Research

2023 Design Thesis - Reimagining the Spooner Railroad Park As A Center for Community Railroad History, Recreation and Edutainment

The purpose of this thesis is to explore existing design precedencies and local Spooner personas to create a spatial design approach which reconnects Spooner’s railroad past with present day historical and culturally relevant experience. One of the last remaining examples of railroad architecture, the Spooner Roundhouse, has been selected as the dedicated space for this design approach.

The design is delivered within the context of two visitor experiences to accommodate community gatherings, historical time travel and unstructured learning approaches. Finally, a mobile exhibition trailer has been designed and built to communicate the vision for long-term planning and investments. Link to Thesis PDF  Link to Defense Presentation Boards

Industrial Design

Portal AR

Existing museum or public entertainment venues planning to offer visitors augmented reality experiences need an affordable, sustainable and scalable solution serving a diverse audience. 

Design an effective, unique, innovative, safe, sustainable, augmented reality/multi-sensory device manufacturable in either small batch or mass production levels.  The solution should accommodate diverse spaces, exhibition/entertainment and diversity needs. It should be multi-functional scalable, easy to service and upgradeable. PDF File Link

Building/Architecture

Rustic/Contemporary Inspired Lake Home

These plans reflect a terrific creative relationship between me and the owners. We worked through what inspires them, and I modified their simple box-plan by shifting sections of the floorplan to meet their space and room requirements, while adding some charming lines. Link to PDF

Building/Architecture

YOUMedia Library

The YOUMedia Library serves community teens providing an open, inclusive, safe, inspirational and fun place to socialize and study. I applied an urban courtyard theme, angled the floor plan to create good sight lines and reflect a sense of the indoors and outdoors within four walls. Enjoy! PDF File Link

Building/Architecture

Navajo Home/Work Space

Annually, the Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) organization runs a student competition. This is my entry.

Three shipping containers, 55% of the design needed to be living space, 45% work space. Quite a challenge, but I'm happy with my entry! PDF File Link

 

Building/Architecture

Spooner Roundhouse Lighting Design

As part of an ongoing project I'm helping with as Executive Director/Designer for Spooner's Friends of the Railroad Park (FORRP), I spent some time developing a lighting design for portions of the space we will be rehab'ng in the coming years. This was a great research opportunity and I love working with these historical buildings. PDF File Link

Design Research

Flow and Aura: Arts and Crafts philosophies made
manifest in present-day, hands-on research.

Submitted and accepted to the 2022 GPEA Polytechnic Summit in Darmstadt, Germany, this academic paper explores how the 19th Century Arts and Crafts movement has influenced our contemporary ideas of material culture and labor. PDF File Link

Industrial Design

Samara Solar Light

Current solar powered outdoor lighting is cheaply made, difficult to store and has a high structural and functional failure rate due to harsh environmental conditions and sub-optimal designs and materials. 

There are four uses for outdoor lighting. 

  • Navigation – Assists in way-finding 
  • Safety – Renders hazards more visible 
  • Security – Assists personnel to protect persons and property 
  • Aesthetics - illuminates a cultural display 

Design and/or develop modular, scalable and durable sun-powered outdoor luminaries, sustainably manufactured using locally sourced materials that can be scaled and stored in singles and multiples compactly and will provide illumination for multiple outdoor lighting needs. PDF File Link

Illustration/Industrial Design

Leica Camera

Learning my chops in advanced design illustration, this Leica camera, reconstructed from source photographs, presents a simple elegance. PDF File Link

Illustration/Industrial Design

sunshine coffee maker

This was a great chance to research product design to understand mechanical parts of this simple machine, then apply what I learned to a new and refreshing design! PDF File Link

 

Graphic Design/Illustration/Photography

Every Story has a Beginning!

In the years prior to starting my MFA in 2019, I completed a BFA in Graphic Communications at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and experimented with other fine art mediums like serigraphy, photography and illustration! PDF File Link