I’m a Collaborative and Communication designer based in Naarm (Melbourne). I’m passionate about creating thoughtful and aesthetic designs which serve a benefit to the community. I believe design is the daily; meaning that design is central to how we interact with everyone and everything everyday. Prioritising collaboration, creativity and sustainability, I enjoy producing designs that are creative and exciting.
My 2024 final project responds to the brief of (re)designing an artefact for the vision impaired community. I collaborated with tutors, stakeholders and students to re-design a regular deck of playing cards to be more sensory and tactile.
Introducing: Sensory Suits
A regular deck of cards is one of the most versatile objects of use to humans. With a plethora of games and purposes dating back decades, there is only one issue: They rely purely on sight. While a traditional card deck may be extremely multifunctional, they lack accessibility for those who are vision impaired.
Early Iterations
While researching, I discovered many examples of cards for the vision impaired community. Most included important precedents regarding the incorporation of braille and increased imagery size. Yet, they lacked tactility and diversity in colour, which I learned are very important to individuals with low or no vision.
Project Refinement
My project has had many iterations in terms of material, size and layout. Throughout my refinement journey, I discovered that it was necessary to design cards that were easily as portable and distinguishable for vision requirements across the spectrum, without sacrificing practicality.
Final Proposal
Through discussion and collaboration, I successfully created a deck of cards that are tactile colourful and communicative. With sustainability in mind, I limited my materials to be only paper and created my own suits (jaws, scales, shells and rods). I then assigned a different colour and laser-cut pattern to each suit.
Brand Identity
It was very important to me to create a brand identity for my cards that displays an original, cohesive and innovative design. The inspiration behind my oceanic theme was drawn from my personal appreciation for the card game ‘Go Fish’ and willingness to design cards that would make this game more accessible to the vision impaired community.
Further Conceptualisation
I also prototyped a website that would turn Sensory Suits into an open source deck. Participants can choose to purchase a prepared deck or download the laser cutting files, packaging and instructions to customise and build their own card deck. This further transforms the brand into a personalised and accessible experience.
In the spirit of reconciliation Monash University acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
