Touch. Taste. Design.

Design that is felt.
Ideas you can taste.
Sense design.

michelle.k.min@gmail.com Resume

Method

Sense

Our perception of our environment is filtered through the senses. Being conscious of the effect of the senses allows for a deeper understanding of the world around us and ourselves. With this knowledge I hope to create ideas that communicate with others through the sharing of senses.

I admire Kenya Hara's work, his ability to tap into the unconscious world of the senses and to make them visible, tangible, and in a way "real". His work has allowed me to view design not just as a vehicle for beauty, but to bring awareness to the subtle recognition of touch, taste, smell and sound. He creates ideas that produce a visceral reaction, which need no explanation, I believe that to be great design. The ability to bring awareness to the senses allows the designer to create on a whole new level, designing for the senses, the ultimate vehicle for communication.

Experience

Our sensory perceptions are then colored by our emotional response. The cradling touch of your pillow formed to your head, the familiar smell of the sheets that evokes comfort, all these sensory intakes create an emotional experience. Profound connection requires a common experience, which requires the similar understanding of a sensory input. I believe in order to generate effective solutions we must stand in the shoes of the user. Getting a first hand experience with the users perspective allows for us to experience with our own senses, what the user is emotionally experiencing, I believe this is one of the most valuable tools for uncovering the users unconscious or unspoken intentions. Emotional preferences dictate decisions. Real understanding of the client's needs, explicit and implicit, requires understanding their motivations and the reasoning behind their decisions.

Cognition

I'm very curious about the psychological understandings of our surroundings. How we decode information from text, signs, instructions, symbols in to meaning. What is the best way for the targeted user to recognize and decipher the information, does their emotional preferences obstruct their cognitive decision making ability? What are the patterns we can identify as designers and provide the most intuitive solution for the user experience.

I hope to understand and utilize more of our psyche to create design solutions that are intuitive, but also lends itself to becoming a research topic in order to constantly improve and learn more about ourselves.

  • Photography Michelle Min

  • Case Study

    Ororo

    A Taste Shop

    A concept shop serving only "taste". The word Ororo is a fictitious word derived from the Japanese word Tororo, meaning grated Japanese mountain yam. The yam has no distinct flavor, thus forcing the taster to rely completely on its texture. The bar was an investigation on how to deliver accurate flavors and textures to its patrons.

    • Client Personal
    • Design/Photography Michelle Min

  • Packaging

    A Taste of Korea

    An introduction to the flavors of the Korean cuisine

    The Korean word inprinted on the cover, 손맛 (pronounced sonmhat), means the flavor of hands, which in Korean culture carries a very personal connection passed through out the preparation of a meal.

    The entire box is handmade. The materials and the packaging of the ingredients all convey the sense of the personal connection through the "flavor of the hands".

    • Client Personal
    • Art Direction/Photography Michelle Min

  • Infographic

    Story Icons

    Each stroke carries with it a story, an idea.

    Simplification forces the icon to express a great deal of story in a short glance, that is the challenge to inject a great story within a single graphic icon. The Oasys project allowed for complex stories and science to be shown through icons and information graphics that distilled the essence of the message into quickly understandable graphics.

    • Client Oasys Water
    • Art Direction/Design Michelle Min

  • Presentation

    Storytelling

    Evoking an emotion through the act of story telling

    NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is one of the prominent environmental groups in the nation and with such powerful stories through data and information, we assisted in creating an emotional presentation through sense evoking imagery of the deep sea. This is a call to action story and the objective was to stir enough empathy in the viewers to react to help save the oceans.

    • Client NRDC
    • Art Direction Diandra Macias
    • Photography John Weller
    • Lead Design Michelle Min

  • Photography

    Visual Tactility

    Images that link the sense of touch, feel, and, taste

    Tactility rich imagery, combining both senses to create an environmental context. Each spec of light, the canvas itself all becomes a meaning coded into an idea. We are able to sense the slightest of details and grasp the idea and storytelling behind the facade of the medium. These ideas speak volumes to our behavior and our understanding of our world.

    • Photography Michelle Min