ORIGINAL INVENTIVE AMBITIOUS PRODUCT DESIGN PORTFOLIO 2014
AT H R E YA Z E R FA S
GRADUATE IN PRODUCT DESIGN LIVE PROJECTS SPONSORED INTERNSHIPS
ATHREYA ZERFAS
DATE OF BIRTH
Product Designer
17th September 1990
EDUCATION Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore, India (2011 2013) PDP Graduate in Product Design
Cadd Centre, India 3d CAD modelling Diploma in Solid Works and 3ds Max from Cadd Centre, India
DJ Academy Of Design, Coimbatore, India (2008 - 2010) 2 year Foundation Studies Program
EXPERIENCE Foley Designs Srishti Labs (SLABS) Graduation project - Modular kitchen Tupperware young minds studio design from scratch for the Indian market Tupperware General Services 6 month product design internship at Tupperware headquarters, Aalst, Belgium
Srishti Labs (SLABS) Haptic touch project in collaboration with Mr. Sumit Dagar
Srishti Films - Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology Documentary films, Photography and publications highlighting the conditions of the camel breeding community of Kutch in Gujarat and the impact of climate change on the livelihoods in North Eastern India.
SKILLED INTERESTS
SOFTWARE SKILLS
Picking & generating insights through qualitative & quantitative user studies
Graphical / Presentation - Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Microsoft Office
Coming up with ideas & solutions for the future
3d / Rendering - Solid Works, 3ds Max, Keyshot, Mental Ray
Creating fresh and unique approaches & experiences through obsessive brainstorming
Audio Video - Final cut Pro, Premier Pro
COMPETITIONS
INTERESTS
Finalist at the National geographic Moment Awards competition
Motorcycling, travelling, exploring lesser known locations, people and cultures, photography, documentary film-making
Jumpthegap Design Competition participant- ROCA
ATHREYA ZERFAS ?
GET IN TOUCH
Easy going, enthusiastic, major foodie, gadget freak, car and bike geek, quick to learn, adapt and a fun loving extrovert
5-64, Kanchanam, netherekere village, kallige grama, bantwal taluk, D.K. District, Mangalore -574297, India +91-7760470654 athrey210@gmail.com
FLEXIPEEL A project by Tupperware General Services, Aalst , Belgium in collaboration with Srishti Labs in Bangalore, India brought about a brief centered around health, hygiene, simplicity and a fresh approach to experiences in kitchen preparation.
Peeling vegetables can often be a tedious and time-consuming task. Peelers primarily face everchanging organic surfaces during their life. Taking into account this ever-changing nature of surfaces, Flexipeel offers up a simple solution of a flexible body and blade that one can use to match the contour of the vegetable or fruit that requires peeling. This flexible nature helps reduce time, increase efficiency and also brings about a fresh ergonomic experience to the otherwise tried and tested world of peelers.
DROPTOCRACK Most nutcrackers available today bear a metallic, industrial and sometimes intimidating look. Droptocrack is a fun, friendly and playfull nutcracker that goes about its job without any moving parts, relying on its simple design and flexible tentacles.
Inspired by anemones and squids the highly organic shape of the nutcracker allows for easy cracking of nuts of different shapes and sizes. Simply drop the nut into the product, grab the top of it and squeeze to crack the nut.
TOSS & WASH Washing/rinsing vegetables and greens can be a tricky affair to address with a product. Combining a simple bowl with a colander-like top, Toss & Wash utilizes an extremely simple impelling process that helps rinse/wash your salad, vegetables, greens and fruits. When the products are separated they go about doing work as a bowl and a colander respectively.
Simply drop the nut into the product and bring the tentacles together in order to crack the nut.
A KITCHEN FULL OF IDEAS My graduation project brief revolved around envisioning and designing a modular kitchen range from scratch for Indian sensitivities and requirements. This project involved a high profile company in the accessory design arena, entering the kitchen space for the first time. “Product differentiator concepts strictly confidential�
Requirements, trends, convenience and comfort are all words that led me and the Foley designs team, knocking on the doorstep of 28 houses of varied cultural backgrounds. These users were interviewed, understood, observed and brainstormed upon to create a bank of qualitative data. This in turn helped generate an exhaustive list of problems that required revisiting, redesigning and re-inventing.
The insights generated during the research process were categorised into various intervention areas in order to streamline the never-ending series of brainstorms and bring about a fresh experience to the way in which modular kitchens are designed, set up and lived with.
Choosing an 8 x 12’ floor plan, observed as the most common throughout the extensive research process proved to be the ideal platform to incorporate numerous ideas spanning smart storage, comfort, convenience, wet areas and upgradable solutions such as in-cabinet cylinder carts and wicker baskets for dry vegetables that one can take shopping.
RECEPTION TABLE Fusing a combination of Corian and Ply, this concept enables one to order it with a plethora of color and finish options owing to its construction. The curvy form factor lends the product a distinct and exclusive look. The outer customiseable shell makes up the corian whilst the inners are finished in ply.
BEDROOM FURNITURE An unlikely combination of a bed, bedside tables and bedside lamps, this product lets you lie down and read in comfort. The symmetry of the overall design, gives it the opportunity to become the centrepiece of a room whereas traditionally beds are almost always placed right next to a wall.
HAPTIC TOUCH PROJECT The haptic touch project revolves around understanding , observing , Conceptualizing and prototyping digital devices for the visually impaired. Extensive qualitative research was carried out at the LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, India.
Identifying problems that affect their day to day lives like travelling, accessing entertainment, making navigational choices, counting money, interacting with the digital world and how they solve it, were some of the ways with which the primary qualitative research was conducted. Along the way we were also treated to some common misconceptions such as, their senses being better developed and fluency with Braille and other harsh realities faced by the poorer people.
With the visually impaired, sound is generally used as a primary form of communication. This gives the tactile, an interesting and relatively unexplored opportunity to enhance the relationships between users and their devices. The levitating pixel concept came about after long days of conceptualizing ended up in concepts that required a 3rd dimension to interaction. The pixel unlike a traditional screen, pops out of the screen enabling one to interact with the display via a physical 3rd dimension rather than a purely audio/visual one.
With the project brief requiring a tangible solution in the end, we turned over to the prototyping stage. Keeping in mind the constraints of a slim budget, the objective shifted from creating concepts with the levitating pixel, to prototyping a single working levitating pixel and possibly a screen. The levitating pixel uses the basic principles of Magnetism and its properties of attraction and repulsion to pop out of the screen creating that 3rd dimension.
SRISHTI FILMS Working with Sahjeevan, an NGO from Kutch in India and GIZ, a technical consultant for climate change to the North-Eastern Government of India provided a rare opportunity to experience first hand, the problems faced by camel breeders in kutch and the impacts of climate change on the people of the North East. Documentaries, photography and publications followed thereafter, all of which culminated in a wonderful exhibition filled with awe, shock (and a hint of jealousy).
PUBLICATIONS The books created for GIZ try and capture the essence of the problems that the people of the states of Sikkim, Meghalaya and Nagaland face, whilst going about their lives. These problems range from scarcity of water in Sikkim through the difficulties of rearing silkworms in Meghalaya to the issues surrounding shifting (Jhoom) cultivation in Nagaland.
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