My name is Gudrun Tholl Torfadottir, I’m 22 years old and from Iceland. I just graduated from Reykjavík University with a BS in Mechatronics Engineering. The most recent projects I did were an automated curtain and an electrostatic-ultrasonic sprayer to coat produce.
I like to do all kinds of creative things such as sketching, drawing, designing, building, and the list goes on. I love to hang out with my friends and family and in the winter I like to go snowboarding. I love Italian food, such as Pasta Ragu, Pizza, Ravioli, and more, but my favorite food is steak with baked potatoes and bearnaise sauce.
I look forward to designing and creating stuff in this class. I am the most nervous about misunderstanding the assignments.
Buongiorno! Thanks for stopping by. I am really excited to be here, despite my sleepy demeanor. I am not a morning person unless I’ve had a lot of coffee ☕️, and my morning routine is a little disrupted right now as I adjust to our new class schedule and my new commute. I will come alive slowly 🧟♀️.
I’m Monty– like “Monty Python” for the Terry Gilliam 👄 and John Cleese fans, or “Monty Burns” if you’re more of a The Simpsons person. I was named after my grandpa, whose name was also, surprise, Monty.
I’m originally from Canada, but I’ve been in the US for about a decade. I lived in Toronto for most of my life, studying Linguistics and Spanish language at the University of Toronto for my undergrad. While I don’t have a formal arts background, I grew up in an “arts” household — my mom is an illustrator, graphic designer, photographer and painter, and she went back to school in her early thirties, just like I am doing now 🙂
In the mid 2010s, I moved to the US, and since then I’ve lived in San Francisco, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Paris, and now, Brooklyn. Pre-PoD, I worked in Sales at The RealReal, Content Production at BeautyPie, Curation and Artist Relations at Saatchi Art and Cohart, and I consulted for a number of crypto-native companies in the past few years including Ledger and Danvas. I did a full-stack coding bootcamp during COVID, learning Python, HTML and CSS, and Javascript (I really loved it, and while I don’t remember much, I am optimistic that it’ll come back to me during this class).
I spend a lot of time on my computer, so I like to work with my hands and be “off screen” when I can — one example of this is the line of jewelry cases for crypto hardware wallets that I created, called BAGGS, designed to make the self-custodying of digital assets (like cryptocurrencies) more fun.
Along the crafting lines, my friends and I take turns hosting a “craft night” about once a month, because we wanted a more active way to hang out and a reason not to be on our phones. A few weeks ago we made apple dolls; they turned out really awesome and creepy:
Sometimes we really only end up making empty wine bottles 🍷.
I am really excited to be in this class and to learn how to build more “techy” products. I have a lot of specific ideas that I want to bring to life, but in general, I’m interested in experimenting with NFC-chipped objects that have interactive digital experiences. I’m curious about tracking and surveillance tech, as well as exploring tech that can help us disconnect from tech…if that makes sense. I see this class as an opportunity to dip my toe into this area of interest, which I’ve been intimidated to do previously simply because of a lack of experience and feeling like I’m not a math person. How dumb is that!
Thank you for creating a space for us to play and for coming along on this journey with me!
My name is Qi (pronounced Chi), and I’m a first-year student in the POD program.
I’m originally from Beijing, China, and I completed my BFA in Industrial Design with a Japanese minor at RIT in Rochester. I love traveling and exploring new restaurants, so if you have any recommendations, please share!
I’m skilled in brainstorming, sketching, 3D printing, and laser cutting. I prefer working on computers over handcraft projects.
In grad school, I’m excited about creating functional products and am particularly interested in desktop products and toy design. I look forward to pursuing these interests and growing in this field.
She is Jessie, from Beijing China. Her undergrad was also in SVA, majoring in interior design, built environment. INSTAGRAM: jessie_wangqian
She likes to play musical instruments: drums, guitar, piano. She grew up next to the Olympic Village in Beijing, the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube, which is the central axis of the city with a wide pedestrian street, and therefore a skateboarding hangout. She grew up skateboarding and playing basketball with her friends every week. She grew up drawing and painting, and was especially interested in graffiti, and the walls of her grandmother’s house were already covered with her drawings. She also used to dance Latin and street dance.
She is a ketchup lover, her thesis is a ketchup themed food landmark called “MISS TOMATO” , U can always find ketchup in her pocket.
Hello!My name is Qianyue Zhou,I was born in Zhejiang, China.I have two very sweet cats🐱.One’s a silver taper, the other’s a blue cat.👇
I’m a first year student at mfa, pod.I graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in ShanghHai Institute of Visual Art.My undergraduate degree is in industrial design.It’s very similar to the Product of Design(I think).
During my junior year of college, I had an internship at Kohler as an assistant to a professional industrial designer, the Mirror Cabinet Team.My manager taught me a lot of tips on how to communicate with clients and it was a wonderful time.
