A little bit of everything

With an open mind to old and new, familiar and unfamiliar, I approach every design with respect.

Architectural Model Personal Residence in Palm Springs Fabricated at Graphic Blade Studio in San Francisco, CA.

Architectural Model Rock Climbing Exhibit A student project at San Francisco State University.

Theatrical Puppets The Composer is Dead, by Lemony Snicket Fabricated at and for the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Designed by Phantom Limb and directed by Tony Taccone.* * Photos of the finished product are prohibited, these are the final shots allowed for publication.

Christmas Installations Bottom: JW Marriot Hotel Center and Right: Crocker Galleria Shopping Center * Christmas decor was installed by After Science

Easter Installation Easter decor was installed by After Science at Stonestown Galleria Shopping Center

Furniture Design Bedside Table: Design Process Challenge: Design a bedside table that can be made primarily out of plywood.

Ideation

Function vs. Form Inspiration

Thick side drawer

Thin side drawer

Straight side Thick side drawer

Thin side drawer

Contoured Side

Contoured corner

Straight side

Square corners

Square corners Round corners Round corners

Form Study

Straight side

Side Drawer

Color Study

Hidden Drawer

Experience Design SoLED Curriculum

SoLED is a design innovation experience. It fuses creativity, technology, play, renewable energy and sustainable materials into the creation of a lighting system.*

Audience 35 14-18 year old’s at Thurgood Marshall Academic High School, located in San Francisco, CA.

* SoLED was developed by and for the Industrial Design Outreach (iDo) organization.

Objectives • Teach the design process • Teach critical thinking • Build self esteem • Create awareness of sustainability/renewable energy • Have each student design and build a SoLED lamp

SoLED

Method:

SoLED is both a product and a curriculum. The product is a kit of parts that assemble to create a design-it-yourself lighting unit. The curriculum uses the SoLED kit to teach students about design and sustainability while building their critical thinking skills and self-esteem.

Team 1

Research Lead 3 Researchers My Role: Researcher

What we did We collectively read over 50 articles and collected data about how creativity is taught and learned.

What we learned We learned different design methodologies as well as different traits and skills associated with creativity.

Research

Brainstorm Output After 4 months I was recruited to develop a curriculum for the SoLED product. The research team continued on to publish a book about our findings.

Refine

Time Frame: 4 months

Team 2

Curriculum Lead Product Lead Curriculum Developer 1 High School Mentor My Role: Director of Curriculum Development

What I did I created a team of people that had knowledge I didn’t posses and reviewed previous successful curriculums.

What we did We worked together to design a curriculum around the SoLED product.

Research We performed qualitative research and formed casual focus groups.

Tensions Freedom to create vs. set direction

Brainstorm After sitting down and discussing the findings from our research, we decided that more direction was necessary to effectively learn the product and incorporated room for freedom for students that excelled.

Time Frame: 2 months

Team 3

Curriculum Lead 31 Mentors 1 High School Teacher My Role: Director of Curriculum Development Time Frame: 3.5 months

Prototype

Implementation The curriculum was delivered to 35 high school students. Their ages varied from 14-18 and their level of learning ranged form special education students to advance.

Challenges Two weeks prior to entering the classroom we were told that there would be 11 more students than expected. In addition, the classroom only had 15 chairs for the entire semester. We faced these challenges and had each student complete the project.

Final Insights This project was successful, but both the product and curriculum need to undergo a few more revisions. Most importantly, from watching the students work with something I helped to create, I learned that any subject matter chosen to be taught to another person or group is really a vehicle to building self-esteem.

Prototyping Future high school mentors were encouraged to take the product home for testing and to show us what was capable with this kit of parts. This not only assisted the product team, but helped the curriculum team to gauge what would be possible in the classroom.

Implement

Refinement We took the curriculum and adapted it to a schedule, trained mentors on how to use the product, and received approval from all stakeholders involved up to this point.