2013SERENA POLLASTRI DESIGN PORTFOLIO

Service designDesign ResearchGraphics and Branding Product Design

CURRICULUM VITAE

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE• Milan 2006 to 2008 · Tutor for the course of Computer Graphics (3D) for Prof. LucanDaz-zan at Politecnico. Help students with their projects and assignments

2009 to 2010 · Teaching Assistant for Prof Ezio Manzini/Tommaso Buganza, Strate-gic Design I organized the schedule and was in charge of the communication with students; I gave a series of lectures on technology based service design case stud-ies for sustainable innovation.

2008 to 2009 · Internship and freelance collaboration with May Day Design (strate-gic design) Creation of a new brand strategy for Bata, working on new concepts for the retail. Freelance work for furniture design for the company Domus Concept,

2009 · collaboration with Poli.Design (strategic design consultancy for Panasonic) The team was asked to help the company carry out a market and user-centred research, a strategic positioning and a scenario and concept definition for a series of switches for the Asian market.

2007 to 2013· Calligrapher for fashion firms

December 2012 to March 2013: Freelance strategic designer (clients: Alga Pub-lishers, VOMM, Officina della Casa 1946, Webert)

EDUCATION

September 2006 · Bachelor Degree in Product Design at Politecnico di Milano. Final grade 107/110

June 2009 · Alta Scuola Politecnica Diploma

September 2010 · Master Degree in Service Design at Politecnico di Milano. Final grade 110 cum laude/110. Double degree Politecnico di Milano/Politecnico di Torino

SPOKEN LANGUAGES

Italian (native), English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese

• Shanghai2010 to 2012 · Senior Researcher at Tektao, Urban Design Consulting Design research for sustainable development of Chongming island, through agriculture, crafts and technology. Visuals, product and service design.

2011 to 2012 · Tektao/Nokia Research project Product, interaction and service design of communication devices for inaccessible (rural) target.

2010 to 2012 · Tutor for DESIS workshops Organization, students’ coordination and didactics during international workshops.

March 2011 · Guest lecturer at Jiangan University (Wuxi) Lectures on service design methodology during an international DESIS workshop.

2011 to 2012 · Guest lecturer at Tongji University Didactics for an international class on Product- service system design; I gave a series of lectures and followed the students in the development of projects related to communication devices for inaccessible target (migrant work-ers, elderly, deaf kids).

2010 to 2012 · Freelance visual designer Communication material for Nova (Columbia Business School), Good-ToCn, NotMe, Alga Publications.

August to October 2012 · Visual Designer at Malherbe Retail Design Brand development and communication for Chinese fashion brands.

COMPETENCES• Softwares2D design: Adobe Indesign, Illustrator, Photoshop. 3D modeling: Alias Studio Tools, Rhino, Cinema 4D. Video and motions: Adobe After Effects, Isadora, Vvvv.

• MiscellaneousThe opportunities that I’ve had both in the academic and in the corporate environment have improved my capability of team-working in interdisciplinary and multi-cultural groups. I can visualize, understand and represent complexity. I have good visualization skills, through diagrams, infographics, sketches and rapid conceptual models.

ORGANIZATIONSDESIS China (DEsign for Social Innovation and Sustain-ability): events and workshop organization GoodToCn: Cooperation in different project DES (Service Design Group) help in conference or-ganization ASP Alumni: Board member from 2010 to 2012

AWARDSJune 2006. “Fin” best product designed in a workshop for the Academic year 2005/2006 at Politecnico. Several academic pubblications (see the end of the portfolio)

CONTACT INFORMATIONSerena Pollastri

emailsere.miru@gmail.com

phoneChina: +86 15800805919

Italy: +39 3405304631

AddressChina:

Appartment 5F, Building 9, 1398, Wuding East Road, Shanghai

Italy:

via De Gasperi, 10 20061, Carugate (Milano)

Webseremiru.com

DESIGN HARVESTSDESIGN FOR SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION IN CHONGMING ISLANDwith Studio Tao, 2011/2012

The goal of DESIGN Harvests, in Chongming island is to create prototypes of sustainable rural-urban interaction and development based on the usage of local resources and strengths, by enstablishing a local networking platform to promote a series of sustainable design solutions for local development. More over, it incubates and demonstrate new business models based on the resources of the rural communities and in-teraction between urban and rural. Enabling the local community through social collaboration is one of the main tasks of this project.