After I graduate,I’ve returned to my hometown, Shaoxing,and I got a job as a mechanical designer.I can’t say too much because the mechanical patents are confidential🤐,hahaha.
Before I came to New York,I tried a new job as a new media operator in Design ShangHai, my main responsibility was to make news videos about the design world and then post them on instagram and wechat, it was a whole new experience and my colleagues were all really nice people, I miss it!
I like K-pop and here is my instagram @zz_qianyue,I hope I’ll have a good time at sva.
Hi everyone! This is Siyin Peng but people around me call Chacha. This is my nickname since the first day that I was born since my parents decided they like tea can call me this in mandarin “Cha”:)
I love ORANGE, this is a HUGE THING about me!!!
And this is me when I was I don’t know what age;)
I’m from Hangzhou, China, if you don’t know where it is, it’s somewhere 2 hrs drive from Shanghai.
I love all different kind of fruits. Life time favorites are Citruses, oranges, mandarins, yuzus, limes, lemons, etc. And I love durian:)
I went t0 Cleveland Institute of Art for my undergraduate degree. I was there double majoring in both Drawing and ID for 3 yrs and I decided to drop Drawing right before the senior year although I love Drawing still. I decided to make Drawing a life time career (probably after I retire, I mean probably who knows).
I love dog. His name is Potsticker, He is 3 yrs old and he is my sweatheart.
Hi I’m Carmel. I am from New Jersey, but originally from Lisbon. For the past ten years I have been working in the film industry as a gaffer/lighting designer. Outside of the commercial industry I am an experimental filmmaker. In addition to being an experimental filmmaker I am also an oil painter. I have some experience repairing LED lights and have messed around with arduino kits a little bit.
A lot of my lighting design work has been for fashion and indie films, my work is know for its use of color and emotional quality. Many of my professional years have been spent building rigs for the lighting as well. I have experimented with some furniture building at home and have recently started to build my own canvas bars to stretch my own canvas.
I am excited to build my own electronics more and most hesitant to publish myself.
Hello Everyone! I am Sofia Grytsenko and I am a UX/UI designer who loves psychology and design.
I was born and raised in New Jersey, where I attended the Bergen County Academies for Computer Science. From this experience, I learned that I wanted to be more focused on how people interact with technology rather than create technology itself.
I ended up going to Rochester Institute of Technology for Human Centered Computing; there I learned how to design and code full applications for mobile and web. I now work as a Quality Assurance Analyst for Continual Care Solutions to ensure a good product for non-profits. I am excited to transition more into creative work.
I love cross-stitching, day dreaming about potential products, but also hiking and seeing live music. I also spend a lot of time thrifting and collecting cloths for a flea market business that I run with my friend. My favorite foods include Birria Tacos and Miso Ramen! I really try to be apart of my community and see new things.
I am the most excited for the opportunity to create my own products in this course, and to use what I learn to create cloths and products for my brand. I worry about my level of skill, but I will work hard to improve quickly.
P.S This is my cat, Lucy. She has been with me since 3rd grade. Megumi is my guinea pig who I have had since 2021.
P.P.S I love going out to bars, concerts, mountains, beach, etc. If you want to go do something I will always say “Yes”!
I’m Sige! I grew up in a really small town called Puyang in China and moved to Beijing when I was 14. After that, I’ve lived in Wales in the UK, Connecticut, and NYC.
In college, I studied math and photography, and worked on multiple film and theatre sets. After graduation, I worked as a UX designer at CVS and an education startup after. Now I’m in PoD hoping to get into the more hands-on, 3D world of design and expand my thinking in those ways. And I’m super excited to finally get my hands on making weird electronics, lights and everything else in this class.
Outside of school, I’m a surfer (when you can’t reach me I’m most likely in the water, even in winter), and freediver. I also like to surf, skate, boulder, snowboard, go to art installation exhibitions and small music shows, bake and cook for other people, hopefully work in the darkroom, and chill with my cat.
Find me (@zz.s.cig_) and my cat (@haydn_hedaner) on instagram!
My name is Lauren Palazzi and I am from Toronto, Canada. I studied Business Administration with a concentration in Business Sustainability and a minor in User Experience Design during my undergrad. I have been working for a cybersecurity startup for two years, doing both marketing and finance.
I love painting, cake decorating, quilling and really any project that involves working with my hands.
Ideal meal: Caprese salad, Steak, Rice and Pavlova for dessert.
I love it here in nyc however I am really sad my dog couldn’t come with me 🙁
Here is a picture of him, he is super cute and won’t go anywhere without his blankets.
This is Dash
I am looking forward to learning new things such as Arduino, coding, etc. On the other hand, I would say I’m a bit apprehensive about all of the unknown.
