Hello! I’m Prerna Sharma. I was born in Delhi, India- grew up in Doha, Qatar and came to NYC in 2017. I got my BFA in Product Design at Parsons where I also got a minor in Printmaking. I worked at the American Design Club throughout my senior year and after graduating in 2021 and am now back in school at SVA.
I was the student tech at the ceramics lab at Parsons but spent most of my time in the woodshop, specifically on the lathe. During my time at AmDC I worked 3 tradeshow seasons in Atlanta, Vegas and NY and ended up enjoying sales way more than I thought I would!
I love plants, cooking, going to concerts and making cool stuff. I just got a new electric scooter and am learning how to navigate nyc bike lanes without dying everyday… its harder than I thought it would be.
Anyway, I’m excited for my next 2 years back at school! 🙂
Hi! My name is Jacey. I was born in Guangdong, China, and raised in Vancouver, Canada. I went to Parsons School of Design for my undergrad degree, majoring in Communication Design and double minors in Immersive Storytelling (basically a mix of design and technology like 3D, AR/VR, and UIX) and Japanese Studies. I have a background in brand identity design, editorial and typography, UI/UX, and 3D modeling. I graduated in May 2022 (this year!) and was a design apprentice under a digital marketing company named REQ during the summer. I have a very chonky cat named Chimmy (he’s 3!), a rescued cat that I got when he was 3 months old (^-^*)ノ I look forward to the sewing sections of the class because I have barely done it before ( •̀ᴗ•́ )و ̑̑ and I like random weird (dark humor) memes from Reddit so there’s that as well (´∀｀)
Yeah, that’s me! Let me take you through a brief walkthrough of my 23 years of my life. Don’t worry, it won’t be that long….So I was born in Hyderabad which is a fairly large city in India. I moved to Dubai when I was six months old. The next 17 years of my life was in Dubai. This is the place where I grew up and made connections, it is such a huge part of my identity. I always tell my friends how the city and I grew up together. In a span of twenty years, both of us changed in our unique ways. I don’t think I will miss Dubai that much because of how similar New York is to Dubai.
Fast forward to 2016, I moved to the US at 17. For the next four years, I lived in Richmond, Virginia. I studied Interior Design at Virginia Commonwealth University. During my undergraduate program, I was part of a living-learning program called Globe. Through this program, I got to live and make connections with International Students from all around the world. It made me realize how much I enjoy meeting people from different cultures and getting to know them and learning about their traditions and the food they eat. My life during my undergrad was a combination of highs and lows just like any other college student, but all those experiences have changed me for the better.
My bestfriend from high school Friends from College
Over the years, I have developed a variety of interests. I like to dabble into a bit of everything. I enjoy cooking, baking, photography and reading. I have tried to learn screen printing, jewelry making and this summer I learnt pottery. I also LOVE dogs, I fostered two dogs over the past year and they have absolutely stolen my heart. Here are a few pictures of them.
If you’re reading this, Thank You for staying with me so far. I can’t wait to learn and know about all of you. I once read somewhere that you are a mosaic of all the experiences and people you have met, this journey that all of us are going to embark on is going to add another colorful piece to this beautiful artwork called life. I am looking forward to the future.
I speak out the word “yes” before I realize that I agree with something. I occasionally question whether my consciousness is genuine (I was arguing with my brother about this just few days ago). Sometimes I can’t help but analyze my behaviors and motivations. Till now, II’m still attempting to identify who I am. I hope that by experimenting with a variety of media, I can feel the colliding and blending of the world.
I used to love collecting dirt from all the places I visited, until the last time I moved from San Francisco to Chicago, the jars in the Ziploc bag cracked, causing the dirt to mingle. Their colors, textures, times, and smells all mixed together, and I stopped collecting dirt. I could call them everything, the earth, the cosmos, or even unnamed.
Even right now, I have no purpose for penning this right now, I hope I can introduce myself well. I lived in China until the age of 19, and this is my fifth year in the US. I hope our two years in New York will be amazing and wonderful.
I have a ginger cat, rescued from a barn. A one year old, 13.5 pounds cat, hopefully he won’t get too fat.
I’m from San Juan, Puerto Rico. I did my Bachelor’s degree in the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), in Industrial Design. I’m excited to be back in school making stuff and learning new things. I’m mostly excited to be learning how to code even though I’m a bit intimidated by it. I’m also excited to be using the sewing machine again, I already have some experience using it but it is always fun to incorporate it into my Industrial Design projects.
My portfolio website is Josemartindesigns.com feel free to have a look around!
Hi, I am Xinyue. I am a native of Zhejiang, China. I graduated from Hainan University with a degree in management in 2019, majoring in marketing. I had the opportunity to postgraduate recommendation, but I still want to design and create more in my heart, and I can live a colorful and fresh life every day, so I focused on making my own portfolio a year after graduation and came here.
After being accepted by SVA, I worked as a product designer for a pet company. At that time, I worked with cats and dogs every day and learned to study their behavior. This was my workstation at the time, and cats would come every afternoon. There are also photos of products that I have designed that are already on the market.
