A Letter to my Younger Self
For my Final Year project, I chose to study body image and the struggles one can go through to achieve body satisfaction. The deep fascination with beauty and perfection permeates cultures all around the world. All ages, genders and ethnicities are consumed by the indulgence to feel and appear attractive. People tend to see themselves differently compared to how they may see other people, including myself. I wanted to understand how people may gain appreciaition for their own appearance by diving into my own past and realize my own journey that I had to go through to gain the confidence I have today. As part of my research, I had help from members of the Body Project. The Body Project is a body acceptance intervention that consists of verbal, written, and behavioural exercises in which participants challenge their appearance and beauty ideals. Participants are given 'homework' to do their own time during the week. One exercise that the Body Project recommends is writing a letter to your younger self. This exercise can help one to realise how much they have grown over time. This project aims to show a journey in finding satisfaction with ones appearance. To get this message across, I based my final project on a letter to my younger self in which I discuss things I wish someone had told me at a young age inrelation to body image. I hope this project may influence anyone that reads it to write their own letter.
Samuel Johnsons Dictionary
One of the most famous dictionaries in history is Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language. The dictionary, which was first published in 1755, took little over 8 years to construct, required six assistants, and contained 40,000 words. In response to the brief the design of the book uses typographic expressionism to adequately visualise the beauties and complexities of the English language, while also telling the story of the life of Samuel Johnson, the lexicographer behind the first dictionary. The book is 18 x 20 inches, the same size as the original dictionary.
Women in design
A group project based on the history of Women in design that was displayed as part of the Kells Type Trail in Co. Meath. Myself and three fellow design students took on the task on educating ourselves on women in design: past, present and future. We interviewed big names in the design industry such as Kim Mackenzie-Doyle to get a deeper understanding of what it's like to be a female designer in today's society.
Sustainability mindset character
As part of my internship with Accenture at The Dock, I was honoured to be apart of a project with a global ev charging company, in which one client ask was to create visuals to portray four types of sustainability mindsets to display alongside informative pieces and in an interactive client experience exhibition. The characters were created using Midjourney and Adobe Illustrator.
TUS Athlone creative department
As part of a final year brief, we were asked to redesign TUS Athlone's creative department. This involved redesigning the interior design of the Engineering building, creating a broadsheet that explains what courses the creative department in Athlone has to offer and create a video to promote the new department.
Penguin book design
As part of a Penguin books brief, I designed a book cover for "The Uninhabitable Earth". A book written by David Wallace-Wells that explains how humanity's complacency and negligence have put this world on a course to soon be unlivable unless we each do our small part to improve how we care for this beautiful planet we live on.
Neobank app design
What is financial well being? Well, it refers to how managing your money affects your life. As part of my Accenture internship, we took on a group project to come up with a concept and design for a financial well being app. Our financial empowerment app, Squirrel, helps 18 - 35 year olds who want to evaluate their financial mindset by alleviating fear of instability and encouraging proactive behaviour unlike existing online banking apps. We created three app features to encourage this proactive behaviour. These features were taken from our user testing phase in which we took to the streets of Dublin and asked people what features they enjoy the most or what features they feel are missing from their lives. The features in clude 1. Nests: are money 'buckets' which acts as a budgeting tool and is tailored to each individual depending on their needs. It includes the automation of transfers and can visualise savings and goals. 2. Nudges: is a call to action that is in line with the users' goals - targeting key actions and providing tools for proactive habit building and behaviour change. 3. Chatbot: offers option to schedule a call with a QFA if more specific advice is needed. This feature has the potential to reduce the cost to serve a customer this way. Prototype created using Figma. This project was the winning idea in our 'Makethon' internship project.
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The Social Butterfly's
As part of my Accenture internship, we took part in a group project called 'Leaders of Tomorrow'. Our brief was 'How can we use technology to reduce social isolation and not replace social connection with technology'. As an all - female team, we created an innovative app that fosters human connections among females seeking meaningful conversations. Unlike image-based apps, we utilize intriguing prompts to facilitate engaging interactions and help users forge deeper connections with others. We focused on three app features. 1. The GroupChat: A groupchat is made with 10 - 13 people and is changed weekly to contain new people so there is always new connections to be made. The chat that contains an AI bot that comes with with daily interesting topic prompts for the group to discuss. 2. The Podcast Station: A weekly podcast featuring guests such as BodyWhys therapists or University speakers. We added a podcast feature as it is scientifically proven that listening to podcasts stimulates the important parts of the brain. As a result, they help increase levels of empathy, foster relationships and boost compassion. 3. The Event Planner: A feature within the group chat that allows the creation of an event that members of the chat can sign up to and attend using an online booking system. The idea behind this feature is that local business' such as restaurants and cinemas can be booked with through the app therefore providing business in the local area.
