The document describes several of the designer's projects including designing plates by sandblasting thrift store china, creating glass vases and bowls through a glass manufacturing apprenticeship, designing ceramic products for Peruvian artisans using patterns from tire tracks, designing cord weights to prevent phone charger cords from falling onto the floor, designing neon-bent glass sculptures to represent Las Vegas, and designing jewelry for a Peruvian artisan inspired by Incan armor graphics.

1. Cat@CatMerrick.com
(917)415-1283

2. Drip Plate: Process
Pratt initiated a school-wide contest for inclusion in the International Contemporary Furniture Fair with the theme
“Design For a Dollar”. I experimented with sandblasting to breathe new life into thrift store china.
Thrift store plate Dripped Wax Sandblasted Surface High End Product

3. Drip Plate: Final Product
Dripping from plate to plate gives the appearance that the pattern is traveling from one plate to another, creating movement around
a table. These plates were included in the show, and Design for a Dollar received an Editor’s Award for Best Student Booth at the ICFF.

5. Quartz: Process
Factories
I was one of ten finalists chosen by Riedel/Nachtmann to tour six factories in Germany and Austria and receive training on glass manufacturing.
Inspiration
My initial concept was an internally patterned vase that used the geode as a visual metaphor: a simple exterior with ornately
patterned crystal hidden inside. This evolved into the possibility of juxtaposing internally and externally patterned pieces.

6. Quartz: CAD Experimentation
Internal
on the table and allows for the simplest possible mold.
External
By mirroring and patterning an asymmetrically
faceted shape in a circle, I was able to mimic the
dancing light refraction of natural crystal and still
maintain elegant, ordered geometry.
Including externally patterned pieces in the same line creates contrast
on the table and doubles the opportunity to extend the product line.

7. Quartz: Manufacturing
Internal: One Part Mold
Using a patterned plunger allows for a one-part mold and eliminates
the need to conceal or polish mold lines. The geometry of this vase is
carefully drafted to allow at least three degrees for plunger release.
External: Three Part Mold

8. Quartz: Final Prototypes
Internally Patterned Vase
The rendering on the left shows the “floating” effect of internal patterning. Because the client wanted opaque models,
the model on the left was specially designed to show what the pattern would look like as seen through glass, and on
the right, in cross-section.

9. Quartz: Final Prototypes
Externally Patterned Vase and Votive Models
The externally patterned option gave Nachtmann a comparatively traditional alternative while also presenting the possibility
of including both in the same line. Initial factory prototypes revealed that internal patterning, though possible, was actually
more expensive, so we moved forward with the externally patterned option.

10. Quartz: Final Product
Nachtmann requested a smaller companion vase to suit the tastes of Japanese consumers while engineers in the factory
in Wieden revealed the possibility of an irregular rim to refract more light. These vases are currently sold in major stores in
the United States, Europe, Iran and Japan.

11. Quartz: Line Extension
Based on the success of the vases, Nachtmann asked me to design a bowl with a faceted edge to match. It was presented at
Ambiente in February and will be available in stores in May 2012.

13. Tire Project: Process
I lived in Peru for five months as a freelance designer for SERRV, a global fair-trade organization. Artisans poor enough to require their help typically have large
gaps in their skill set. SERRV wanted ornately patterned “Peruvian” ceramics, but this seemed impossible for an artisan group that could not glaze or make molds.
Most of the slums surrounding Lima have dirt roads, criss-crossed with tire tracks. After some time in the museums, I realized that the tracks looked remarkably like
Pre-Columbian patterning.

14. Tire Project: Process
Process
I bought bike tires at a local llanteria, nailed them to wooden boards and had Juan Huicho use these as rubber stamps to press patterns into his hand-turned bowls.

15. Tire Project: Final Models
The result gave SERRV the patterns they wanted and managed to be honest to both past and present Peru.

