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The VCU Free Store is an on-campus resource for students, faculty, and staff at Virginia Commonwealth University. VCU Rams can donate items and take items for free, ranging from pencils and paperclips to TVs and mini-fridges. Housed with VCU Rambikes, an on-campus bike facility that offers free rentals and repairs, the Free Store is one of many projects put forth by the VCU Office of Sustainability focused on improving student wellness and environmental stewardship.
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When conceptualizing the logo, neon storefront signage was a guiding influence. The Free Store logo is a soft, rounded rectangular form, reflective of a credit card or a bank note. This concept is paired with the vibrant green and blue colors, which suggest recycling of materials, saving money, and maintaining financial security. The flowing F and S form found in the frame of the logo alludes to the busyness and flow of traffic found at the Free Store's location: the heart of Richmond, VA.
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bee b&b is an open-source set of 3D printable files. These modules take the form of truncated octahedrons, allowing them to tile in three directions in space. Anyone who downloads these modules can print them and assemble their own bee b&b, consisting of bee beds, flower planters, and structural elements. I conceived of this project with the intention of distributing the means for people to build their own bee b&b, creating pit-stops anywhere for solitary bees to rest. This involved modeling the 3D files, 3D printing them, uploading them online, and developing a visual identity for the project. Continue scrolling for some process images and for a breakdown of the visual identity design. |
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The logotype is set in Santino, designed by Ariel Di Lisio at Sudtipos. This typeface is distinguished by its stinger-like strokes, especially visible on the lowercase e. Soft, rotund curves paired with sharp points are reminiscent of the anatomy of the bumblebee.
The logo involves references to various objects and visual forms involved in the creation of a bee b&b. The most recognizable may be the hexagon, golden yellow and honeycomb-like. Paired with a rectangle, these two shapes make the faces of a truncated octahedron: the building block of the bee b&b. The logo is split into horizontal sections, reflecting not only the stripes of a bee, but the layers of a 3D printed object. And finally, the triangle at the bottom of the form acts as both the stinger of a bee and the nozzle of a 3D printer extruder assembly. |
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To create these cards, I spent 100 hours working in the Bowe House Press in Richmond setting type, designing and creating photopolymer plates, mixing ink, printing, cutting, and corner-rounding. I made 30 unique decks of cards, each with their own back color. Edition 01 of 30 shown.
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terracotta is a prototype of an app for gardeners who are tight on space. An interactive database of climate information, nutrition requirements, harvesting techniques, and more, terracotta helps users manage their potted herbs, fruits, and vegetables. Following an interest in a new hobby, and my frustrations where my knowledge was limited, I decided to explore a remedy to the issue.
Continue downward to see more from the app and more about the design process. |
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Relying on a refined and limited color palette of rich greens and browns, the terracotta interface is designed to reflect the environment where it would be used, but with clean whites and a beautiful geometric sans serif, the app thrives on a digital screen. Semplicita is a digital revival by Canada Type of Semplicità, a typeface designed at Nebiolo foundry in Italy in the 1920s. This intersectionality of old and new—physical and digital—is akin to the design and use of the app, a digital space set within a physical and tactile environment.
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