The project also required conducting extensive ethnographic researches both in Shanghai and in the neighbouring countryside, identify-ing opportunities, and prototyping a series of networked localized solutions in the fields of communication technology, agriculture and local crafts.

I have been working as a senior researcher and designer for the project, taking care of the strat-egy, participating in organization and tutoring of international workshops, keeping contacts with the local and global network, following field in-terventions and curating communication, visual identity and presentations.

DESIGNHarvests

An acupuncture design approach, allows the designer to work on small different micro pro-jects in synergy, producing a systemic effect.

(Jégou, 2010)

1_se

ek th

e po

tent

ial

2_id

entif

y an

d st

reng

hten

3_re

fine

and

syne

rgiz

e

4_br

idge

and

con

nect

5_br

and

Our methodology

desis_2011Summer_campdesigning_rural-urban_connections

__to_promote_social_innovation__

A field based workshop on the island with participants (both lecturers and students) from different universities and design disciplines: Tongji University College of Design and Innovation, Sino-Finnish Centre (Shanghai), School of Design Hong Kong PolyU, Jiangnan University School of Design (Wuxi, China), School of Arts and Design Hunan University (Changsha,

China), School of Arts and Design Tsinghua University (Beijing, China), AAlto Univer-sity (Finland) and DuocUC Design Institute Universidad Catholica in Chile. The work-shop is included in the wider framework of DESIS initiatives of social innovation promotion and enhancement.

PRESENTATION & EXHIBITION OPENINGTongji University Campus

Comprehensive Building, 16th floor.在`同济大学, 综合楼, 16楼

6/9/2011from 4pm2011年9月6日下午4点

some pictures and posters

of events and workshops

DESIGN Harvests exhibition

Design Museum, Helsinki

January to May 2012

ETHNOGRAPHY CARDSCONVERSATIONS ON TECHNOLOGY, FOOD AND COUNTRYSIDEwith Studio Tao and Nokia, June 2011

We conducted an ethnography research to have a general idea of users’ relationship with tech-nology, food and rural life. We choose to have a playful way to generate conversations with a sample of people from the city of Shanghai. Some focus groups have been organized, trying to gather people with different backgrounds in short interactive sessions. We designed a series of postcards, each one with a question, an image or a little game. Participants to brainstorm ses-sions were asked to fill the card, adding some personal data on the back and further com-ments if they feel like.

Cards can be used whenever we want to collect inspirations and data without having enough time to propose a more detailed research form. At the same time, though, these cards have been used during focus groups as a starting point for dynamic discussions on different topics, selected among the ones in the cards.

DESIGNHarvests

It emerged that only 21% of the respondents normally cook dinner at home during week days, while 46% of them buy take-away food, and 34% eat at restaurants. Also, about 75% of people interviewed can not associate vegetables and fruits to the correspond-ing season. The urban Chinese middle class is getting more and more disconnected from the food they eat; food education, on different levels is important to change unhealthy and unsustain-able habits.

TWINESOBJECTS THAT WEAVE STORIESwith Studio Tao, December 2011

One of the resource assets essential to the bal-ance of the rural area relies on local knowledge of Chongming bamboo craftmenship, and the related system of values. Immaterial heritage produces artefacts that are functional and prac-tical, and entwine stories that come from the local place. In this context our research initiative explores ways to preserve and input values to the local production of crafts - we start a co-de-sign project through direct interaction with the people in the villages working to reconstruct the social cohesion around a stronger local identity.

DESIGNHarvests

Craftman Designer

ExploreIdea Generation

Concept Design

Production

Co-Design

design process

Local Heritage

to be preserved and documented with a deep research work

to be valorized and enhanced, for a future developement that leverages on local resources

assets of knowledge to be preserved but also used

Role of Design

Soil from Biofarm

Upcycled bag

Woven basket by Shi Laoshi

RICEDESIGN FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTUREwith Studio Tao, 2011/2012

In the summer of 2011 we planted a field in Chongming island, to grow rice, together with local farmers, without using chemical fertiliz-ers or pesticide. The design contribution to the project was to made the whole process visible, and shared with the international research com-munity, as well as locals, both from Shanghai and Chongming. This has been done through a series of events and pubblications. In November 2011 we had our firs harvest (that have been transformed in a community event where both citizens and farmers were invited). The rice can be now purchased online and in some design stores in Shanghai. It is packed in cotton fabric; the label includes some basic information and a QR code with an embedded link where to find further information about the rice, the process and DESIGN Harvests.

