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Design History Series N. 018

Dava Newman and the MIT BioSuit™

In our Design History Series we highlight iconic women in design history and their innovative work. The historic contributions of women to design are many, and we aim to increase the awareness of these contributions in order to counteract a general trend of underrepresentation. In this issue we celebrate Dava Newman, an American aerospace engineer, director of the MIT Media Lab, and former NASA deputy director. Newman was instrumental in designing a spacesuit specifically tailored for female astronauts, addressing long-standing issues of ill-fitting suits for women.

Smart Start

Dava Newman, born in Montana in 1964, developed a deep fascination with space exploration and engineering from a young age. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 1986, followed by a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1989 and a Ph.D. in aerospace biomedical engineering in 1992. She’s been a professor of aeronautics and astronautics (the science and construction of space vehicles) at MIT since the 90s and became the director of the prestigious MIT Media Lab in 2021. Impressed yet?

The MIT BioSuit™

Throughout her career, Newman has been a trailblazer, developing innovative technologies that advance the field of space exploration. One of her most significant contributions is the development of the MIT BioSuit™, a spacesuit concept designed to revolutionize extravehicular activities (EVAs) for astronauts. Unlike traditional bulky spacesuits, the BioSuit™ acts like a second skin, enhancing mobility and reducing fatigue, offering astronauts greater flexibility during space missions.

In 2019, NASA’s cancellation of the first all-women spacewalk due to ill-fitting spacesuits highlighted a critical issue: the outdated design of spacesuits. NASA’s Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMUs) dated back to 1978, and their maintenance costs limited the availability of suits, particularly in smaller sizes. This poses significant challenges for smaller astronauts, especially women, affecting their mobility and comfort during space missions. Newman recognized the need for innovation in spacesuit technology to address these limitations and was already leading a research team that was tackling them head-on.

The development of the BioSuit™ represents a collaborative effort involving engineers, designers, textile specialists, and students from various disciplines. By leveraging expertise from diverse fields and incorporating cutting-edge materials and design principles, Newman’s team aims to revolutionize spacesuit technology. The BioSuit™ prototype is a lightweight, stretchy, 3D knit garment that is customized to each astronaut. These “second-skin” spacesuits incorporate small, spring-like coils made from a shape-memory alloy (SMA) that contract in response to heat, essentially shrink-wrapping the garment around the astronaut’s body. Controlling contraction and expansion with heat was a key innovation to solving the problem of how to get in and out of a skintight suit.

The key breakthrough in the design lies in the application of mechanical counterpressure, which directly applies pressure to the skin, eliminating the need for the traditional gas-pressurized suits. Made from elastic and active fabrics and designed to provide the pressure necessary to inhabit space (equivalent to one-third of sea level atmospheric pressure), the suit achieves the same pressurization as traditional spacesuits while enhancing mobility and reducing the overall weight. This approach supports astronauts in the vacuum of space while providing them with unprecedented freedom of movement during planetary exploration.

Newman’s vision for the future of spacesuits aligns with NASA’s goal of maximizing efficiency and mobility for astronauts on long-duration space missions. The suit has been improving steadily since the early 2000s, incorporating more and increasingly sophisticated technology (an accelerometer, gyroscope, and on-board machine learning algorithms, among others), and has been featured in a wide range of international exhibitions, including the Museum of Modern Art. The latest iteration of the suit was presented at the 2022 Mars conference. Newman’s work represents a significant advancement in spacesuit technology with potential applications for future Mars exploration missions, a particular interest of hers. With continued research and development, these “second-skin” spacesuits could revolutionize space exploration, enabling astronauts to explore distant planets with greater ease and agility. Newman’s life and work exemplify the transformative power of engineering in advancing space exploration and human understanding of the universe.

