10+ years spanning design practice and design research. My practice began while studying Industrial Design at the University of Cincinnati (DAAP). I love design — I’ve entered numerous design contests for fun, tried my hand at a variety of co-ops and freelance jobs, and worked a stint at a medical device startup.
Practicing and studying Industrial Design seeded a curiosity in Aesthetic Science — a niche branch of Experimental Psychology with perhaps only a dozen active researchers worldwide. It’s niche because it’s difficult to study, requiring design skills to build experiments, a designer's intuition to draft hypotheses, and advanced data science methods. It's also niche because it doesn’t easily attract funding — imagine the choice between funding the science of beauty versus systemic inequality, mental illnesses, learning, etc. I was lucky that Princeton funded my studies into such a niche topic under the mentorship of Dr. Todorov (now at the University of Chicago), a world-class scientist of first impressions. I pitched to him the idea of extending first impressions research beyond people to objects. My PhD dissertation, titled "Commonsense Aesthetics" — a nod to Kant — was the result.
After graduate school, I became a Design Researcher at Adobe. Consulting first on AI features, then on 3D and immersive technologies. It was an incredible opportunity to learn about the practice of hundreds of talented designers around the world — and honestly, my love for design left me spellbound and distracted for several years from my true career ambition: to be your favorite designer’s favorite designer.
My unconventional path meant my skills as a practicing designer had dulled and my portfolio had grown stale. I left Adobe to intentionally reinvest in two projects: Beaux Beaux, a knit brand about to launch its web store, and IDAR, my design practice, through which I've built fresh competency in Figma and Blender.
If you're reading this, I’m probably applying to work with you because your product seems like an interesting design challenge — the kind that would inspire a team to work late and hard to get it right. I genuinely and deeply care about good design.
