Brief: Design an experience centered around tools for the shared economy (Ludwin Mora)

Location: The Ohio State University

Date: March 20 - April 20, 2023 (5 weeks)

Constraints: Students will write their own proposals to determine the constraints of their projects, which must include visual brand language inspired by a set company. 

Collaboration: Individual

When we began this project, I knew I wanted to create something centered around travel. I'd just returned from spring break, where I'd gone to visit family in Canada, so the entire airport experience was fresh in my head. How could I introduce the idea of the shared economy to travel?

After researching shared economies in class, we defined the concept as something that was circular. Whether it was people sharing goods with one another or a set of goods being shared among people, it fit our definition. 

With this in mind, I decided to create some sort of sharing system for travel essentials inside airports. This system would be especially helpful for infrequent flyers who don't always need to own certain essentials only necessary for travel. 

I chose to take inspiration from the visual brand language of Polaroid for this project. Their VBL is bold, colorful, and minimalistic, something that would fit in an airport nicely. Additionally, I felt that combining a photography company with the idea of travel could create several opportunities for marketing the experience towards candid moments and enjoying one's journey. 

My project proposal is shown below:

Much time was devoted to creating the visuals to communicate the idea for this project. I worked in Procreate to sketch out ideas for development, Fusion360 to model my favorite Polaroid-themed products as well as the kiosk, KeyShot to render everything in context, as well as Illustrator and InDesign to ensure a cohesive project presentation. 

This process took time, as there was a lot of back and forth between softwares to update models, redefine measurements, and ensure consistency. I truly enjoy working with these softwares, however, so it was a fun dance.

Enjoy the final visualization pages below:

This project was very open-ended, and very independent. It taught me the importance of peer and professor feedback as well as the value of committing to an idea quickly and trusting myself to develop it well. I also learned that the more passionate I was about a topic, the more invested I was in its outcome. I love to travel, and think something like this system would be very beneficial in an airport, and therefore was excited to flesh its nuances out during development.

"By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?"

- Elaine, Airplane