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A Q&A with Footwear Designer Charlotte Logeais

Spotlight articles shine a light on designers and design materials we admire. Our founder and principal designer Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman has met many wonderful designers as an educator and career designer, and in our Spotlight interviews we ask them about their work and their design journey. In this interview we spoke with senior footwear designer and art director Charlotte Logeais. Charlotte has been a designer at Nike* for over two years. She began in the kids division and is currently a senior designer on the Women’s Lifestyle team. To her, design has always been about storytelling and problem solving. With a bachelor’s degree in industrial design from Pratt Institute and a Master’s degree from USC integrating design, business, and technology, she is well versed in the power of design as well as the power of style. Her experience as a professional ballet dancer gave her an athlete’s mindset, and she knows the value of performance footwear firsthand. We asked her about the challenges of footwear design, emerging trends in the footwear industry, and what makes a great shoe.

Portrait of shoe designer Charlotte Logeais. — *Photo courtesy of Charlotte Logeais.*

Q: What is inspiring you at the moment?

A: The biggest thing that’s inspiring me at the moment are fashion week runway shows. I love seeing all the runway collections and how each designer creates their own world while still aligning with the history of the brand. I also enjoy seeing how the runway trickles down into street style.

Q: Could you tell us about your role at Nike? How do you fit into your team there?

A: I work on the Nike kids design team. I’m technically on the performance side, but the cool thing about the kids team—especially for me, being newer to the footwear industry—is that you get to work on a broad range of products. I’ve been able to work on lifestyle shoes, like the Air Max 1, and on performance product as well, like running. It’s been great to get to work on such a wide range of products and it’s helped me discover what I’m most passionate about. It’s been a great team to first start on at Nike.

On the kids team you can push the boundaries a little bit more and really have fun with the design. Kids love bright colors, they love shoes that are playful and energetic. They get super excited about designs that are colorful and vibrant – it’s the first thing they notice about a shoe.

In footwear, we work two years out. The process is kicked off by a brief and then the design team begins pulling inspiration and sketching. Various priorities in the product brief will inspire the visual direction of the design. If it’s a shoe that needs to emphasize comfort, it’s probably going to be a more rounded form language. If it needs to emphasize speed, maybe it’s more angular. Those notes help us determine the visual language.

My favorite part of the product creation process is when the team comes together to sketch together on a new project. It’s the most creative time we have each season. We go find a room—the whole kids team—and we sketch together all day for a couple of weeks on the projects of the season. Then each project lead will take all of those sketches, identify the common threads, and bring it to the finish line.

Once the design has been finalized, we send out a tech pack and get our first samples back to revise.

Q: What drew you to footwear design?

A: I kind of stumbled upon it, which is funny considering I grew up in Portland, Nike’s backyard. When I was at Pratt doing my undergrad degree, I applied to a footwear design internship at Adidas and interned with them for six months. I’d never really sketched sneakers before and fell in love with it during that internship. I’ve always loved fashion and sport, and did classical ballet for 10 years, culminating in one year professionally before going to Pratt. In ballet, your feet are your main tool, but pointe shoes have barely evolved since the 19th century. So it’s rewarding for me to be able to bring innovation to athletes through footwear design.

Q: Of the skills that you learned at Pratt, which do you find most valuable in your work?

A: Design thinking is a big one, and the design process overall. In footwear, we’re given a product brief by our marketing team. That brief tells us who the consumer is, what they’re looking for, and what the priorities of the product need to be. Then it’s the designer’s job to take that information and create a design. At Pratt it was definitely drilled into us that you get your brief, you find inspiration, you sketch, you refine your idea, you present it, and then begin the development process.

Q: Footwear is an industry known for inspiring cult followings. What are your main challenges as a footwear designer?

A: Being on the kids team is definitely a design challenge for me. I’m not the target consumer, and I think it’s a big challenge to design for someone who isn’t you while still wanting to imbue the project with your personal aesthetic and sensibility. It’s a good challenge: to keep the consumer at the center of the product while still being able to bring in my perspective. Whenever we get to interact directly with the consumer it helps us to understand what they want from a product. As the kids team covers toddler through grade school, it’s a pretty large range and we have to tailor each design to what the specific age group needs.

Q: From a personal standpoint, what makes a great shoe? One you’re excited to wear?