DESIGNHarvests

Friday, 9th December 2011 Sino-Finnish Centre, No.100 Zhangwu Road

2011年12月9日,星期五中芬中心,彰武路100号

4.00pm - 6.30pm 有关崇明当地食物和资源、社会创新和可持续设计经验的展示与开放性讨论

7.00 - 开始 - 丰收晚会研讨会，活动，电影，设计市场与照片展。

有机大米烹饪、品尝与学习

详细内容见 www.designharvests.com

Sharing the Harvest

分享丰收

from 4.00pm to 6.30pm - Presentations and open discussion on local

food and resources, social innovation and sus-tainable design experiences

from 7.00 - Harvest Partyorganic rice cooking, sharing, tasting, learning.

workshops, activities, movies, Design Market and photo exhibition

Details on www.designharvests.com

Stories and Flavours from Shanghai’s countriside来自上海郊区的故事和香味

The Rice project is included in a broader re-search activity conducted by Studio Tao. A paper for the “International Conference on Designing for Food and Designing Food 2012” is being published.

In the paper we tell the story of our rice field and the design strategies that have been used on management, production, communication, dis-semination of the story together with the local villagers. The field represents both a prototype of a social innovation process through the involvement of local community and a com-munication and experimentation tool, used as a medium in the conversation among designers, farmers and city networks. We recall participa-tion processes that do not explicitly refer to co-design practices; instead we designed commu-nication, services and experiences contributing to the reconstruction of a knowledge identity by the villagers, aimed to increase their sensitivity and the awareness about their daily practice of agriculture.

MOBILE MARKETPLACEDIGITAL COMMUNICATION DEVICES FOR THE INACCESSIBLE TARGETwith Studio Tao and Nokia, June 2011 / ongoingx

The project aims to produce prototypes and service systems that can create a synergic con-nection among different resources of the urban and rural areas.

Through the exchange of material (field prod-ucts) and immaterial (knowledge and heritage) resources between the rural and the urban users, a virtual market place will be created, that, by identifying and increasing the value of local resources and production will enhance the sustainable consumption system in the local specific context.

The research process will start from an analy-sis of the target, preliminary to the design of a multi-platform based service system, to be prototyped in the context of Chongming Island, in the DESIGN Harvests creative innovation framework.

The main expected outcomes of the project are a series of prototyped services that will be tested on a selected sample target group. The final structure of the project will be characterized by a framework master project (platform) and a group of sub-projects.

DESIGNHarvests

ol

lowh

oldy

bad

EDUCATION

HEALTH

ERGONOMIC CONSTRAINS

AGE

BUDGET

INACCESSIBLE TARGET

SOCIAL NETWORK - DENSITY

SOCIAL NETWORK - SIZE

INTEGRATION IN COMMUNITY

DAILY ROUTINE

TECH. LITERACY

CURIOSITY

DEVICES OWNED

PERSO

NAL

FIEL

D

SOCIAL BEHAVIOURTECHNOLOGY ATTITUDE

INACCESSIBLE TARGET CHECKLIST

PROJECT METHODOLOGYIn the initial phase we combined desk-based research and ethnography to understand users. A set of tools and practices were designed and tested for immersive exploration and to define user characteristics for the following scenarios and concept generation phase. The need of a specific methodology is due to the user group’s peculiar profile, and no previous specific study. Language based problems and semantic bias were also encountered.

Although the research methodology is character-ized by an in-depth ethnographic approach, a desk research has been conducted for a better understanding of the mobile technology user, and to accumulate data that could be relevant in following steps. The results of the desk research represent a base knowledge that we acquired before the evaluation and analysis of the ethnog-

raphy results.

Different field research actions (interviews, fo-cus groups, case studies) have been conducted; all the activities have been documented through audio/video recording, transcripts, documen-tation and visual descriptions of people and contexts.

