Diana Castro Design Portfolio Via Tertulliano 35, Milano 20137 (IT) +39 3802632786 dimcast@hotmail.com behance.net/dimcast diinsight.wordpress.com
Diana Castro Diana Castro was born in Bucaramanga, Colombia in 1990. She studied industrial design at the Universidad Industrial de Santander, this studies were an opportunity to learn about a wide variety of material and techniques through a direct experimentation. At 2012 she was an exchange estudent at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de MÊxico. During this experience she developed a sensibility and interest for the social studies and innovation theories. After finishing a Bachelor thesis about social centered design, she started her studies at Politecnico di Milano. Her experiences abroad has given her a passion for the discovery and the creation of experiences able to affect positively people’s life.
Treespot How can we generate innovation in furniture design? Treespot is a piece of outdoor furniture able to provide people their own space inside parks becoming a personal object. The project was born when the team observed how individuals bring different objects to the park in order to create a familiar environment. The seat and structure are build on mahogany, while the junctions are aluminum and the attach system high tenacity polyester. The mix between form and materials makes it water resistant, quickly dryable, visually mix-up with the environment, light, easy to move, modular to the infinite and cheap.
Year 2015 Category Product Design Collaboration Zhenwen Mao Credits Laboratorio Sviluppo Prodotto, POLIMI
Equilibrium of the chair depends mostly on the junctions, that’s why the team focused on the design of special pieces ensuring the stability of the structure. Storage and display complements where also designed, consist on a totem identifying and showing how to use the seat, as keep them together safe from environment condonditions.
As the project was ambitious since it was thought, a lot of big decisions about materials, size and configuration, had to be taken. The best way to get the concept to evolve was through a serious of tests, from CAD to real world. Building mock-ups and proving the different materials and configurations. Creating with the hands.
Seres How can we improve life quality for a marginalized population? Seres is a board game developed working in a local institution dedicated to education and rehabilitation of the blind and visually impaired. The sign system (squares, dice, checkers, characters) from the classic “Serpents & Ladders” were adapted in order to make it reachable for all. The final proposal includes an electronic dice in the middle of the board to tell the players how to move, squares divided by levels to become joyful the journey, they get higher as they get close to the goal, and both braille and shaped checkers indicate position. All this elements mixed up with funny sound effects give players a unique gaming experience.
Year 2013 Category Product Design Collaboration Jaime García, Claudia Ibañez Credits Laboratorio Diseño Interdisciplina, UIS
Before building a mock-up, some experimentation was carried focused on two main aspects: gameplay and technical performance. The feedback allowed the concept be fix and finally become a prototype builded in PMMA with incorporated sound system.
packaging ife How can we transport a 10kg device to rural areas safely? In 2012, the IFE (Mexican organization responsible for the federal elections) decided to use 1550 electronic ballots for the presidential elections on 300 districts. This device needed a packaging with particular specifications: portable, compact and easy to be assembled (users must return the unit within the box).
Year 2012 Category Packaging Design Collaboration Samuel Tellez, Miriam Lechiga, Samanta Ordaz, Rocio DiBlassio Credits Envase y embalaje course, UNAM
The main goal was to get the users to return the device within the box, so it had to be portable, compact and easy to use for everyone. A serious of models were build to test the folding sequence, in order to make it the simplest possible.
Sfee How can we create aesthetic experience through materials? Sfee is a DIY material develoved using the Material Driven Design Method. Understanding this process inspired the team to find a new life for the coffee grounds. Mixing the residuals with a binder allows to get a material that tells a story with its visual and tactile texture. The result is an aesthetic experience using the memories related to the coffee drinking to surprise people with its beauty and possibilities. The shape and components are organic. It might be manipulated as a leather cutting, drilling or sewing the pieces. The teams proposes a set of objects that take advantage of the flexibility to construct forms that thanks to the variation on the concentration of the grains, create amazing light effects.
Year 2015 Category Concept Design Collaboration Nancy Carrasco, Luis Vicencio Credits Laboratorio Concept Design, POLIMI
Sffe is the result from the experimentation with DIY materials, through MDD, Material Driven Design, a method to design for material experience. The process included user studies that helped stablish the nature of the material as a tissue because of its performance and also was the way to discover it would be perfect as the material used to make the different objects on a bar
Dualism Project How can we use light to represent a metaphor? Two light artifacts where use to synthetize two different dualism metaphors. The models use super LED, LED, and optic fiber to create optical illusions. EndlessCube (up) is a double sensitive experience. The external surface reflect the light creating a deepness illusion. On the inside instead, the mirrored walls multiply the light coming from optical fiber wires creating a universe scenario. Taocube (bottom). Within a lighted environment the viewer’s attention get focused on the internal black cube, that seems to be floating on the emptiness. In a dark atmosphere, the internal light illuminates the cube’s perimeter. Is the opposition between light and darkness, both contrary conditionin each other existence.
Year 2015 Category Light Design Collaboration Simona Bevere, Alessandro Ianniello, Marco Sebastiani Credits Laboratorio Concept Design, POLIMI
This project was mainly focused on the light effect, so to get the desired result the team experimented with different materials and compositions to resolve the creation of the metaphor
Solux How can we reach sustainable social dwellings? Solux is a lighting device that reflects sunlight into social dwellings (houses produced by the National Government to fulfill the housing deficit). The system brings a high technology to the population while allows to reduce the energy consumption and promotes the socio-ethical and sustainable develop. Is the result of a research conducted inside the existing houses oriented on the develop of strategies to improve life of its residents. Existing strategies are not proper to Colombian social dwellings, because of costs, size and structure. Solux is more than just lighting, is an example of how we toke a high technology and adapted in a way that can be reachable to a marginalized context.
Year 2014 Category Product Design Credits Thesis Project, UIS
The experimentation ended up with a system divided in three sections. A collector installed on the roof, inspired on the Cassegrain telescopes configuration, with two reflectors that direct light into the conductor. A reflective tube which thanks to the collector design, can be 30% smaller than the existing products. Finally a diffuser imitates projectors to illuminate the room.
The project was divided on 5 phases: research, creation, testing, product details and estimates. For the first two phases, creating hands-on and user studies were conducted, allowing to get interesting insights wich are the key to the success of the prototype.
Skills Writting and Storytelling
Model construction and crafts
For years, storytelling is been a passion and hobby that made her to win awards and contest when she was a teenager. Since summer 2015, she started a blog where both design and narration come together, allowing her to improve her talents and ideas.
The technical approach from UIS was an opportunity to interact with materials and learn to build models from scratch. Leather, wool, cardboard, wood, ceramics, silver, are some of the materials she learned to manipulate whether through artisanal techniques that trough high technologies.
3D modelling In softwares as SolidEdge an 3dMax for the construction of shapes, VRay and Keyshot for rendering.
Photography A skill developed on academic and private projects. Focused on the light phenomena and its effect on the characters.
Thanks!
Via Tertulliano 35, Milano 20137 (IT) +39 3802632786 dimcast@hotmail.com behance.net/dimcast diinsight.wordpress.com