Anna Pigadas
I am an enthusiastic, ambitious and creative product designer aiming to expand my knowledge and skills both in and out of design. I want to make a difference and create products that have a positive impact on real life.
I am an enthusiastic, ambitious and creative product designer aiming to expand my knowledge and skills both in and out of design. I want to make a difference and create products that have a positive impact on real life.
Current women’s fencing chest protectors have inadequate coverage due to misconceptions about what needs to be covered, they cause physical discomfort due to incorrect sizing, they aren’t very breathable and the sizing is not very inclusive, especially due to it’s rigid structure. It is also mandatory for women to wear a chest protector when fencing as hits to the breast can not only be painful, cause bruising and swelling, but also fat necrosis and breast haematoma.
For my Final Year Project I created an adjustable, inclusive, breathable and comfortable chest protector for women in fencing. OmniFlex features fully adjustable torso, bust, under bust and vertical arm straps. There are inflatable air veins underneath the chest and torso area to fill gaps between the user’s body and the protective piece. A fully flexible protective piece allows for a more comfortable and form fitting chest protector. A hidden Velcro pocket at the bottom allows for the protective piece to be removed so that parts can be cleaned separately. A custom air pump design was also created which allows the user to inflate and deflate the air veins.
Throughout this project I developed a number of new skills, alongside further refining my existing ones. I learned about different fabrics and stitching techniques which proved to be successful. I also further developed my Arduino, 3D Printing, prototyping, Rhino, SolidWorks and sketching skills.
Throughout my final year I also worked on two other projects.
In a group of 4 we created a fully functional electro-mechanical AeroPress Coffee Machine. Through C-Programming, microcontrollers, Arduino and using the university workshop facilities we were able to create our working lighthouse coffee machine!
For my sustainability module I created a berry packaging solution which aims to be reusable, multifunctional and give more protection to the produce while also increases it’s life.