Sophia Noel is a sophomore at the University of Michigan pursuing a Bachelor of Art and minors in Global Media Studies and Business. Her passion to create enjoyable, meaningful work guides her practices in design. With a love for children and creativity, Sophia was inspired to create these Dreamboxes for an Undergraduate Art and Design Project to bring a fun way to learning life lessons for young children. 

 

For this particular Undergraduate Art and Design studio class, the goal was to create an in-depth project developed through a series of iterations and project constraints. The first prompt was to begin with our project's foundation and each came up with five words that inspire our work, of which Sophia chose: Nostalgia, Childhood, Antiquity, and Beauty. She then decided to create a series of dreamboxes that had various whimsical scenes within made from lasercut designed wood and paint.

 

Sophia pulled Inspiration from artists including Collette Fu and Alex Yanes and began the creating process to design a playful, interactive collection of shadowboxes. One of her consrainsts during this process was to create a story or a system of stories to compliment her dreamboxes, and from this she designed the Dreambox Stories Storybook. She researched moral stories and life lessons studies and parents found most valuable for their children to be educated on and designed three separate short stories that when read, simultaneously use each whimsical box during the narration, along with teahcing children a valuable story. 

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From here, Sophia plans to continue designing meaningful work that is beneficial and enjoyable for different audiences, and hopes to even incorporate her Dreamboxes and Dreambox Storybook design into local stores or learning communities.