tactile smart light that features soft, molded felt and flexible touch-sensitive LED panels, which invite users to tactilely engage with Tanglow to turn on the light and control the brightness. 

Lights on the market are made of hard materials like metal, plastic, and glass, and the extent of their user interaction is pressing a button or flipping a switch. Tanglow offers lighting that is truly interactive. The soft felt makes the light pleasurable to touch and the smart LED panel responds to a series of programed gestures. 

The product has a three part design. The outer cover is made of soft, steam molded industrial felt waste. Inside of the felt is a flexible smart LED panel, which is programmed to respond to specific gestures. The base is made from computer numerical controlled (CNC) wood.

There are two programmed gestures. The first gesture is a simple press to turn the light on and off. The second gesture is a circular sweep to adjust the brightness of the light (similar to the volume control on the Google Home).

This project is a redesign for paper towel packaging. Using shop-along’s and in-home visits I learned the paper towel consumption habits, as well as wants, needs, and pain points, of customers who shop at Food stores, Mass stores, and Club stores. After rounds of ideation, I narrowed my ideas down to 3 designs intended to solve some of the problems, pain points, and desires of paper towel customers. Once I developed the designs and created low-fidelity prototypes, I tested the designs with a focus group of users that shop at all 3 levels of stores. From the feedback in the focus group I chose one design to continue on with and created higher-fidelity prototypes and renderings.

The final design is a 12 pack that is able to split into two six packs for convenient storage and utilizes resealable doors. The goal of this design was twofold, first, to allow users the ability to buy a 12 pack of paper towels without having to be concerned about storage space; Second, to keep the towels protected without the need for individually wrapped rolls, thereby reducing the amount of plastic. The resealable doors allow the towels to remain clean throughout storage.

*Many of the specifics of this design and of this project are proprietary and, therefore, have been removed from this page. *

We were tasked with purchasing a consumer electronic, taking it completely apart, and then redesigning it to decrease its environmental impact and cutting its Okala environmental impact score. My object was a baby monitor that I redesigned to clip into a mobile, strap on to a crib, and be used as a home security system when the child is grown, to increase the lifetime of the product.