We are thrilled to be heading to Austin, TX next week to participate in FashionWare: a Wearable Technology exhibit at South by Southwest. Syuzi Pakhchyan from FashioningTech has invited Kathleen and I to have the Bandeau Belt be a part of a fashion show and to give live demos of our PFD in action! The exhibition will be taking place as a part of StyleX March 18th and 19th, so if you’ll be attending the event in Austin, please come by and say hello.
Check out the video of the amazing projects Syuzi has curated to be a part of this event!
Video courtesy of Syuzi Pakhchyan, FashioningTech
Tags: Bandeau Belt, Fashioningtech, StyleX, SXSW, wearable technology
Posted on March 6th, 2011 in dana's portfolio work | No Comments »
Last chance to vote for the Bandeau Belt!! Voting closes tonight at midnight. If you haven’t had a chance to leave a comment and vote yet, please do so now! As you can see, we have a whopping 263 votes, but unfortunately we’re still in 2nd place. So tell your friends, cousins and coworkers to help change the face of boating safety equipment and vote right away.
If you have voted, Kathleen and I would like to extend a huge thank you for taking the time to view our video and leave a comment. Every single vote counts, and we appreciate yours very much.
Thanks so much!
VOTE!
Tags: Bandeau Belt, BoatUS Foundation, Innovations in Life Jacket Design Competition
Posted on February 28th, 2011 in dana's portfolio work | No Comments »
Hello Friends!
There’s only one more week to vote for the Bandeau Belt on the BoatUS Foundation Facebook Page.
If you haven’t checked out our video and left a comment yet, there’s still time! We are currently in second place, and we’re only down by a few. Every vote counts, so thanks in advance for yours 
Vote here
Tags: Bandeau Belt, BoatUS Foundation, Innovations in Life Jacket Design Competition
Posted on February 21st, 2011 in dana's portfolio work | No Comments »
Very exciting news indeed!! We are honored to announce that the Bandeau Belt has been selected as one of 15 videos to be showcased on the BoatUS Foundation Page on Facebook.
Please visit this link right away and vote for our project!! Your votes will help the judges select the finalists, who will get the chance to showcase their products in person at the International Boating and Water Safety Summit in beautiful Savannah, Georgia, where the grand prize winner will be selected.
This competition is a major opportunity for us to gain exposure for this project. We are honored to have made it this far, and very much appreciate your help. So tell your friends, tell the world, the Bandeau Belt is your choice! Voting closes at midnight on February 28th, so act now
*A most sincere thanks in advance for your vote.
VOTE HERE!
Tags: Bandeau Belt, BoatUS Foundation, Inflatable Fashion, Innovations in Life Jacket Design Competition, Life Jacket, Personal Flot, PFD
Posted on February 17th, 2011 in dana's portfolio work, wearables | No Comments »
We are very pleased to announce that the Bandeau Belt is going to be a part of South By Southwest 2011 this March in Austin, Texas!
Syuzi Pakhchyan of FashioningTech has invited the Bandeau Belt to be featured in her wearable technology exhibition as a part of StyleX. In addition to the exhibition, the Bandeau Belt will also be a part of a runway show. Kathleen and I are extremely honored and excited to be a part of such an amazing event.
Stay tuned for more information…
Tags: Fashioningtech, South By Southwest, StyleX, SXSW, wearable technology
Posted on February 12th, 2011 in dana's portfolio work, wearables | No Comments »
We have recently submitted the Bandeau Belt to the 2011 BoatUS Foundation Innovations in Life Jacket Design Competition.
The competitions goal is to “encourage and solicit innovative ideas and new technology to design a life jacket that the majority of average boaters might wear.” (BoatUS Foundation)
While extremely advanced and impressive, it’s not often that the technologies of water safety devices are ever considered fashionable. Life Jackets, or personal flotation devices (PFDs), are utilitarian in style, with little consideration for social stigmas, lifestyle, and fashion. Many available PFDs offer great protection for active, sporty water activities, but there are no products suitable for the fashion-conscious woman who values both style and safety.
