Rebrew
Making traditional medicine more accessible through a recipe book that contains everything a novice may need to engage with this practice sustainably.
Materials Design
Biopolymers
Product Design
Duration
3 months
Recognition
Student Award Recipient at SF Design Week 2024
Collaborators
Abigail Chen
Shameemah Fuseini-Codjoe
Maria-Teresa Carmier
User Research and Insights
This is a project that pushes the future of food and nourishment in a waste conscious way. We interviewed users in their kitchens to learn more about their needs.
The main insights were that food is a form of medicine, and the kitchen is a place rooted in rituals and joy, however feelings around food waste are often in contradiction with these beliefs.
Design Proposition
Rebrew is a zero-waste recipe book, designed to make traditional medicine easy and fun. Herbal ingredients and remedies from different cultures are incorporated directly into the pages of the book.
The ingredients are pre-measured, and removes barriers for beginners to engage with herbalism. All you have to do is tear a page out, take a pre-measured portion, and dissolve in hot water.
Early prototypes and fabrication testing.
Contribution
I contributed to the product ideation, recipe development, and materials fabrication and testing. Various formulations of biomaterial recipes were tested, and the final recipe utilized polysaccharides, commonly found in pantry items, as the main polymer. In addition, we tested different fabrication methods including wet and dry ingredients, measurement portions and potency of recipes, laser engraving on organics, and perforation methods for portioning.
Exhibition Design