A: For me, comfort is a huge thing. I want a shoe that I can wear all day long and it will be super comfortable. Also, a shoe that feels versatile and can transition between working all day at the office to going out for a drink or going to a pilates class. Having a shoe that can move with you throughout the day and keep you comfortable the whole day is the biggest thing for me. Beyond that, I like having some sort of icon on the shoe, a hero aspect of the shoe.

The shoes that I’ve been wearing the most right now are the Vomero 5s, they’re an old school running shoe that have now pivoted into lifestyle.

Q: How does sustainability factor into design and production at Nike?

A: Sustainability is definitely a big priority. As a designer, I partner with material and color designers, and materials are usually the biggest sustainability play. We’ll often make sure to prioritize materials that have a certain percentage of recycled content to try to reduce the amount of new materials being brought in and reuse as much as possible. That’s a big priority, especially in the kids business. I think we’re one of the teams that is making the biggest effort with that. The youngest consumer really does care about the environment and about what their future is going to look like, so sustainability is especially important for them, and knowing that we also care.

Q: What do you see as interesting emerging trends in the footwear industry today?

A: Some of the biggest trends are new digital tools. AI has been a huge one, getting to input a prompt and have ideas generated for you, often ideas that you couldn’t imagine or that are just super out there. AI is a powerful initial ideation tool for brainstorming and creating concepts. Midjourney is one of my favorites right now, I actually discovered it while pursuing my master’s at USC.

In the past, I’d just go on Pinterest and scroll for aesthetically pleasing imagery to create a mood board, but now you can create your own imagery for that mood board through AI. It makes each mood board a bit more unique, and you have the control to create the imagery that you want to work with. Now I do a bit of a combination of both, searching for inspiration images as well as generating them myself. I still do love Pinterest though… and I have so many boards.

Q: Are there other areas of design you would like to explore?

A: I purchased an apartment last May and have spent the last seven months renovating it. It’s in a hundred-year-old loft building in downtown Portland and it was a blank canvas, so I did all the interior design for it, working with the contractor and everything. That’s been a journey! But, It’s super rewarding to see it come together. The results of interior design are so physical. Whatever decision you make, you’re going to see it in real life. That has so much impact. Interior design is something that I’ve discovered I really enjoy doing, and I would love to do more projects like this.

Being in footwear, I’ve realized that lines are so important to me, when things align and how they are offset from each other. I think I’m driving my contractor a little bit insane, making sure everything is perfectly aligned and organized. Design to me is seeing how forms have relationships and fit together.

Footwear designers look at trends and forecasting. We are tied to the fashion world, so part of the job is keeping up with that, seeing what people are drawn to, whether that’s in person or through social media. On the performance side, we follow the different sporting events. In the NBA, there’s an interesting intersection of style and sport every time the athletes walk down the tunnel onto the court. Following influencers on Instagram is another good way to keep up with global fashion trends. Maybe I like their style or the way that they combine different clothing items in unexpected ways. Following those creators helps me stay connected to fashion and innovation. When I lived in New York, I could just go for a walk and see amazing street style everywhere. Living in Portland that’s a bit more difficult, so I rely on travel and Instagram.

Q: What do you see for yourself as a designer and for your career going forward?

A: I feel like I’m just getting started in footwear but I see a long future for myself in the industry. I’d love to work on more adult performance product.

I also value having my own design pursuits on the side, like interior design. I used to paint a lot and that’s fallen off in the past couple of years. I think it’s important to find the time to keep yourself fulfilled, to have those external pursuits that don’t involve the pressure to perform as much as your day-to-day work. The renovation project has been taking all of my energy so I think, once that is finished, I can find time to paint again. I also used to meditate every morning and I haven’t done that in a while. For me, finding the time for mindfulness and sport helps me stay balanced.

*Views are her own and do not reflect those of her employer.

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Appeal vs. Responsibility

The article “Appeal vs. Responsibility”, written by Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman, was published in the Spring 2024 Issue of Innovation Magazine.

In today’s design landscape, creators have moved beyond crafting products to shaping immersive product experiences. In this expanded field, narratives unfold through each curve and contour, blending aesthetics and emotions, and transforming designs into compelling and immersive stories designed to entice consumers. Welcome to the world of seductive design. This article will discuss appeal vs. responsibility in the work of the designer.