Our solution is the Bandeau Belt: an inflatable PFD that merges fashion with a utilitarian device to enhance the user’s experience on the water.
The Bandeau Belt comes in three unique styles that can be worn with an endless combination of yachting apparel. This PFD is a great choice for situations where there is a chance you may go into the water and are confident you will be able to pull the inflation cord in the case of an emergency. To activate, simply pull the cord on the Bandeau Belt. The safety pin pierces a CO2 cylinder, which fills the inflatable bladder housed within. The inflated bladder emerges from the bottom of the Bandeau Belt and is then placed over the head to provide buoyancy and safety. In the case of a mechanism failure, the bladder can also be inflated orally.
The design challenge is steep; 80% of boating related deaths are due to victims not wearing a PFD. Our goal was to change the face of safety equipment and increase wear-rates for water activities by seamlessly merging function and safety technology with a product that is stylish and desirable to wear.
Tags: Bandeau Belt, BoatUS Foundation, Inflatable Fashion, Innovations in Life Jacket Design Competition, Kathleen Westerhout, Personal Flotation Device, PFD
Posted on February 12th, 2011 in dana's portfolio work, wearables | 1 Comment »
I’m back, after a much needed hiatus!!
In May I graduated from Emily Carr University, which was a very busy time for me. In the months leading up to graduation, my design partner Kathleen Westerhout and I were completely occupied, finishing off the final details of our project, Inflatable Fashion, and preparing for our graduation show. Needless to say, there was little time for updating this site or making posts.
Immediately after graduation I began my first design job as an Assistant Accessories Designer at Lululemon Athletica. Since then, I have slowly been settling into my new situation, taking lots of time to catch up on the life (and sleep) that was put on hold while completing my degree.
But I’m happy to say I’m back online with lots of exciting posts to share. So stay tuned….
Posted on February 12th, 2011 in General | 2 Comments »
I took a bunch of photos at the conference, and I’ll get those up soon, but in the meantime, check out Jean-Baptiste Labrune’s photostream from flickr to see some fantastic photos of the event.
Jay Silver created this awesome video of the studio session, which happened on day 2 of the conference. Check it out!
Tags: Bio Circuit, TEI
Posted on February 6th, 2010 in dana's portfolio work | No Comments »
So many exciting things have happened over the last few months! Sadly, I’ve been extremely busy and have been neglecting my blog duties. Now it’s time to try and catch up
Holly Schmidt and I submitted our project Bio Circuit to the Explorations category at TEI ‘10 – Conference for Tangible, Embedded, Embodied Interaction – hosted at the MIT Media Lab. The conference is about HCI, design, interactive art, user experience, tools and technologies, with a strong focus on how computing can bridge atoms and bits into cohesive interactive systems. In early November we received the news that we were invited to participate in the conference, and a frenzy of work began. A couple months later, Holly and I flew from temperate Vancouver to chilly Boston to attend the conference from January 25-27.
The conference was amazing! It was extremely exciting to see the work that is going on within this field. The first day involved an interesting talk from keynote speaker John Frazer, who pioneered the development of intelligent and interactive building design systems. The afternoon consisted of extremely interesting paper presentations, and the afternoon concluded with the Demo Session, which we were a part of. The demos included projects that were of “visually and sensually rich content created by a diverse and broad group of practitioners, researchers, artists, designers, inventors, students, and independents” (TEI Explorations).
The Demo session was fast and furious, and Holly and I received a lot of great feedback. It was interesting to speak to people from such diverse backgrounds and to hear their perspective on our project.
Holly and I would like to extend a special thank you to Emily Carr University of Art + Design for supporting us in the opportunity to attend this fantastic conference.
Tags: Bio Circuit, TEI
Posted on February 6th, 2010 in dana's portfolio work | No Comments »
Given the recent press about Bio Circuit today, I thought I would post some more photos of the project.
Thanks to Fashioning Technology, MAKE Magazine, DIY Experts and others for mentioning us today!
Tags: Bio Circuit, press, wearable technology
Posted on December 3rd, 2009 in dana's portfolio work | No Comments »
