D J Jennifer Dinsdale
Design Portfolio
About My name is Jennifer and I am a Product Design BA graduate from Nottingham Trent University. While having formal training in product design, video postproduction has been a long-term hobby of mine, and so I enjoy creating digital communications. I hope to venture into UX design and motion graphics for the next steps of my career.
Design Philosophy Emotional design is pivotal to the work in this portfolio. The goal is to always design a product that encourages the user to interact meaningfully with it. My approach to design solutions has often focused on helping the user find peace of mind or to tell a narrative.
Work experience, academic opportunities and achievements Team leader for Film and Animation Expo team (NTUDI 2021) Industry Placement: Media Resources Officer Assistant at Prendergast School Ceramics Studio Assistant IDS: International Design Studio: Collaborative projects with South Korean and Chinese design students Summer Design School at Hanbat University in South Korea Project ‘Kin’ selected to be exhibited in the Gwangju Design Biennale in September 2021
For more details of my background, contact me: Email: jennifer.dinsdale@outlook.com Instagram: @jennifer.ddesign
Contents Product Design
01 02 03 04 05
Mindful Skincare for Men
Narrative of Thai Heritage
RSA: Tackling Loneliness
Designing for Production
International Design Studio: Korean Stool
Visual Communication
06 07 08 09 School subject posters
Logo for food instagram
Paper art
Video Production and Motion Graphic Show Reel
01
Brief: Design a mindful skincare kit for young men that follows the philosophy of achieving mindfulness meditation through action and activity. This self-led project is part of the designers final year of their Product Design course.
moment. “Flow state” is when a person is fully immersed in an activity, resulting in mindful awareness of the present as opposed to focusing on worried thoughts. moment. encourages flow state with a hands on face mask routine.
Subconsciously inducing flow state by provoking the users sense of touch, smell and sight. The two circle system aids the user in consciously practising meditation by running their thumb between two embossed circles representing the in and out breath and while counting their breathing (a mindfulness technique.)
The Inspiration Since the pandemic more young men took interest in their mental well-being than before, but with limited options on the well-being market for men, many turned to mindfulness meditation apps.
The Problems Men aged 18-24 said current mindfulness apps were too goal focused and used guilt trip tactics to encourage app usage. The audio guides interrupted mindful states of mind, were out of sync with counting the breathe and overall distracting from the experience. Sitting still was not appealing to everyone when meditating.
The Concept The concept focused on achieving mindfulness through action and provoking the senses to help the user focus on their awareness of the present. The re-design of a pestle and mortar to be used in the bathroom was inspired by the apothecary history of natural skincare brands like Kiel’s. A key moment during the process was finding out bowls would not be comfortable to hold for different hand sizes and so a handle was introduced to the mortar.
Ideation of adding a handle
Co-Designing The iterative process for this project involved constant feedback from a refined user group of 1824 year old men to help inform the overall design and experience.
02
Brief: A narrative project exploring one’s own disconnect with their Thai heritage This self-led project is part of the designers final year of their Product Design course.
Kin Kin in Thai means to eat, and in English it is one’s family. Kin is a dining ware set symbolic of these two meanings being synonymous to the designer. In Thailand, it is custom to share several dishes and eat together, like family. The design is influenced by the designers family province of Ayutthaya and their traditional, teak house, weaved baskets and terracotta pottery in the markets.
Materials: Royale Porcelain, Bamboo, Terracotta and Teak.
It was realised after cooking a traditional Thai meal for friends how food connected the designer to their Thai heritage the most and wanted to celebrate this through design.
Images from visits to Ayutthaya, the V&A museum and user diaries.
03
RSA Brief: Tackling Loneliness Accounting for how different groups in society are affected by loneliness, design a way to reduce its impact on one or more of the following: physical health, mental health, or access to services. (Group Project with help from Brandon Hall, Rizmer Capunitan and Alexander Hampshire.)
Tackling loneliness in parents with post-natal depression Ripple Effect is a modular jewellery set that aims to help parents reclaim their individuality again by wearing something stylish but is also a symbol of being a part of a supportive, online community. The jewellery is paired with an app which contains calming exercises with the jewellery’s spiral form to help ease anxiety experienced by parents suffering with post-natal depression, and other features to connect parents to support forums and chat functions.