Seduction Redefined: A Deeper Dive

As important as functionality is, consumers today expect products to deliver more than function alone. They want products that they can connect to emotionally and that bring them joy. This is the definition of emotional design. We see designers trying to meet this demand across product categories. Take, for example, outdoor and sports products that exude a sense of speed and power, highlighting the sensations your body will experience during product use. The sleek design of a high-performance bicycle features an aerodynamic frame and vibrant colors not only to convey speed and power but also to emphasize the exhilarating feeling cyclists can expect when riding the bike.

Storytelling is a key component in creating a connection between a consumer and the product. The story connects the physical object to the consumer’s emotions. These emotional responses can be powerful, creating a bond between the consumer and the product as well as, crucially, cultivating brand loyalty. Packaging, in particular, has evolved to become part of the product experience, as demonstrated by the plethora of unboxing videos on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.

Both technology and the beauty businesses use packaging to define their brands. It is not just a container but an integral part of the overall seductive experience. Think of the similarities between your iPhone and a bottle of perfume; both promise the consumer an experience and are purchased as a part of a lifestyle the consumer desires as much as they are purchased for function. Consider the iPhone’s sleek, minimalist packaging, which resonates with the product’s promise of sophistication and innovation. Similarly, a bottle of perfume, adorned with carefully chosen materials and design elements, becomes a tangible embodiment of the sensorial journey it offers. Both purchases transcend functionality, entangling the consumer’s lifestyle aspirations with the allure of a unique experience.

The Role of Emotional Design

As consumer expectations evolve, emotional design emerges as the driving force behind product desirability, transcending the fulfillment of needs to nurture a profound connection. This shift toward emotional resonance elevates the functionality of products and establishes a deeper bond, transforming them into vessels that embody and reflect the users’ aspirations and sentiments.

Users perceive more aesthetically pleasing designs as easier to use and more effective. Beauty and usability are intertwined. Clean lines, intuitive interfaces, and straightforward user journeys contribute to the overall appeal of a product. The aesthetics of a product influence consumers’ expectations, fostering the perception that it will be easy to use and that it is superior to its competitors.

Two key questions about the significance of emotional design arise. The first is methodological: How does one effectively infuse products with emotional resonance? The second question is ethical: Given the potential extremes of emotional design, what is the designer’s responsibility to balance allure with transparent and conscientious design and manufacturing practices?

Engaging More Than the Eyes

How do designers go beyond surface-level aesthetics to create meaningful and captivating interactions? Designers can appeal to multiple senses to create an immersive and engaging experience. This might include tactile elements, sound design, or even scent. Material, color, and form are part of the overall product narrative and can be used to create an immersive and emotionally resonant experience.

Designing with an empathetic approach can also increase the emotional resonance of products. Products for new parents can connect emotionally to their ethos on child rearing. Lea Stewart, senior manager of design at Newell Brands, uses these emotional drivers to differentiate between brands like Graco and Baby Jogger, which she oversees. Stewart notes that “a product like a stroller can convey that you are the type of parent who believes the best thing for a child is for the adult to keep their adult life and bring the child along. That way, they get to experience more and see good modeling. The aesthetics then cater to that by appealing more to an adult sensibility: looking easy to take on the go and not impeding life. On the other hand, a different parent may believe that the family should center on the child and togetherness, so you, therefore, embed that in the product aesthetics to evoke security, comfort, and parent/child connection. This is all subconscious to the user when they purchase the product, which is the seduction.”

Another path to creating a connection is to infuse products with nature-inspired elements that evoke emotional connections. For instance, a packaging designer for a skincare brand might incorporate botanical illustrations, earthy textures, or eco-friendly materials to align the product with natural goodness and trigger a sense of tranquility and well-being in the consumer.

Customization is one tried-and-true way to connect the consumer to a product. Products that allow consumers to personalize or customize elements based on their preferences, experiences, or memories create an emotional bond. A furniture designer, for example, may offer customizable fabrics, colors, or engraved details, enabling customers to imbue the product with personal meaning and emotional significance.

