New Zealand merino wool, soft touch recycled plastic for node.
It’s about breathing. Effective breathing can improve one’s performance, cognitive abilities, health conditions, and overall wellness by allowing the parasympathetic nervous system to govern the body. Airwear empowers the user by delivering knowledge and training around beneficial & optimal breathing techniques in order to prompt behaviour change towards a better self through qualitative practices.
Airwear is a collection of smartwear training tool garments paired with an app, differentiating between slow deep breathing and shallow ineffective breathing by measuring HRV, breath depth, and volume. With the use of machine learning, and qualitative data in a smartphone app, the user is empowered to go beyond numbers and mundane data, leading to true behaviour change.
Spring 2014
Wood, powder coated sheet metal.
Design Team: Russell McBride, Andrea Diaz, Jason King
Arris is a versatile home accessory suited for small space living. Arris was designed for BoConcept - a globally recognized danish furniture company, and was featured in 'The Process' design show at ECUAD in March of 2014. Arris inspires a consolidation between vertical wall space and soft furniture, allowing users to utilize their space to it's full potential.
Arris allows for creation of new possibilities, linking the user and their environment; providing storage as well as an adaptable hard surface which capitalizes on the existing space, making it as efficient as possible. With my design team, we came up with a solution to make this very distinct shape eligible for mass production as we manipulated the traditional dovetail joint 3 ways.
Materials: Soft coated plastic, light ceramic, or powder coated metal
Finishes: Matte exterior/gloss interior
Pouring Rain Pitcher was inspired by bringing the user into the habituals of daily living by engaging them through their motions. Initially designed for watering plants, Pouring Rain Pitcher allows the user to alter the flow of the water by tilting and pouring the vessel from one side (smooth pour) or the other (rainfall). This was intended for different types of indoor plants and how they like to be catered to. This pitcher intentionally connects the user to the object by not having a handle, but by being the perfect ergonomic hand size to engage the user in the act of pouring. From watering plants, to entertaining guests, to bath time - this pitcher can serve you and your family day to night keeping everyone hydrated and engaged.
Mobile Pendant.
Ribbed textured glass, ash wood, nylon, matte frosted LED bulbs.
Winter 2014
Wood, LED, polypropylene.
A light that flows with your day-to-night routine.
Eclipse nightlight enhances the flow in homes as it allows for a seamless transition of appropriate lighting throughout the day and night, accommodating your unique lifestyle and habits. Whether winding down, or waking up unexpectedly, eclipse is there to guide you, when a sudden or abrupt change of lighting is not appropriate, or desired.
Sustainable Behaviour Considerations
By allowing the user to have full control over the flow of their day-to-night routine, they are not tempting to abuse and overuse lighting in their homes.
Night Mode
Night mode is for night time navigation in the home. Motion sensor, photocell technology seeks when there is human movement around the room in the dark, and will fade on into a light sufficient for safety and comfort, careful not to disrupt the body's night restoration cycles.
'Unplug’ Mode
‘Unplug’ mode allows users to stop energy loss from devices that they choose to leave plugged in. Unplug mode conserves energy in a way that is easily accessible to the user.
Materials
By incorporating natural materials on the face of the Eclipse, it brings users back into the environment. By enhancing their home’s visual and experiential aesthetics with natural materials, it empowers users to leverage in the system of consumption. Polypropylene is used as the body of Eclipse as it is a fully recyclable thermoplastic, has a low environmental manufacturing impact, and acts as an electrical inhibitor. Polypropylene produces less solid waste, and less C02 equivalents by weight than PET, PS or PVC - leading to lower greenhouse gas emissions comparatively. In the design of Eclipse, plastics are used appropriately where they are needed and/or beneficial, and no further.
Quality of Craft
BC Veneer Products Ltd. is a producer of high grade, fine quality veneers. Using the finest softwood and hardwood logs harvested from the cold, slow growing regions of British Columbia, Canada. Their products carry fine and unique characteristics from this renewable resource.
Design for Disassembly
Each component able to be recycled appropriately. Parts easily snap apart to assign to proper recycling methods. Locally sourced + manufactured.
Empower users, recycle materials, conserve energy.
Soft touch silicone, oak.
This personal air purifier reduces the amount of pollutants going into your lungs at any given time. The user can carry Vigor with them and use it whenever they need a breath of fresh air - be it on a run, walking through the city, a stress reliever or ever a social scenario at a party. It's discreet, intuitive design makes Vigor delightful to use while providing optimal mind clarity, and a meditative experience of quality air entering your lungs. Vigor uses 3 different types of interchangeable filters, and recycled materials. Imagine a world where smoke breaks and coffee breaks become oxygyn breaks.
*This is a conceptual 2 week project done as a critique towards smoking, vaporizers, addiction, & health crazes in our social society as we know it.
Design Team: Manda Roy, Dylan Moffat, Melissa Mellor, Barter Design Co.
The objective of this project was to create a playground piece that challenges the grey area of risk taking based on action and reaction. While children climb up the ropes, this elevates the opposite side creating a counter-active pendulum. Children are always looking for some excitement, and the idea is to not create something that they will get hurt on, but to let them engage in the organic sense of free play. Our focus was to harvest kinetic energy, delivering an educational and timeless piece of playground equipment in a large scale.
Individual movements will trigger reactions of the arc swinging. This manipulates the overall structure of the structure- as more kids play, the structure becomes more dynamic.
We named our structure “Coast” which means to move easily without using power. It also connects to the West Coast environment of the grey whale, which our visual inspiration for the structure is based upon. The Child is able to visually and physically encounter the profound size and structure of being with in and with out a whale giving the child magnificent satisfaction of kinetic wonder.
Scale 1:50
An additive system for the classroom to provide choice and comfort in an environment of learning differences. Maxstan creates a new type of space in the classroom that is left in the hands of the kids.
Our design goal was to co-create a product or a system that will enhance the learning experience at Kenneth Gordon Elementary, in North Vancouver. Working alongside students with learning differences, we aimed to discover a textile artifact/system that encourages social connection, embodied learning, and considered the individual personalities and learning preferences of the students. We explored potential improvements to the learning experience at KGMS as we are given a design opportunity to research and explore the material capabilities of textiles.
Partner: Vinco Ho, Spring 2013
Kenneth Gordon Maplewood School is recognized as a leader in teaching children with learning difficulties that include the acquisition, organization, retention, understanding and use of verbal and nonverbal information. These learning difficulties often affect children who otherwise demonstrate average or above-average abilities essential for thinking and reasoning. “Learning differences (LD) are neurological disorders that can make it difficult to acquire certain academic and social skills. They are not the result of poor intelligence or laziness.”
Throughout our process of co-creation sessions, we discovered that our students responded best to our activities when we were just ‘hanging out’ rather than prescribing a formal setting. This was when they seemed to thrive and get more into the activities, giving us more feedback. It was very much ‘going with the flow’ for the first meeting. This continued to work well for us and we were able to really connect with them and understand what exactly it is that they enjoy and why. We figured if we could tailor a classroom setting to be better suited towards this type of engagement, it would allow students to better engage in class, rather than focus on their standardized work settings.
