SKETCHES

Throughout my time at RISD and beyond, I’ve been assigned several projects which I’ve had a lot of fun thinking through, crafting, or sketching out. While it wouldn’t be appropriate to give them their own page, I think that play and process work still needs a place on in everyone’s portfolio. So, this is my place.

Most projects to the left are one-week brainstorming pieces that I had a lot of fun making or were a cornerstone in working out a larger goal/project. Given this, the documentation is not the same quality as my long-term projects.

︎ Home

Face Paint

Books come in all shapes and sizes. How can designers consolidate existing content and make it new through conscientious book design?

This photography book focuses on the evolution of makeup over time. With a focus on the history and growth through modern innovations, this design aims to highlight the beauty of detailed cosmetic photography and the philosophy behind various cosmetic looks and practices.

The overall experience of this book was designed with the viewers relationship to fashion magazines in mind. As a
source for much knowledge on fashion and makeup, viewers are used to a particular look and feel for makeup related imagery and text.

The goal in this design was to subvert the use of cheap, glossy paper and flimsy binding in favor of creating a beautiful and luxurious-feeling object for collectors to appreciate. To do so, I used a visible wire binding that aligns with droplines throughout the book. The cover is created using etched, mirrored acrylic to give the reader the ability to see their own face and even do their make if they so choose.

Puzzle of Creation

I am continually interested in the way that narratives can be transposed through material and experience. To push this, I challenged myself to tell a collection of stories without using words. This manifested in a collection of puzzles using shapes, colors, and basic symbols to tell three different stories of creation. These creation myths come from Greek, Norse, and Christian theologies.

The puzzle box is crafted with three slots where the pieces and keys are stored. Each story is told from the top of the puzzle to the bottom, illustrating first how the universe started and last, how humans came to be. The overall shape of the puzzle takes the form of humanity’s downfall in the eyes of their creator for each religion: fire for Greeks, the tree of fate for the Norse, and a snake for Jewish & Christian faiths.

These puzzles are intended for children who are developing their ability to identify similar shapes. Each puzzle comes with various symbols which fit inside the stories place. Overall, this structure was inspired by traditional Swedish toys.

TINDER FACE MASKS

Research shows a direct link between the amount of makeup a woman wears in her online dating profile to the lewdness of messages she gets from potential partners. These masks show a sampling of real pickup lines that college women were sent on Tinder. Each pack has one pickup line on the outside and contains a facial mask with the woman’s makeup from her profile picture.

These masks use crass humor as a way to show and critique the commodification of women and sex in the online dating world. Though the messages can be uncomfortable to read, the ability to use wit as a tool to engage readers and users is an important one. The purpose of these masks is not to cast online dating in a poor light. Rather, the packagingof these messages along with their makeup intends to put a cheeky spin on “getting her look” by pairing them with the responses that are received. Specifically, these masks respond critically to the notion that heavily-made-up women are “asking for it”.

EXTRA BOX

How can fiction inform design? This subscription box is designed for a speculative, space-age reality. It aims to bring together familiar products and packaging with unfamiliar substances and cultures.

Each product is sourced directly from the newly reached planet, Dar Mankana. Although, not delicacies of Dar Mankanian culture, each manufactured product has been constructed to fit the palette of Earth. These exciting new formulations and treats are sure to be a new staple on our world as trade continues to flourish.

Referring to the short story, The Evaluators: To Trade with Aliens, You Must Adapt, by N.K. Jemisin which tells the tale of a speculative future where earth has openly interacted with countless planets around the universe. This projects aims to capture the human fascination with other-ness and the commercialization and "colonization" of foreign species, plants and resources.

How can multiplicity color an action? This program generates millions of stories about the act of kissing. It aims to defamiliarize the reader with what details make up a kiss and create a discomforting mashup of realities.

Multiplicity and dimensionality are both vital tools for a designer to wield and understand. It was my goal during this project to hone my Javascript and HTML skills to create a random story generator. Applying it to kissing was an arbitrary choice but allowed for interesting combinations within each story.

For me, it was the perfect action to defamiliarize and, in the end, creates a series of millions of possibilities are both touching and uncomfortably mechanical.