Design thinking/Conceptualization/ Investigation/3D & App prototyping/ Packaging/Illustration/Programming
Human beings are characterized by their social nature. The interaction among them enhances their personal development and further reinforces their physical, psychological, mental and emotional well-being. With the outbreak of COVID-19, people have changed their daily activities from a physical space to a virtual space. Therefore, their habits and routines have radically changed in terms of social interaction. The pandemic brought restrictions that forced individuals to remain isolated and keep physical distancing. As consequence, most people started lacking human touch. Non-verbal communication gestures, such as hugs, are crucial for maintaining and strengthening social bonds. This project aims to provide a design intervention that will help people feel close and connected to each other despite distance and cope better with the limitations of social interaction.
To address the problematic of people missing human touch and feeling disconnected, the intervention designed offers a “hugging system” as solution. It consists of 3 elements: 1.a garment with haptic technology incorporated, that belongs to the group of wearable tech. It aims to replicate the physical sensation of a hug, applying deep pressure 2. an app that controlls and collects information about the interactions and let users rate them and 3. an E-commerce website prototype for the commercial purposes.
The development of this project was not intended to replace human contact, but to reconnect people, emotionally and mentally, when being physically connected is impossible.
"Staying close despite the distance"
Nuna is a Quechan word, that means “soul, spirit, gift”. Hugs and human gestures are good for the soul and they are also a gift. Aditionally, the name has a strong personal meaning.
The logo aims to express the concept of connection, interaction, union and closeness. It is made of circles, which refers to the idea of being holistic.
The main color chosen for the logo is orange, a warm color. According to the psychology of color, orange is a fun, inspiring, happy, energetic and powerful tone with strong measurable physical effects on people. It increases energy levels and promotes vibrant social environments. In the context of this project, orange also represents the warmth, optimism and enthusiasm of the interactions and the emotions it provides to people.
This wearable is meant to be universal and unisex. Therefore, “normcore fashion” was used as the main concept for its style, as well as “ubiquitous technology”. Even though this product incorporates hi-technology in its function, it does not look like something too technological or futuristic. Hugs are natural and spontaneous and so must the wearable be.
This product is made of a sustainable fabric, easy to storage, wash and re use.
In order to design the prototype of the garment in 3D, achieving the inflation effect to recreate a human hug, a software for fashion was used to model Avatars wearing different patterns.
The connection between the wearable and the smartphone, happens via Bluetooh. After loging into the app, using a wifi connection, users find themselves in the cloud, where the real time communication and interaction happens.
An E-commerce website prototype was also developed for the commercial purposes. It shows the different models and designs availables and explains the technical and general features of the product such as the technology, the material, the sizes, etc.
Human migration has existed for many years. Nowadays it plays an even more important role in our globalized world.
In many societies, like the Ecuadorian, migration is considered to be a negative experience. Immigrants who move from one place to another with the intention of settling, permanently or temporarily, at a new location adopt customs of the other culture "changing" their identity. The changes generated by cultural exchange are often considered a loss of identity.
The "Latinos" project is a game that consists of three parts: a puppet game made of wood, a brochure, and an interactive game. The purpose of this project is to show that migration and cultural exchange is a normal and a positive process.
For this game two characters were created: a man and a woman called Latino and Latina. They can be dressed in different ways, using clothes that combine the fashion of the host country and the country of origin.
The name "Latinos" was chosen due to the origin of this word. It is generally used in the United States and Europe to refer to those who live in Latin America. The logo consist of a colorful typography collage, which makes a reference to the idea that the identity of a person is composed of several cultural values that the person acquires along his/her life.
Characters: Latino & Latina
The clothing collection is composed of different fashion lines from indigenous cultures of Ecuador to seasonal fashion trends from Europe and the United States. The whole collection represents the mixure and hybridization between cultures and also the elements that people adopt from the host country.
This game consists of a wooden closet with magnetic clothes. Each clothing piece represents the fashion of either the United States, Europe or one of the indigenous cultures of Ecuador. The characters (Latino and Latina) can be dressed in multicultural combinations of clothes as a representation of the cultural exchange immigrants go through.
The exterior painting of the closet shows a fingerprint design as a symbol of identity.
All the pieces were made and painted by hand.
The brochure comes with the wooden game. It contains a brief introduction to the topic of "human migration", written in a friendly and funny way. It also shows the collection of clothes the user can find in the wooden closet as well as the possible combinations to dress the characters.
Next to the indigenous clothing lines, there is information about the respective culture.
This game was created in Adobe Flash and is quite similar to the wooden closet game. The difference is that this game reproduces audio. Children tell their own stories or stories about the experiences of relatives who lived abroad. Most of them are emotionally strong experiences, with the aim of making users aware of the difficult reality of immigrants. At the same time, these stories underline why it is necessary and almost inevitable to adopt customs from other cultures to be able to fit the new environment.
Design for the winecups used at the Christmas Market 2019 in Dessau- Germany. Posters were also developed for advertising the market in prime spots of the city.
