About this Blog
This blog is a chronicle of my development as a designer and thus also a living portfolio. It begins with my move to Philadelphia to begin a Masters of Industrial Design at The University of the Arts and includes all the projects, large and small, of which I am working on along the way.
Design and Me: A Love Story
Design has always been it for me. I was just a little too sheltered to realize it. I knew of art and engineering but never an in between. Thus, I studied Aerospace Engineering, thinking it would let me design cars. I learned it wasn’t the kind of designing I wanted. I needed something more visual and organic. That is when I stumbled into graphic design and then industrial design.
Industrial design, to me, is truly the intersection of engineering and art. It is so beautiful, the way that so many useful things can work together so simply. It was what I had been looking for.
After I graduated, though, instead of getting a domestic job, I joined the Peace Corps. It was an excellent experience I would recommend to everybody. Teaching math and science I really discovered how differently people can think about the same topic. How I may see and understand things clearly and completely from my perspective but that does not mean it is the only one or even the best.
My time overseas also taught me a lot about the environment. I lived in a village with people that survived through their farming. I swam in a lake that feeds millions of people every day. I learned about good farming practices and saw a lot of bad ones. The first hand experience of the reliance and the challenge of living on what you can grow really brought home ideas so popular today of being environmentally conscience.
Design for me is perpetual and I see all of my experiences through it. While I’ve out grown wanting to design cars specifically, I still have a lot of design interests and I think there are still a lot of questions that need better answers.
Personal Interests
Conversations and Action.
Conversations are intriguing, because of their power to convey an idea, persuade, damage and motivate. It is a simple action that enables so much more, whether it is founding relationships or sharing ideas. Using mere words we are able to connect individuals spanning distance, age and culture.
Action is interesting because it is a catalyst for change. A life without action is a life not worth living. Without action there are no results, good or bad. Life needs ups and downs, the former contextualizes the latter and vice versa. A life without these ups and downs is a flat life and just as a heart rate monitor will show you, that is not much of a life.
I feel that many people are unable to take action, either from lack of perception of an opportunity at hand, lack of access to resources or just disbelief in the possibility. However, I do believe if everyone were to take action, trying to improve themselves and their community, the result would be a sum greater than its parts. Therefore, I am curious about how people fall into these situations where action is not an option; how can I help them out of these dormant positions and really, have them avoided the all together. Thus enabling and supporting a more vibrant life.
Current Projects
Thesis: Bicycle use and the city’s response
The B.D.Q.
Previous Projects
Design Tool Development
Penn Medicine
Collabritique
1% For Art
Remás Toolkit
Remás Mobile App
