2019, Class for UX Master’s Degree at DePaul University
Class: Human-Centered Design (HCD) 450 - Theories & Methods in HCD (Winter 2019)
An 11-week UX research and design project on the human-centric research question of how we might develop effective adults.
2015 (v1) & 2020 (v2), Personal Project
A booklet of unique, minimalist designs paired with explanations and quotes to allow a user to deeply explore complex concepts and emotions. This project was used to test the process of design within excessive restrictions, mainly, being able to only use a handful of shapes.
2020, TEDxNaperville
A logo, theme, and brand system for the 2020 TEDxNaperville ideas conference titled “Signs of Strength.”
2019, TEDxNaperville
A logo, theme, and brand system for the 2019 TEDxNaperville ideas conference titled “For the Curious!”
2018, TEDxNaperville
A logo, theme, and brand system for the 2018 TEDxNaperville ideas conference titled “One Step Beyond.”
2016, CompTIA
A project to develop a high-concept, visually-stunning prototype eLearning interactive assessment object that would serve as the basis for a future generation of interactive objects.
2018, TEDxNaperville
A total redesign of the then 6-year-old TEDxNaperville website to adapt to the changing web and organization needs, especially related to maintenance, user experience, mobile responsiveness, and security.
2018, Personal Project
A graphic design project to visualize, simplify, and explain the fundamental equations that dictate our understanding of our universe, from the smallest particles to the rotating of galaxies.
2016, TEDxNaperville
Programs Used: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign
This was our first official, conference guide and booklet. It contained everything attendees needed to engage with the brand, the conference, the speakers, and their ideas.
Design
As we'd never had an official booklet and guide, I pulled inspiration for design from a variety of previous TED conference booklets, integrating parts that I felt worked and throwing out those that didn't or that cluttered the design. I then integrated our theme designs and coloring, organizing the book into three "sessions" corresponding to the conference structure and order of talks.
The speaker pages were designed to connect an attendee not just to a speaker, but with that speaker's idea, and then, later, to take action on behalf of that idea. The left side of the speaker page gave interesting facts, bios, and information on learning more about a speaker's ideas. The right side of the speaker page was something of a blank slate to write personal thoughts and ideas as the speaker gave their talk. It also featured a single action each attendee could take to engage with that idea after the talk was finished. Each page was designed to maximize interaction between a speaker, his or her idea, and the attendee.
The book also includes an introduction to the organization, our growth statistics, thank you pages listing all our partners, volunteers, and other VIPs, venue maps and guides, and a tear-out page to help attendees immediately get involved in next year's conference.
Throughout the booklet, I also put various quotes, musings, video links, and interesting snippets. These functioned as Easter eggs that would make exploring the book fun and interesting.
2015, TEDxNaperville
A fusion art and science gallery presented as a popup exhibit at TEDxNaperville 2015. I partnered with 5 organizations and institutions to present complex concepts or products in consumable chunks to over 550 attendees.
