Aesthetics of Design 2025 Portfolio

Throughout this semester and class I’ve reflected on various aesthetics including my own personal aesthetics’ as well as developed my own creative and manufacturing skills. It started with my upcycling project. For this project I chose a granola aesthetic and upcycled empty soda cans into small succulent planters. You can read more about it in the blog post here –https://www.aesdes.org/2025/02/19/soda-can-succulent-planter/

I loved this upcycle project a lot since I’m passionate about the environment so I wanted to carry similar themes over into my main project. For my main project I reflected on my personal aesthetics and decided I would upcycle old vinyl’s I had into a lamp in the retro futurism style. This way I could combine the common theme of upcycling while also making a unique new final project. You can read more about that here – https://www.aesdes.org/2025/04/26/final-report-part-2-how-vinyl-lamp/

I am proud of the work I was able to accomplish throughout the semester and really enjoyed looking at various aesthetics and reflecting on the ones I like and dislike. As I made both of these projects I overcame various creative challenges and enjoyed getting in touch with my creative side. The biggest challenges for me personally was time management and manufacturing ability. As a mostly remote commuter student I had to get creative when it came to accessing the tools I needed. Thankfully with planning everything worked out and I was able to complete both projects and more importantly be happy with the results. I look forward to presenting my project at the expo and seeing what everyone else was able to make.