"Designing a product is designing a relationship." Steve Rogers
On Monday, March 29th Tara Mullaney, UID&s new PhD visited Umeå and Sweden for the first time. Tara is originally from Rhode Island, but is currently living in Chicago and has just finished her Master&s of Design in Designed Objects at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Tara wanted to live abroad and had heard wonderful things about UID, so when she saw the posting for UID&s Product Design PhD position she happily applied. Mullaney comes from a multi-disciplinary background with a MS in Cancer Biology in addition to her design degree, so the EU-project she will be working on, re-envisioning the MRI environment at Norrlands University Hospital, is a perfect fit.
Tara is a hands-on kind of person whose design process includes making lots of sketch models and working prototypes for her projects, and she can&t wait to try out the UID workshop. She is very excited to have the opportunity to research and design products for the hospital environment, in addition to exploring more conceptual design ideas during her PhD. Mullaney plans to focus her thesis upon exploring the affective properties that products can communicate through their materiality.
This was Tara&s first trip to Sweden and her impression of Umeå Institute of Design is very positive - she feels like she is part of the group already and says the atmosphere is warm and inviting. She is excited to be joining the Design Research team and is really looking forward to coming here in the beginning of June.
