I'm a multifaceted designer, with a passion for efficiency and accessibility. My background in makerspaces informs both my design process and my creativity. I want to positively impact people's daily lives using art and design.
I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Design, with a concentration in Experience Design, from Northeastern University in 2018. My senior thesis was Wired Weird, a multi-part exhibit about life with synesthesia.
Northeastern University's newpaper News@Northeastern wrote the profile "Campus Is Her Canvas" about me when I was painting my mural Euphotic on campus in 2017.
In college, I studied graphic and information design, and later, experience design. Visually, I believe in clean typography, breathing room, and legibility before decoration.
I think the new field of experience design isn't a discrete subsection of design, but a mindset for it. In design—and in life—I've found it's best to approach a problem from different perspectives, because a holistic view usually yields the most thorough solution.
My approach to design is first to understand who it's for, and how people will use it. There are so many different approaches for designing, but they are all based in empathy: putting yourself in another's place, and seeing things from their perspective. I believe that with a strong visual vocabulary and an empathetic mindset, any problem can be tackled.
Explore my design projects to get a better idea of how I design.
While studying graphic and experience design, I was fostering a love for making things. I became involved with, and later ran, multiple makerspaces on campus. I was one of the first lasercutter monitors in the design college's makerspace, and became the head monitor for my last two years at Northeastern.
Design and lasercutting aren't a standard combination, but they are more similar than many people expect. Running makerspaces or a lasercutter uses skills analogous to a design studio: client interaction and communication, project management from planning to execution, understanding and responding to the users' needs, and problem-solving using the materials and tools available. Read more about my history with makerspaces and background in lasercutting.
I'm also an artist, and have a particular passion for public art. Murals bring art to the masses, in ways that can reach people wherever they are. It's the most accessible form of art, and it can brighten people's day and truly have a positive impact. I believe in the power of public art to help and heal communities, and I am driven to create art and to foster more art into this world.
Beyond just murals are all projects that benefit the public as a whole. This can even translate into our own microcosms. Before the pandemic, I used to host Arties—Art Parties! I from pencils, markers, and paints, to wire, mesh, to x-acto knives, magazines, and old books. By presenting people with a space for art to happen, without any judgement or preconceptions, they bloom easily, and usually surprise themselves. It's a beautiful thing.
I also have a neurological condition called synesthesia, where multiple senses are interpreted together. In my case, I hear music in color, read letters and numbers in color, perceive weekdays and months to have color, visualize timelines (months and years) in space, and sometimes taste in color! It's a crazy time, but I'm grateful for it.
Because of my experimenting with my synesthesia, I'm really interested in the translation between senses. I hope to work with music and perception more, especially if it can bridge gaps previously ignored. My dream would be to make an AR/VR exhibit to visually translate how I hear music, in real time while people listen.
I also have a neurological condition called synesthesia, where multiple senses are interpreted together. In my case, I hear music in color, read letters and numbers in color, perceive weekdays and months to have color, visualize timelines (months and years) in space, and sometimes taste in color! It's a crazy time, but I'm grateful for it.
You can explore what it's like to have synesthesia through both my eyes, and the eyes of famous people with synesthesia at Wired Weird, my college thesis project. The exhibit includes four panels about synesthesia, and an interactive magnetic board where you can spell words using color.
Because of my experimenting with my synesthesia, I'm really interested in the translation between senses. I hope to work with music and perception more, especially if it can bridge gaps previously ignored. My dream would be to make an AR/VR exhibit to visually translate how I hear music, in real time while people listen.
In the last couple years, I've made posters, stickers, lasercut coasters, trivets, and etched magnets, murals, a new format for recipes, and a cool thesis exhibit, and I've been a Maker In Resident.
Since quarantine started, I've been working on this website and portfolio, in addition to cooking lots of things from scratch, gardening, building multiple raised beds for our gardens, and reorganizing all my art supplies. I've also compiled all the things that have brought me joy.
Besides art and design, my hobbies include cooking, reading, sci-fi, longboarding, and backpacking.
Check out my portfolio, and explore all the cool stuff I've made! Send a message if anything strikes you, and stay safe in these crazy times.
The world has been metaphorically and literally on fire for a while now, but this year was really awful. It's important to both recognize and hold on the things that make you happy, so I've collected some things that have brought me joy this year. Not counting their titles, I've described each in 10 words or less.
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