Art and Design Commons^™

P-Lax : Toys For Adults, To Play & Relax, Zhizi Liu

Masters Theses

Adults don’t play enough. There is so much emphasis on working and being productive in modern day life, but this can have negative effects—for an adult this can lead to high stress and a sense of guilt when one isn’t being productive. My mission is to help adults de-stress and take a break from work by reintroducing play into their day-to-day interactions. Toys for children are often used for educational purposes and to help enhance their creativity and social abilities; toys for adults can instead used to improve mood, and to help release pressure that is built up from everyday …

Connections : A New Model To Customizing Everything, Shao-Hsuan Hou

Masters Theses

Mass customization has long been a dream. However, thanks to evolutions in technologies (e.g. Industry 4.0 and big data analytics), there are more and more enterprises that offer configured customization to consumers. In this business model, the customers have limited choices to customize their own goods, nevertheless, these limited choices may not be enough to satisfy all of the consumers’ physiological and psychological needs.

In order to fulfill this need in the market, I propose a new ecosystem that connects consumers, design firms, and manufacturers. Moreover, based on this business model, I have designed an on-line platform and customization services …

Obsessed With Obsessions: Design For Obsession, Vara Yang

Masters Theses

Taking the notion of obsessions as the starting point for my thesis, I decided to investigate the daily rituals undertaken by a select group of people. I engaged myself in others’ idiosyncrasies, and found myself empathizing with their needs and desires. I found it fascinating how our obsessions vary so considerably. Yet, at the same time, I realized that each of the obsessions I explored was comparable in that the qualities that defined each obsession were essentially the same.

My thesis uses the obsession of Squeegee Girl as an example with which to demonstrate my personal concept of design. For …

Mealspace : Beyond The Table, Lauren Tedeschi

Masters Theses

This is a chronicle of a tableware enthusiast who set out to share her ideas by designing for the everyday eater. The quest began with questioning what an ideal meal experience is and why it revolves around a static, flat table. What are the aspects of present-day eating scenarios that could be improved upon? I considered the conventions of dining, studying traditional forms, materials and spaces related to this practice, and proposed new ways of eating. I designed props for establishing a new kind of mealspace, the objects and events paired together as performances. Each project or act is documented …