Climate Justice

This class explores the background context for colonialism, privilege, western philosophy versus majority world, and designing a zine and resources to share as part of a social community movement.

Collaborative Product Design

Portfolio Work Overview

Project 1: Life Cycle Analysis and Product Development

This project focused on comparing an existing product and then researching it in more life cycle analysis depth. We looked at raw minerals, extraction, distribution, retail, end user, and recycling into biological and technical nutrients. Working in a group we developed a process, timeline, and product idea for a refrigeration unit.




Project 2: Target as Client

In Fall of 2024 we wrapped up one project group and started to work with a new team at MCAD,as well as with the Product Development team at Target. We took an existing product, pulled it apart and measured it against multiple criteria, and then redesigned it, and modeled it in different scenarios. It was challenging, and a good way to work across multiple disciplines, and fun!

Visual Communications for Sustainability

Portfolio Work Overview

Project 1: The goal of this project was to create a user friendly and data driven infograph that would be relevant for a certain demographic. Over the course of 15 weeks we learned about data visualization and impactful statistics to present to the public. We also learned how to modify data to best present the information, including how to display different formats. This final project represents a simple and intuitive way to introduce Composting into your daily lifestyle.

Project 2: This project allowed for comparisons to better analyze and deliver environmental and sustainable data. What we throw away generally ends up in incinerators and landfills, so choices and consumer decisions matter. Choosing sustainable alternatives is the best path forward and this assignment focused on products that we discard regularily. Things like disassembly, take back programs, and recycling directions on packaging are all helpful in minimizing impacts.

Making the Business Case for Sustainability

Portfolio Work Overview

This project focused on creating a Sustainable Business Plan for Education. It included research, organizing business ideas like marketing, accounting, operational needs, growth and development. We referenced other business models to find one that was closest to what we were interested in, and over the course of the semester received valuable feedback and critique from class peer’s to make sure we had objective buy-in on what worked, and what needed to be better defined. The goal was a professional and applicable business plan that could be used to gain interest and possible investment.

Fundamentals of Sustainable Design

Portfolio Work Overview

The project focused on analyzing and organizing information related to the main factors in sustainability, including People, Planet, Profit, and Culture. We researched market information and developed improvement ideas on how a company could be more sustainable through actionable and detailed instruction. This was a great opportunity to dig deep into a company profile and create an index to better speak to these sustainable objectives.

Biomimetic Design

Portfolio Work Overview

This cemented by love for sustainable design, and biomimicry. Over the course of this semester we worked on multipple scales of projects, including individual and group work. This was the final project for this class and dove into analysis of “natures genius” to find solutions to problems we face in the design industry. The research involved the processes and the attributes of organisms and how they function. The final outcome was a ceiling fixture design and product that could be marketable in the Interior Design industry.

Part 1- Be. Contemplate. Imagine.




September 1st, 2021 Minneapolis Sculpture Garden-Walker Art Center

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. --Albert Einstein

This week I had the opportunity to start teaching on campus again at Dunwoody. Not only was seeing students in person again so exciting and motivating, but the energy in which they move around as mostly young people was contagious. Because it was so beautiful out in our Minnesota season we decided to have class right next door at the Sculpture Garden. While I gave them their sketching and journal prompt, I was able to work on my own nature's journal assignment for the Biomimetic Design course at MCAD as part of their MA in Sustainable Design program. Being able to be sit as both an observer of the people walking around the sculpture garden who were strangers, as well as watching my students get comfortable being observers was really interesting and wonderful.

The sculpture garden is a sensory overload. The smell of flowers, the sounds of bees, cicadas, sirens, traffic, church bells, children running, couples walking and talking, and the soft breeze helped me to just slow down and breath in all this incredible life around me. My intent of this exercise was to find a space to sit quietly with my eyes closed for ten minutes. I had to just BE. Then I needed to CONTEMPLATE and attach those sounds to sight. I loved watching a couple get to know each other and flirt as they talked about the colors of the flowers they were passing. There were two little boys running through the grasses looking for the bunny they were sure they had seen. One mom was by herself and was carrying a baby in a holder, smelling the flowers and talking to her little baby about them.

There were many things I learned by just sitting there and observing not only nature, but the human connections happening with nature. I was facing the main sculpture garden, but was hidden in a long trellised area, and there were many perennials surrounding me. I turned to look at all the flowers and noticed bees going from flower to flower. I was curious about how they knew exactly what flowers would provide the nectar needed to pollinate other flowers. I was intrigued by how they knew to navigate and map our their plan. I started to question how each of these beautiful elements of nature knew how to seamlessly work together and support an ecosystem, without taking more than they needed. And I was inspired by the ease and leisure at which people were walking. It was almost as intuitively they knew to slow down and savor this moment, and not rush their journey in nature.

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