Documentation & Process

an exploration of criticality, academia, and production in home decor en masse

Process, Phases + Details

Team Building + Collaboration

The Empathy Toy

Frankenstein Rapid Sketching

Market Research + Auto-ethnography

Critical Decor engages three critically-engaged designers/artists to investigate the notion of home decor through the development, manufacture, and retailing of small space consumer products. Facilitated by MDES Candidate Seth Parker as part of his research, students will work collaboratively with the team of AZ Home and fellow participants to develop a cohesive series of home decor products. Upon completion of the product design, the objects will move into product development and will be pitched for sale across Canada. Products will go to market through 2020-2021.

Learn more about the students

This webpage documents the weekly progress of the Critical Decor project as it moves through Research, Ideation and Development phases.

May 30 - June 13, 2019

Team Building + Collaboration

Students begun the coop with exercises designed to encourage collaboration through creativity. Students completed exercises such as:

The Empathy Toy

An interactive game that promotes communication and haptic exploration as a means of team building. The Empathy Toy™ proves that play and work are not opposites and that empathy helps teams collaborate better, and achieve better results.

Students engaged in 21 Toys: The Empathy Toy for creative team building

Frankenstein Rapid Sketching

Market Research + Auto-ethnography

Research Collection and Mapping

Students explored various stores in Vancouver to determine the types of products that are currently available. Photos from this research

Problem Statement

Our objective is to design affordable, space effective storage solutions for the everyday consumer, that are easy to install, functional yet stylish, and enable organization in the home.