Portfolio
Projects carried from start to end, from animatronics and software tools to products made with real clients on real production lines. Each one starts from what a guest or user should experience and follows it through mechanism, material and manufacture to something that can be built, run and maintained.
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More in the workshopFurther projects are being documented and will be added here.
Concept
AuraBloom explores how light and form can be used as a calming interface for stress reduction. The concept focuses on creating a gentle emotional experience through ambient glow, subtle interaction, and a dynamic form.
The brief
Identify a user-centred concept for a stress reduction device targeted at students, informed by present day user needs, or anticipated needs.
Development
Exploring mechanisms, analogue interactivity and origami. Leaning into a more connected product concept where the user will dock their phone to charge on the base, adding friction to phone use that isn't productive. Inspired by Steve Jobs' ideology on how user interfaces need to be adaptive and fluid, the lampshade changes shape depending on the mood and setting.
How it works
- Ambient light sensor changes the shape and light of the shade
- Translucent petals diffuse light; the open, exposed state gives direct light
- Blooming lampshade mechanism with an addressable RGB bulb adapts to different stress levels and moods
- Dedicated space tracks the phone's docked time
- Open structure means less friction to place the phone; Qi2 MagSafe adds friction when removing it
Brand identity
Developed a brand and visual identity for a specialist maker of custom board-game miniatures with a pizza-parlour twist.
It blends the warmth of a neighbourhood pizzeria with the precision of resin 3D printing to create playful, highly personalised pieces. A small knight mascot anchors the identity, capturing the brand's approachable, character-driven feel and the open, collaborative nature of client commissions.
Custom FDM printed packages
Created a multi colour 2D net design that can be folded to create a box to package ExtruDough's orders, with custom graphics in the pizzeria theme so the box reads as a traditional pizza box.
An alternative box represents a pet carrier, as the client wanted a specialised container. Name tags were also created for the employees.
The piece
Designed in Fusion and manufactured for the Annual Institute of Sales Professionals presentation. STRATA evokes the process of layering to create structure and form.
It was manufactured using by-products from the hosts, a marketing company's large production line, emphasising their sustainability vision.
Inspiration
Inspired by Wassily Kandinsky, Circles in a Circle, 1923, playing with only the simple geometric shape. STRATA explores the harmony and rhythm of layered geometry through stacked concentric cardboard slices that play with light, depth and repetition.
Design
A simple layout of circles used three times, nested together by rotating the same form to create a simplistic yet dynamic piece. Combining different materials creates contrast and depth.
Outcome
The final piece is only cardboard. As a temporary piece from one material, it can be recycled easily, and it used waste offcuts from the production line, in line with the sustainability brief.
Responsible consumption and production: substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling, and reuse.
Recycle, reuse, illuminate
The 'Relight' series combines the principle of Recycling and Reuse with Illumination, giving a second life to waste material from Linney's production line, cut on a CNC oscillating knife cutting machine. It turns 2D cardboard waste into 3D lampshades.
I designed three lampshades for the line, titled 'Made By You', for Linney Regenerate.
Design for emotion
Making the client assemble the flat-packed lampshades themselves saves labour costs and creates achievement and satisfaction, adding admiration for the design and product. This technique allowed the range to excel.
Being efficient as a flat-pack product reduces transport emissions and highlights the sustainable nature of the design.
Twisting layers
By twisting a stack of layers, the leakage of light can be played with to produce a lamp with a sleek design. Inspired by similar architectural designs, and by Frank Gehry's cardboard work from the 1960s, though the rotation here is more prominent.
In collaboration with McDonald's
Working with Linney in collaboration with McDonald's, this lamp exploits the fundamentals of cardboard. Highlighting the fluted edges, repeated rotation and vertical laminating create a simple helical pattern. Light is channelled through the flutes in all directions, emitting a warm, even spread. The rotation can be even or random, which creates a different character.
Manufacture
- Did not prove feasible to mass manufacture, only batch: joining each layer while rotating was too expensive to automate
- Recycled cardboard or factory by-products, coated with a fire retardant to meet the Furniture & Furnishings Regulations 1988 before commercial use