Inclusivity is a particularly powerful catalyst in emotional design, transcending visual appeal to provide aesthetics and thoughtful, universal functionality. By embracing diverse perspectives and considering the needs of a broad audience, designers not only create universally appealing product experiences but also weave a narrative of allure that resonates on a profound and inclusive level, captivating users from all walks of life.

If you’re interested in going deeper, consider Don Norman’s Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things and Designing Design by Kenya Hara. Norman explores the emotional impact of design on user experiences, delving into how aesthetics, usability, and emotional connections shape our perceptions of products, a perspective directly relevant to the nuanced realm of seductive design. Hara’s book is relevant to the broader topic of design, including elements of seductive design. While the book is more philosophical, exploring the mindset and principles of design, it provides valuable insights
into the foundational aspects of creating compelling and aesthetically pleasing designs.

The Ethics of Seduction

While strategies for creating seductive products abound, the ethical question of the designer’s responsibility hovers over all of them. Given the impact of technology and evolving consumer expectations on the field of industrial design, it is only natural to question how the use of multiple senses
in crafting seductive product experiences might lead to unwanted outcomes—think doom scrolling on any social media platform.

As designers, we need to examine the potential unintended consequences of crafting seductive product experiences. It raises a fundamental question: In whose best interest is it really to design an experience that immerses the consumer to an extreme, and possibly addictive, extent? Awareness of potential pitfalls is essential to creating products that enhance well-being and, at the very least, do no harm.

The shadow of ethical concern looms large over the art of crafting seductive products. The relentless pursuit of engagement and immersion may inadvertently lead to the exploitation of human vulnerabilities and the perpetuation of unhealthy behaviors. As designers, we must navigate the delicate balance between captivating our audience and respecting their autonomy and well-being. In an era dominated by evolving consumer expectations and technological advancements, the use of multiple senses to create captivating experiences raises profound questions about responsibility and accountability. This calls for a nuanced approach that acknowledges the power dynamics inherent in design and prioritizes the ethical imperative of fostering positive and empowering experiences.

We must confront the potential ramifications of immersing users in seductive experiences by considering the fine line between engagement and exploitation. Only by conscientiously weighing the ethical implications of our design decisions can we ensure that seductive products enrich the lives of users without compromising their dignity or agency. It is incumbent upon designers to adopt a proactive stance, diligently examining the unintended consequences of their creations and prioritizing the well-being and autonomy of users above all else. This heightened awareness of ethical considerations underscores the imperative to design products that not only captivate but also uplift and enrich the lives of individuals in a responsible and sustainable manner.

Advocate and Enabler

In the dynamic field of design, the shift from crafting products to shaping immersive experiences marks a transformative moment wherein aesthetics and emotions are consciously intertwined. As we navigate this seductive landscape, emotional design emerges as the linchpin, propelling product desirability beyond functional utility. The narrative unfolds through sleek packaging and glossy campaigns, transforming purchases into sensorial journeys that resonate with consumers’ aspirations.

The increasingly savvy incorporation of multiple senses in product design—the intersection of allure and functionality—beckons an ethical inquiry, prompting designers to balance the immersive experience with transparency and conscientious practices. Methodologies such as empathetic design, nature-inspired elements, and customization serve as tools for creating emotionally connected products. Inclusivity becomes the heartbeat, ensuring universal appeal, while heightened awareness becomes the compass, guiding designers to navigate the potential extremes of seductive experiences and prioritize the well-being of consumers. The world of design evolves, inviting creators to transcend boundaries and shape not just products but profound and inclusive narratives that captivate the diverse tapestry of human experience.

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A Q&A with Inclusive Entrepreneur Marianne Weber

Spotlight articles shine a light on designers and design materials we admire. Our founder and principal designer Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman has encountered many talented designers throughout her career, and in our Spotlight interviews we ask them about their work, their design journey, and what inspires them. In this interview we spoke with Marianne Weber, the founder and CEO of the inclusive lingerie line Even Adaptive and a licensed occupational therapist at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Marianne worked with Interwoven to realize her empathetic vision, founding Even Adaptive in 2021 and launching the adaptive lingerie line in 2024. That our team contributed to Marianne’s incredible project, which won a Core77 design award in 2023, makes this a particularly special Spotlight feature for us. We asked Marianne about what inspired her to become an entrepreneur, the power of designing for a traditionally neglected audience, and what it was like to work with a design team.