As a final step we condensed our findings to cre-ate five Personas, that represents different typi-cal user. These Personas will represent model users in design concept and development tasks.

#2. ZHANG FENG

#5. LIN GANG

#1. LU FU GUI

#3. LIU FANG

#4. WANG FANG

HOME

COOPERATIVE

COMM. CENTER FIELD

FIELD

wife

coworkers

villagers

coworkers

coworkers

villagers

friends

LOW MEDIUM HIGH

LEVEL OF INTERACTION

WIF

EFR

IEND

SCO

WOR

KER

ACO

WOR

KER

BVI

LLAG

ERS

PERSONA 1

14

16

15

1718

19

10

20

9

1211

13

86

5

421

3

7

22

231

224

Fields

Cooperative

Headquarter

Commercial

Center

Home

examples of personal journey mapping

PRODUCT-SERVICE SYSTEMA open source, self constructable device allows the farmer to update the information about the products availabe in an easy and immediate way. Let’s say it is spring, and broccoli are ready to be picked; the farmer inserts the broccol stick in the device. A RFId reader sends the information to the Arduino board, and then, using a SIM card, to the database of the platform. The farmer’s profile is now updated. Visitors can see what’s available in their area, and have information on different farms. It is possible to buy products online, and have them delivered at home or to a group of neighbours that share the delivery. The delivery is organized by the local community. the day before the farmers receives a ticket with the list of products to prepare.

rfid

readerboard

sim

rfid

Tag

URBAN FARMING ACTIVITY BOOKKIDS BOOK TO EXPERIMENT WITH URBAN FARMINGwith Studio Tao and GoodToCN, March, 2012

I curated the graphic design and participated in the creation of original contents for a urban farming activity book.

This book has been developed as a fun, interactive way to learn about plants and urban farming. It explains our relationship with food, where it comes from, and provides a variety of interesting and stimulating tasks about urban farming and growing our own food.It includes fun activities to learn about farming, composting and wormsThe book has been presented at the Shanghai EcoDesignFair 2012.

mood board

COLLECTING the SEEDS有机素菜

Farmers collect seeds from the plants they are growing. You can do the same, and also keep seeds you find in fruits and vegetables.

是在一个城市或镇的培育和分发食品的做法。世界各地的许多人正在使用的阳台，窗户和屋顶，以自己种植的蔬菜，药材和花卉。

HOW TO COLLECT TOMATO SEEDS你需要什么

Take the seeds off the tomato

你可以把这些步骤

Let them sit in water

overnight

你可以把这些步骤

tomatoes

empty the content into a sieve and wash the seeds under running water

你可以把这些步骤

let the seeds dry out and store them in a labelled container.

你可以把这些步骤

HARMONY of theECOSYSTEM

有机素菜

Organic farmers use mixed crops to attract natural wildlife that protect the crops. This is good for the ecosystem.

是在一个城市或镇的培育和分发食品的做法。世界各地的许多人正在使用的阳台，窗户和屋顶，以自己种植的蔬菜，药材和花卉。

WHAT IS AN ECOSYSTEM MADE OF?

你需要什么 生长的植物吗？

INTERACTIVE PROJECTIONSPROIEZIONI FUTURE WORKSHOPwith Area Odeon and Dataism, December 2009

Facade projectionsn and indoor interactive projections at Villa Tittoni, XVIII century build-ing in Desio (Italy). The videos projected on the facade were in synk with the music from a DJ set happening inside the villa (where a contem-porary art exhibition was taking place). Inside, we realized an interactive table that projected videos and images on the ceiling. By moving their hands on the table, visitors could manipu-late the images on the ceiling (shades of flying people, architectural details of the villa, falling bubbles etc.)

MENOPAUSAPRANZOEXPLORART WORKSHOPwith Area Odeon and IO/Cose, May 2009

Although the use of advanced science and ma-chineries, food industries have never tried to do something more other than recreating the real thing.

Together with “IOCOSE” I investigated into this trend and explored the local food traditions and the famous industries in Brianza (Milan - Lom-bardia).