1 in 10 women will be diagnosed with post-partum depression within a year of giving birth. Men with post-partum depression are more likely than women to experience irritability and social isolation and to turn to drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism. Parent’s suffering with post-natal depression often feel lonely because they feel too ashamed or scared to talk about their depression when the world tells them they should be so happy post-birth.
The App
The Jewellery
Users were blind folded and asked to feel a number a of prototype textures in order to find the most calming, and fittingly, the texture inspired by water ripples was the most pleasant.
First iteration of the app focused on tracking heart rate and sleep as a way to pinpoint stresses/anxiety in the day.
The final app prototype is more focused on connecting parents to support groups which was a more effective service to parents struggling with this depression.
04
Brief: Design for Production Explore the commercial home-ware market, developing a single or range of products specifically for sheet material manufacturing methods such as laser, water and plasma cutting.
Mountain Burners Designed to help inner-city working professionals unwind in the evenings, the incense stick holders represents calming imagery of mountains. The ash from the incense falls gently down the sloping forms, collecting on the bamboo tray.
Consumer Persona Daniel, 27 years old Working professional in the inner city New home owner Interests: Running Meditation Seeing friends Foodie Travel When decorating his new home, Daniel goes for neutral tones, and minimal clutter; decorating only with minimalist sculpture, art work and uses contrasting materials to create his style.
Card modelling during the design process really helped to figure out the correct nets needed before moving onto 3D modelling.
05
International Design Studio: Collaboration with students from Hanbat National University Brief: Explore a cultural element of your country documenting key information/images for your international partner to design from. Findings are exchanged and used as directional inspiration to develop a small wooden stool for the commercial home-ware market. (Partner Project with help from Shenese Newton.) UK students to design a stool inspired by Kimchi harvest and preparation. Korean students to design a stool inspired by Traditional UK Stilton harvest and preparation.
Onggi Stool
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The Onggi stool takes inspiration from the traditional Onggi pots used to ferment Kimchi, and the contemporary style of Seoul apartments to create a hybrid design symbolic of the younger generations attempts to keep the tradition of Kimjang going within their small apartments.
Younger Koreans living in the inner cities are reclaiming their heritage by learning to make Kimchi, finding alternative methods to accommodate making it inside smaller living spaces. Kimjang is the Korean tradition where the women in the village would come together to make Kimchi. Every village has a different version that mother in-law passes down to her daughter in-law.
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Additionally, an anecdotal memory from the Korean tutor of seeing snow settled onto Onggi pots inspired a white, upholstered top to the stool that provides further comfort.
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06
Posters for secondary school faculties Brief: To take words written by each faculties staff about their subjects and transform them into eye-catching posters. (Done on a placement year at Prendergast School as the Media Resources Assistant.)
07
Logo for Pia’s home kitchen instagram Brief: Design a logo that represents the instagram users brand of home Thai cooking. (Small personal project.)
Many Thai logos take inspiration from Thai architecture of Wat’s (Temples) as it a unique style to Thailand and South East Asia. Because the Instagram is home-cooking, it felt fitting to design a roof around the cooks character and have them lean over the banner as if leaning out of a window. The instagram is a personal one so I did a simple vector drawing of the cook holding a common utensil in Thai cooking.
08
Paper Art Brief: Create paper art of an imaginary world following the professors guidance. (Completed during the visual communications summer school at Hanbat University in South Korea.)
This was one of my favourite classes during my time at the summer school. We were taught subtle ways of folding and layering paper to creating dimension and perspective. I was inspired by seeing example of curled paper strips and wanted to create trees from them. I really like how the layered paper casts shadows onto the pieces behind, adding depth.
09
Video Production and editing has been a light hobby of mine for over ten years and have only recently started it up again alongside learning some motion graphics. I am keen to continue and develop my motion graphic skills particularly as I have found a lot of enjoyment in it.
To see more, follow me on Instagram @jennifer.ddesign