Portrait of EvenAdaptive CEO Marianne Weber — *Photo courtesy of Marianne Weber.*

Q: You had a career in occupational therapy when you became an entrepreneur. What inspired that transition?

A: I’m still currently working as an occupational therapist and keeping up my license, so it’s a long, slow transition. I’m still providing people with what we do as occupational therapists: providing independence and helping them relearn how to do things for themselves. It’s definitely a career change, moving into a CEO and founder role and away from being a full-time therapist. But I feel like the change is necessary for touching more lives than I could in my occupational therapy role. When I had the idea to make this happen, I didn’t immediately think, I need to switch jobs. This has been a three-year journey so far, and I’m still doing both roles.

The job I have is in acute care. What that means is that I come in when people are initially in the hospital or post-op day one. I’m seeing people at the most heightened and scared time of their lives, and it has to be taken very seriously every moment that I am working as an OT because one wrong step and I could seriously injure somebody. I’m not able to focus on being a CEO when I am at my job, I still have to be a hundred percent there and present. Then when I’m not there I can be 100% present as the founder of Even Adaptive.

I think one element of the transition that changed my perspective was starting to talk to all of my patients about their engagement and their sexual health as well. As occupational therapists, we focus on making sure that everybody can complete their activities of daily life, their ADLs, and sex is one of those things that we have within our scope of practice. Before becoming the CEO and the founder of Even Adaptive, I was a bit more shy about asking those questions because my toolbox wasn’t full. But, through this process, I’ve done a lot of continuing education. I became more educated on how I can help people through the process of creating our products.

Q: You explain that confidence and sexiness are the pillars of your brand ethos, could you elaborate on that?

A: When you’re faced with these disease processes or you have a disability of some kind, a lot of society communicates that these people are not allowed to express themselves in any kind of sexual manner. They’re not allowed to date, and they’re not looked at as valuable in that way that other women can be when they have full function. The pillars of being independent and sexy go hand in hand for Even Adaptive. If we can make you feel good, and increase your confidence and your independence by providing you with something that you want to be wearing instead of something that was made for 75% of women out there, then we can help to drive change. Sexiness is not just about how someone else is perceiving you but about how you perceive yourself.

Q: Your brand focuses on a neglected target audience. Did anything about this audience surprise you?

A: I don’t know if they’ve surprised me so much because I’ve been working with this community for many years now, but one thing that I was excited about was how willing they are to lift everybody up. In so much of the world, when you’re trying to do something new, you hear no over and over again. But this community says, Let’s make change. Let’s do this. Let me post about it. Let me share your website. Everybody is excited to be involved in the ambassador program and get their name out there and their story out there. They are used to being told no as well, so when somebody finally tells them, This is for you, they grab onto it and they’re excited to be a part of it.

I’ve got both sides of the coin. We’re looking for fundraising and venture capitalists are 98% men. You’re faced with talking to men about women’s bras and underwear but also about women with disabilities and underwear. It’s this far out concept to them. They think, Who out there would need this? No we’re not going to fund that. I don’t see how it’s going to make money. But when you give it to the people who need it, they’re extremely excited to hear about the product and want to know more and be involved. As an entrepreneur, there’s one side that’s beating you down, but then the other side that’s lifting you up. There’s a balance.

I think my personal story into why this business came to be is a pretty powerful story and seems to resonate with a lot of people. It doesn’t resonate so much with men but whenever I can tell it to women entrepreneurs they get it right away.

Q: Could you tell that story?