My workstation Galaxy cat climbing frameCactus adjustable cat bowl
Now, I have 22 Chinese patents. Among them, my favorite is the design of a tableware storage vase. This is a model I made with 3D printing technology and painted it. I also tried Jewelry Design and took a set of photos with them. This series is called “Awakening”. It can be rotated at the moment of wearing it.
Tableware storage vaseAwakening
After studying in marketing, I discovered the importance of product design. When you find a need and need to meet it, you must have a product targeted at the target group. In real work practice, I realized that having a good product is not enough, it must have a very clear market positioning, and have a series of marketing methods and money. So in the recent period, I have been thinking about myself as a designer, what my unique position is, what my advantage is, and what I am interested in. I recalled where I spent my time every day and what would make me really happy after doing it. Through mind mapping, I discovered that the things I am interested in mainly revolve around experience, dogs, cats and other animals, meditation, ASMR, dance, music, fragrance, etc. These are all about a unique healing and happy experience.
And for me, some products are mainly focused on functionality, such as driverless cars, a more comprehensive mobile phone, and some products that look better than the original, like different styles of clothes and shoes, if they have me without me, there is actually no difference, and when consumers buy these products, their hearts are only short-lived pleasures. Just as I see the products I have already put on the market, many consumers say they look good, but in fact, I didn’t feel much touched in my heart. Instead, I posted my views on death on a platform. A girl who had just lost her father was comforted in her heart. This touched me very much, I can help others spiritually!
Therefore, based on my own interests and experience, I will focus on some products that can bring people a new experience to find simple happiness in a boring or busy life. How to maximize this experience to more people, I think it depends on the power of the media and products. Now I have discovered that I can combine the creative themes of today’s self-media platforms and have a clearer positioning goal. Around this goal, I can make some physical products and integrate with interactive design, fashion design, device design, and even interior design, which I am interested in too. I don’t want to limit myself to the product.
So SVA PoD is just such a platform full of infinite possibilities because I want to accomplish the above goal. However, my knowledge and ability are far from enough, and I have to learn many things from scratch. In the past, the making of many products mainly relied on the factory’s power. But now I have limited funds, and it isn’t easy to find a manufacturer willing to help you at the beginning of such a new creation. I still have to learn how to make it by myself.
Making studio is such a course! What I am most looking forward to is using the knowledge learned in this course to better achieve the product effect I want to achieve. Of course, I also have my concerns because it takes time for me to adapt to learning in an all-English environment, and I haven’t touched on the circuit board before, so I need to work harder to catch up with my classmates. But I firmly believe that I will learn step by step, just like I didn’t know anything, I dared to give up postgraduate recommendation to study product design.
Nice to meet you all. I’m Jaemin Cho (pronounced as je-min) from Seoul, S.Korea. I went to Korea University in Industrial/Information design, which is a combination of traditional industrial design and UX like PoD. I have worked as UX designer usually creating wireframes for applications for several years.
I joined PoD to explore the physical, tangible part of the design world. Super excited to be here, especially in the making studio where your imagination and sketches comes to life.
I do not take lots of photos, this is me during the biz trip to Tokyo. Taken by my colleague.
Big news!! This is the 20th day I am living in NYC!
As an innovation storyteller with experience in brand communication, user experience, and service design, I collaborate within an interdisciplinary team comprising of researchers, strategists, designers, and front-end and back-end developers. To date, I have done work for Ford, Logitech, Spotify, National Palace Museum, Michelin, TED, etc. With keen observation, I am passionate about exploring human needs and designing for social impact.
I was born in Vancouver but grew up in Beijing, China. I completed my undergraduate studies at Parsons School of Design with a major in communication design in spring of 2021. In my prior designs, I focused mostly on branding, editorial design, and typography. Thus, many of my works revolved around food packaging, restaurant rebranding, and book designs. Now I hope to become a multidisciplinary artist and mixed media designer who can transform complex ideas and information into interactive visuals through all mediums. What I am most looking forward to in this course is the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in the craft of designing and creating things by hand rather than digitally like I have been doing in my undergraduate.
In my free time, I am always on my hunt for the next popular food or activities in town. I love eating and trying out all different kinds of cuisines. I am also an outdoor person who really enjoys nature, so I would often go hiking with my dogs.
I’m a Los Angeles native and this is my first time living outside of California. Before my time at PoD I worked for The Walt Disney Company as an Interactive Environments Designer for Marvel, an R&D Designer at Walt Disney Imagineering, and most recently a Design Director at frog.
Lauren (wife), Gulliver (foster pup), and me (human)
My formal design education is in graphic design from Cal Poly Pomona, but have working experience in Industrial Design, Architecture, and Interaction Design. Ultimately, I LOVE making cool shit, but I’m pursuing my Masters so I can become a professor.
While in PoD I’m planning on conducting design research for human spaceflight and am eventually planning on starting a design for human spaceflight program.
I’m most looking forward to making and prototyping again, but am most apprehensive about anything code based.
