Algorithmic Brand Posters
‘hack-day’ at WeTransfer, 2020
WeTransfer regularly has days where employees are encouraged to build anything. To advertise days like this, other events, or announcements the brand team regularly makes posters like the one in image 1 that use a combination of our brand colours and different layouts of our signature brand oval called the ‘Kelly-shape’. Believing that an algorithm could create similar simple layouts I worked with a dev over one day to build a web-app, adapted from Codepen (each step captured on the left), where anyone at WeTransfer could create an on-brand announcement poster by adding their own message and auto-generating some WT shape art. The last GIF in the sequence shows the working app.
Ceramics Design
During covid, on my Amsterdam balcony
I joined a community pottery studio in 2019 that understandably closed during the pandemic. While working from home I built a miniature studio on my balcony so that I could continue the practice. I love to make pieces that are unique, yet functional and that mix traditional craft methods and more modern tools. For example, I’ve recently been experimenting with designing custom tools that I 3D-print and use as throwing guides and stamps to create geometric or more detailed designs.
In Progress @Studio.balcony
Gallery ceramics.juliagrandfield
Computer Vision-Powered Book Lending
spring 2021, in progress
An avid reader, during the year at home I ran out of books and thought that being able to browse my friends bookshelves, remotely of course, could serve as a fun way to discover new material, that I could also borrow. This has turned into a project where with an ML and iOS engineer we’ve been exploring a cataloguing flow using Apple’s Computer Vision scanning app combined with the Google Books API. Once books are added to your shelf, inspired by WT’s Paper and No More Boring Apps, I’ve been designing a more tactile browsing experience supported by 3D-renders and SceneKit. On the left you can see some design concepts, a simplified UX architecture prototype, and a recording of the scanner working! Still in the early stages, I hope to evolve this into a way for people to catalogue different kinds of media in their homes that they would like to keep track of, or make available to friends, or a wider community.
Man & Design, Design Residency
Summer 2019, Latvia
A believer in IDEO’s method of collecting analogous inspiration and that creativity comes from the bringing together or disparate points of view I try to regularly step outside of the world of digital product design. In the Summer of 2019, I was able to do just that at as a selected designer at an International design residency in Sigulda, Latvia. Working with architects, industrial designers and makers of all kinds I took part in a ten-day residency culminating in an exhibition focused on the relationship between Man, Earth and Design. Our exhibition included eco-architecture focused artefacts such as temporary structures made from peat and other design interventions that attempted to turn a generally antagonistic relationship upside-down. The images on the right show some of the making process, and working with local Latvian craftspeople.
Reflection from the UN’s Internet Governance Forum for Young Diplomat’s of Canada
Winter, 2019, Berlin
With a background in Internet Governance from my undergraduate minor in Communications where I conducted research for the Women of Uganda Network an ICT focused NGO, I still have an active interest in the interplay between technology platforms and internet issues. In 2019, I represented Young Diplomat’s of Canada as a delegate to the UN forum as a participant in the Data Governance track where I took part in multi-stakeholder working groups, and shared outcomes in front of nearly 200 people.
Read more: New Tools for Policy Making in Internet Governance