A: I was in graduate school in 2018 and it was finals week. I was having trouble with my vision and I was thinking, I’m going to go to the doctor and get really cute glasses! The doctor thought something was strange, so he sent me in for an MRI. The MRI resulted with multiple lesions in my brain and my cervical spinal cord, and a very long diagnostic process led to a diagnosis of MS [Multiple Sclerosis]. So I was diagnosed with MS during finals week of grad school to become an occupational therapist. I already had my career laid out for me. I knew what I wanted to do, and it just happened that this was happening at the same time. The whole disease diagnosis process is fairly unpredictable with MS. Being me, with well-established anxiety, I was going through all the terrible things that could come from it. It was a very taxing year for me before I got on medication and was able to deal with it. In that process, I started working at Johns Hopkins in neurology. I was watching these women, who were dealing with a more advanced disease process than I had, not be able to do basics for themselves because that’s my whole job: to help people to be able to do those things again. These women couldn’t put bras on. Those were always the first things that women with neurological conditions gave up on, their underwear and their sexuality. They would just say, What? I’m never going to leave my house again, so why do I need to do this? But that doesn’t have to be the only option.

Even Adaptive was created from my own experience of going through this diagnosis and feeling like my self-worth was down in the dumps, and then watching women have this reaction over and over and over. I wondered, What is the thing that I can do to help these people? And the answer was to create an adaptive intimate line, because it was the one thing I couldn’t solve. I can teach anybody how to put on a shirt one-handed or a pant or a sock, there are tools out there for that. But nothing existed for these women that could lay the foundation of confidence and help them to feel good again.

Q: Could you talk about your experience working with Interwoven? What was it like to have a vision realized with a design consultancy?

A: When first I called Rebeccah, I remember her calling me back very quickly. She was immediately interested in the concept. Hearing that, I realized, Someone is going to help me with this! It was very exciting that she was able to see the vision, wrap her head around it, and know confidently that she could come up with a functional solution. It was so exciting to have a team of experts that had this portfolio behind them, that actually listened to what the product needed to be. I think Interwoven did a great job of taking the requirements that I knew that the product needed and creating something that has never been done before; to make it the best in the market and the only one-handed functional bra product that exists. The other beautiful thing that they did for me was to think about how the product was going to survive in the world in an extremely realistic way. They thought, We’re putting this work in, has this been created before? Has this been patented before? Are we going to be able to get a patent through? They did work to find out how it’s going to be manufactured, and they thought about the pricing. Interwoven thought about every detail, so they knew that the product would be viable once it left their hands. That was one of the most important things that they gave to me besides the clasp design. They wanted to see the project succeed, so they designed it with that in mind.

Q: What is something you experienced in the Even Adaptive journey that you didn’t anticipate?

A: It was surprising how much attention went into creating this product. The multiple iterations and all the trial and error, all of the tiny little changes that Aybuke would make along the way…the product is highly fine-tuned and functional. When you’re not on the inside, you don’t think about what it takes to really create something like this. I was surprised at how much they cared.

Q: While awareness is growing, inclusive design is not yet a universal priority. What does the landscape of the inclusive market look like from your perspective? What are your hopes for this market?

A: Since I started, I do see more adaptive companies. They’re starting to get funding and they’re popping up more and more often. I am seeing a big shift in the normalization of it. It’s still really slow moving. In terms of taking into account the look of the products and being fashioned forward, a lot of them are stuck on function. I do think that we’re going to move into a realm—and this is part of what Even Adaptive wants to help accomplish—where you don’t have to search endlessly online to find the thing that will help you get dressed after breaking your arm. You should be able to just pop online, already have a brand in your head, and order it up. There are a ton of inclusive designs that have been normalized in our homes, like all of the door handles that are levers instead of knobs. That’s an inclusive design option and we don’t think twice about it. It’s just in houses everywhere now.

Hopefully that’s where adaptive clothing will go. It happened with baby onesies overnight. Somebody came up with baby onesies that have magnets and moms are like, Yes! That’s a cool normalization, and that inclusive normalization is going to move up the line as long as we can make things that people want to wear.

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Books on Cross-disciplinary Design

The Smart List is a monthly list of multi-media recommendations on everything design, curated by Interwoven Design. As a group of aesthetically obsessed designers, there are a lot of beautiful products and objects we love and enjoy. These products make our daily lives special and inviting and we want to share them with you. Pick up these Books on Cross-Disciplinary Design in this issue for the design savvy people on your list!