17. Cord Weight: Research
I participated in a freelance project for West Elm themed “Technology in the Home.” My contributions were two of the four chosen for the Holiday 2012 line.
Charging Behaviors
My research subjects placed devices on the floor or on precarious surfaces in order to access conveniently located plugs. They would also use inconveniently
located outlets if it allowed them to have their devices near them while charging. This often meant they had to fish for lost cords behind couches and beds, live
with cords on the floor or put them away after every use.

18. Cord Weight: Research
Garret: Cord Weight Behavior Gayla: Repurposed Antiques
“I use an antique fishing weight to keep my “I use antique letter holders for my ipad, ipod and
charger cords from falling.” iphone when I’m not using them.”
“The weight is a way of giving them dignity. “We spend so much on electronics, only to use
Duct tape would have also worked.” accessories that cheapen them.”
Garret provided a mechanical solution while Gayla showed a similar way of domesticating electronics to suit West Elm’s eclectic aesthetic.

19. Cord Weight: Chosen Problem
Weight of phone
tethers cord to
table
Cord must be
found on floor for
next use.
Cord falls once there
is nothing weighing it
down.

20. Cord Weight: Ideation
”

21. Cord Weight: Inspiration
I looked at antiques that involved weights or any cord or string element, including fishing weights, loom weights, sewing machine parts,
harpsichord hardware, sling shots and similar weapons.

22. Cord Weight: Finals
Intuitive finger grooves
3.0
1.0
2.3
.8
This version remains loyal to Garret’s fishing weight to exemplify the concept of the “repurposed antique”

23. Cord Weight: Finals
.2
Slot-and-hole design allows
multiple orientations
2.4
1.0
2.0
1.5
This version was styled to suit West Elm’s “Industrial Modern” category

24. Cord Weight: Finals

26. Empathy for Las Vegas: Process
Herman Miller sponsored an ICFF booth themed “Empathy for Culture”. As a Las Vegas local, I am used to seeing my city in daylight, once the lights are out. The
ornate bends in a neon sign have the beautiful and frantic energy of a single line wildly twisting to get out of its own way, but this is only visible up close and unlit.
In a city supposedly without culture, neon bending is our only local craft. By finding new applications for bent glass, I hoped to draw attention to a detail of the
city that visitors might never get close enough to notice.

27. Empathy for Las Vegas: Possible Configurations
Designed to interact in a variety of orientations to create a dramatic and colorful display worthy of its namesake.

28. Empathy for Las Vegas: Finals
These candlesticks were chosen for the show and received top ICFF billing on Core 77.

29. Reversible Wheel-Thrown Tealight Holder: Final Prototype
R
This reversible tealight was designed for an artisan with incredible wheel-throwing ability. When the top candle burns out, the tealight
holder can be lifted to reveal a replacement, and the used candle can be hidden in the space below.

30. maintain the forest. The Guyana Project is a line of sustainable furniture designed by volunteers and created out of non-timber forest products at the Liana Cane
production into viable business models.

31. Bee Wing Table Lamp:
The Wai Wai weavers are a remote indigenous group with a complex graphic language in which symbols stand in for
objects, arranged with no spacial relationship to one another. Aio and I combined several of these graphics to create an
abstracted night scene on an akari style table lamp. A collapsible stand and square shape maximize the number of
designs that can stack in a shipping container.

33. Incan Armor: Process
Carla Hernandez is a Cuzco jeweler with a high level of care and patience, but rudimentary facilities and limited access to stock materials like necklace chains.
My challenge was to design jewelry simple enough for Carla to make, yet novel enough for SERRV to carry in their catalog.

34. Incan Armor: Process
Inspiration:
Market Trends:
The “Woman Warrior” concept taps into the “hipster triangle” trend for graphic, empowering jewlery inspired by indigenous references.

35. Incan Armor: Final Product
Within the concept of “woman warrior”, bold and empowering graphics turn large-scale simplicity from a technical constraint to a styling advantage. Using armor
for inspiration, these necklaces were designed to frame or echo the female clavicle. There was no alternative to a stock chain, but holding that chain in tension
within the design made it into a decorative element.