Thanks to mechanical procedures, the original recipes were preserved in the taste but mutated in the look. The futuristic and rational shapes of the old/new food moved the audience to disgust and curiosity at the same time, as a buffet was served during the opening.

pork triple icycles

freeze-dried

risotto cubes

drinkable ham

spray meat

examples of posters

pictures from the

event

VISUAL IDENTITYBeacon Cross Cultural Solutions May to July 2012

Logo, poster, brochure and web design for Beacon, a Shanghai based company that offer education and business service packages for foreigners that are interested in study or work experiences in China.

The Wordpress based website and all the online material has being designed to be flexible and easy to be customized by the client.

website screen-shots

alternative logo

proposals

FINSERRALUNGA, DESIGN FOR THE OUTDOOR WORKSHOPwith A. Plebani and F. Piccinini, May 2006

*awarded as best workshop project 2006, Politecnico di Milano

The brief from the company “Serralunga” was the realization of a seat for the outdoor to be realized in rotational molding technology.

Our concept is a light transportable object to support the back while sitting or laying on the grass.

Seduto

Sdraiato sul lato

Disteso

HOW DO PEOPLE SIT IN THE PARKWe observed the way people sit in the park, and what kind of activities they do

PAPERS

DESIGN HARVESTS: A NETWORK OF SOCIAL COLLABORATIVE INNOVATION HUBS

iasdr 2011Yongqi Lou, Francesca Valsecchi, Serena Pol-lastri

The paper introduces an innovative social col-laborative design project:“Design Harvests”—Design for Xian Qiao sustainable rural commu-nity in Chongming. The goal of this project is to create prototypes of sustainable rural-urban interaction and development based on the usage of local resources and strengths. One of the most important proposals is to establish a network of innovation hubs together with the local com-munity. Each innovation hub will be a platform of promoting a series of sustainable design solu-tions for local development. More over, it will incubate and demonstrate new business models based on the resources of the rural communities and interaction between urban and rural. Mean-while, a systematic network is designed and formed among the hubs to have holistic and sys-temic impacts throughout the whole territory. The key principle of this project is co-creation and interdiscipline. Enabling the local commu-nity through social collaboration is one of the main tasks of this project. Social collaboration in this project is not only the cooperation among different stakeholders such as government, enterprises, designers and communities but also among different disciplines such as economics, sociology, engineering and design. To conclude, the paper summarizes the methodology used

in this project and explores more possibilities of how design can contribute to such a kind of social collaborative process.

DIGITAL DEVICES FOR THE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN RURAL & URBAN CHINA

DRS 2012Yongqi Lou, Francesca Valsecchi, Serena Pol-lastri, Diego Dalia

The paper describes the methodology and pro-cess of an ongoing research project conducted by Studio TAO and Tongji University with Nokia to demonstrate how digital communication devices can help bridge the social gap between rural and urban China. Rapid growth, substan-tial socio-economic changes, and massive migra-tion from the countryside to the urban areas, are creating an imbalance in the urban-rural system. No visible value is given to activities and re-sources related to the countryside. Young people move to urban areas to find a job to economical-ly sustain their families; social fabric is weaken-ing and traditional practices and local skills are disappearing. DESIGN Harvest explores ways to connect rural areas with the city to enhance the exchange of resources. This approach is being prototyped in the context of Chongming island, near Shanghai. The proximity of the island to the city, and the way it has maintained its rural identity, despite Shanghai’s fast pace of growth, makes it ideal for researching the relationship between the two realities. Together with Nokia, we started researching how communication devices can help enhance connections through prototypes, models of interaction and service systems.

In the initial phase we combined desk-based research and ethnography to understand users. A set of tools and practices were designed and tested for immersive exploration and to define user characteristics for the following scenarios and concept generation phase. The need of a specific methodology is due to the user group’s peculiar profile, and no previous specific study.

Language based problems and semantic bias were also encountered.

The paper explains the methodology and the design guidelines for the concept generation phase. Finally, design proposals are presented. Although these proposals are the result of extensive research in the Shanghai/Chongming context, modular and exportable design charac-teristics will be clarified, for possible adoption in different contexts.