1. The Senses: Design Beyond Vision

Edited by Ellen Lupton and curated by Andrea Lipps

Dive into the awesome world of inclusive and multisensory design with “The Senses: Design Beyond Vision.” This book is like your backstage pass to a cool exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum that flips the script on the idea that design is just about what you see. Get ready to explore how space, materials, sound, and light mess with your mind and body, all while getting insights from hip designers like Petra Blaisse, Bruce Mau, and Malin+Goetz. And guess what? This isn’t just about solving problems – it’s about making life better for everyone, especially those with sensory disabilities.

The book isn’t your typical read—it’s got essays on all kinds of stuff like designing for the table, cool tactile graphics, making sound tactile, and even visualizing the senses. It’s like a shout-out, telling you to jump on the multisensory design train. Students and pros in things like products, interiors, graphics, interaction, sound, animation, and data visualization need to check it out. But hey, even if you’re just curious about design, “The Senses” takes you on a wild ride of thought-provoking exploration. And they’ve got a dream team behind it—Christopher Brosius, Hansel Bauman, Karen Kraskow, Binglei Yan, and Simon Kinnear all pitched in, with a killer design by David Genco and Ellen Lupton. It’s like the Avengers of the design world got together to drop some knowledge!

via Cooper Hewitt

2. Ways of Being

by James Bridle

In “Ways of Being,” James Bridle, the artist, tech whiz, and deep thinker, dives into a cool exploration of intelligence in all sorts of areas—plants, animals, humans, and even artificial stuff. This mind-bending work shakes up the usual ideas about intelligence, asking if it’s just a human thing or if it’s hanging out with creatures made of flesh, wood, stone, and silicon. Bridle gets real about the progress in artificial intelligence, making it sound like this mysterious force that’s messing with our sense of being at the center of the universe.

Bridle doesn’t stick to one subject—he throws in biology, physics, computers, books, art, and deep thoughts into the mix. “Ways of Being” dives deep into all the different ways we know stuff, do stuff, and just exist in this world. As we try to wrap our heads around artificial intelligence, Bridle pushes us to rethink what we know about intelligence itself. It’s like a wake-up call to think about who we are, what our gadgets are doing, and how we fit into the big picture of nature. And hey, it’s not just for the science nerds—this exploration totally connects with the world of cross-disciplinary design, telling designers to think big about how their creations impact all kinds of intelligence and the crazy interconnected world we live in.

via Barnes & Noble

3. Videogame Atlas

by You + Pea Architecture and Game Design

In the vast digital world, the only limits are the ones we cook up in our minds. Stuff like games and shows throw open doors to these wild and captivating worlds, often inspired by architectural research. Check out game design in hits like Assassin’s Creed, where they smoothly mix architectural stuff with the gameplay. The cool team You+Pea, led by Sandra Youkhana and Luke Caspar Pearson, dives into this whole blend of architecture and gaming. They run You+Pea, an architectural design studio that’s been showing off their game-based creations in fancy galleries. Plus, they just dropped a book called “Videogame Atlas: Mapping Interactive Worlds.”

This awesome book, a brainchild of You+Pea’s research, breaks down twelve rad games—from big-budget ones to indie gems—using panoramic maps, diagrams, and over 400 illustrations. “Videogame Atlas” makes the whole link between architecture and games easy to get, even if you’re not a gaming whiz. The book digs into games where the city takes the spotlight, like Assassin’s Creed: Unity, Cities: Skylines, and Dwarf Fortress, as well as those with crazy fantasy vibes like Final Fantasy VII + Remake, Death Stranding, and Dark Souls. The authors want us to see video game worlds like we look at real cities, recognizing the deep meaning they hold for gamers. They’re all about how games not only get ideas from real spots but also twist them in new ways, creating cool perspectives in gamer communities. With games leaving their mark on how architects learn and design, the line between architecture and gaming is getting blurry. And hey, The Bartlett just launched a fresh master’s program called “Cinematic and Videogame Architecture,” led by Lukas Caspar Pearson. It’s like the next level of blending these two worlds!

via Parametric Architecture

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