Madeline McKenna

I am a Colour and Materials designer focusing on sustainable and circular economy design. Whether that be recycling, reusing, or creating new materials from waste that would normally go to landfill. 

My self set personal project during my placement year focused around developing a material from production waste that is non recyclable. I continued this to create a solution to non recyclable waste in the most sustainable way possible and working on how this could be applied to products in multiple industries, with initial focus on Fashion Technology products. 

I started by creating a catalogue of different mixes and colours. This aided the product design process and allowed me to understand my limits and finishes I had to work with. Following this I created a circular economy plan for all of my products and practice zero waste making processes. 

I decided to design Modular headphones with the SWARF material I had developed, along with fabrics obtained from automotive production waste. I developed a modular system to further the sustainable aspect of design as well as it being a key customisation option.