BAMBOO ENTWINES: A DESIGN IN-TERVENTION TO ENVISION CULTURE AND INNOVATION VALUES OF LOCAL CRAFTS

Heritage 2012Yongqi Lou, Serena Pollastri, Francesca Vals-ecchi

In the framework of sustainable social innova-tion the paper aims to present in a systematized way the notions of localism, user value and knowledge heritages, and describes a project based design research as a concrete case study. The research presented is nurtured by the idea that design empowers the local knowledge to benefit from relating to the global dimension in a sustainable way. Our research playground belongs to a wider program about social inno-vation located in Chongming Island, the most important rural area of Shanghai. It contrib-utes to new directions of urban planning that strongly take into account community factors, where the research develops design strategies that can support equal and mutual benefits in the exchange of resources between rural and urban development. During the research, it emerged that one of the resource assets es-sential to the balance of the rural area relies on local knowledge of Chongming bamboo craft-menship. Bamboo represents a system of values for all who produce and use the artefacts, and around this, communities gather with rituals, daily routines and convivial moments. Immate-rial heritage produces artefacts that are func-tional and practical, and entwine stories that

come from the local place. In this context our research initiative explores ways to preserve and input values to the local production of crafts - we start a co-design project through direct interaction with the people in the villages work-ing to reconstruct the social cohesion around a stronger local identity. The research question develops around two main directions: on the one hand, design works to create experiences of fruition of the typical knowledge, making it ac-cessible and understandable inside and outside the community of creation. In the other direc-tion, design enhances the value of local culture through new design solutions that can include products, services or strategies, that respect the connection with the tradition and empower new knowledge uses. In the paper, we give full description of the research activities and design interventions. Even though the project is still a work-in-progress, it has already emerged that the objects of the design grounded in the values of localism are cultural artefacts, and they en-able the envision of new heritage, because value is not a technical quality embedded in forms and processes, but in the way they are integrated in the social lifestyles and patterns.

AGRICULTURE PROTOTYPES: A DESIGN EXPERIMENT FOR SUS-TAINABLE OPEN FIELDS IN CHINA

International conference on design for food and design food, 2012Yongqi Lou, Francesca Valsecchi, Serena Pol-lastri

In this paper we present a practice based re-search project in rururban China that includes community gardens and rice fields, and involve local villagers in Shanghai countryside; with our results and findings we contribute to the wider playground of experiments in food-related sus-tainability issues. In the framework of sustaina-bility and social innovation research, agriculture doesn’t just mean food production; it represents the system of community, local resources, open

process and connected

stakeholders: increasing public interest in agriculture, food supply, and food security is influencing the way design can help improv-ing the urban food system. A rich showcase of design interventions on many level has grown in the last decade; nevertheless, the global call of design for social innovation continuously asks for prototypes of small yet networking solu-tions. The research we are conducting follows this approach of a set of connected self standing projects and reply to the call with the descrip-tion and the discussion of a Chinese case, taking the relationship between Shanghai and its peri-urban areas as a space where to prototype solution. The concept of “organic products” is not familiar to the Chinese audience, and local regulations are not clear. As a result, those con-sumers (mainly from the foreign community) looking for organic food, certified according to international standards, often turn to services that import overseas products, without stimu-lating any local change. Sustainable approach to food in China means rebuilding this social relationship in the link between production and consumption. In the paper we tell the story of our rice field in Chongming island and the de-sign strategies that have been used on manage-ment, production, communication, dissemina-tion of the story together with the

local villagers. The field represents both a proto-type of a social innovation process through the involvement of local community and a com-munication and experimentation tool, used as a medium in the conversation among designers, farmers and city networks. We recall participa-tion processes that do not explicitly refer to co-design practices; instead we designed commu-nication, services and experiences contributing to the reconstruction of a knowledge identity by the villagers, aimed to increase their sensitivity and the awareness about their daily practice of agriculture, that defines their domain of exper-tise. In the paper we also describe the natural approach in which the field has been managed, in a continuous process of knowledge sharing among designers (suggesting and implementing creative solutions) and farmers (contributing with experience and technique). The

mutual learning is an output of the process, enhanced by a mechanism of trust.

With our experience we reply to the call for social innovation experiments and practices; moving back to the open field we focus not only on food production, but also on community’s social and economic development. We finally learned that involve and support the community in agro-food innovative practice means both the envisioning and development of local and dis-intermediated food networks, as well as a new common conception of public space.

THANK YOU.seremiru.com