Project Gracie
Fostering a sustainable, empathetic approach
for children’s grieving process
Overview
Project Gracie was completed during a 24-hour
design competition against 14 other teams. We
were tasked with creating a product that adhered
to the theme “Closing the Loop in Circularity,”
by creating a sustainable solution to a problem
which utilized a physical product.
During this project, I lead our teams research
and created the 3D models for our products.
Duration
24 Hours
Team
Corey West
Jon Rodz
Roles
Research Lead
Product Designer
Tools
Figma, Rhino, Keyshot
At a Glance
The Problem
Children struggle to navigate through the
grieving process at a young age.
Our Solution
A sustainable product that helps children navigate the
grieving process by representing the circularity of life.
Pictured: Members of the top 3 teams
Final Renderings of our Product
We placed 1st!
Jumping into my first 24-design challenge was stressful,
but my team and I were proud to take home first place!
Initial Research
Exploring Our Problem Space
2 out of 3 children experience a pet
death before the age of 7.
— Massachusetts General Hospital
Around half of all households in developed countries own at least one pet. For families, the relationships that children form with their pets mimic that of human connections, and helps foster social development in their early years.
The loss of a pet impacts the entire household, even parents would rather talk about anything else with their children.
Why is this a problem?
Early experiences with grief can significantly influence lifelong grieving patterns. For children, improperly navigating the grieving process can result in lasting mental health effects and hinder developmental progress.
Additionally, it’s crucial that parents have the ability to have this discussion about grief with their children, allowing for easier communication around these topics in the future.
In Conclusion…
Creating a solution to this problem will not only helps
children navigate the grieving process, it can promote
an environment where parents can comfortably speak
about this difficult topic with their children.
Why is this problem important
to us?
Coming from pet-lover households, my team has all had the
unfortunate experience of saying goodbye to our pets.
It was this empathy that helped drive our research and design process, and our deep connection to the topic motivated us to go above and beyond.
Target Audience
Families with pets and children under the age of 12
Develop healthier grieving
process early on
Establishes a base for conversations regarding death
Determining touchpoints
Before Ideating solutions, we created a journey map to identify the key stages our solution should be involved in and enhance.
We determined that in order to solve our problem space, we would have to create a product that focused on the memorialization of a pet, and offer a compassionate, sustainable way for families to cherish the memories of their lost pets.
How might we...
Provide an empathetic, eco-friendly experience for children to
better understand death?
Our approach
Our goal was to create a sustainable memorialization product
to help children better visualize and understand
death and the circle of life.
We wanted to close the loop in the literal and figurative sense, representing the circle of life while also making a product that existed in a closed loop.
Eco-friendly materials
Zero waste
Symbolizes the Circle of Life
Solving for sustainability
The biggest sustainability issue we encountered was cremation, which prevented circularity due to its non-degradability and pollutive nature.
Our first step was substituting cremation with a more sustianable method, we found aquamation to fit that role perfectly.
Cremation
Current Method
creates air pollutants such as
mercury and particulate matter
Fire based, energy-intensive process
that burns fossil fuels
Ashes generated by cremation
take millions of years to biodegrade, and
damages plants and soil
Aquamation
Project Gracie's Method
Process generates no air pollutants
Uses 90% less energy and burns
no fossil fuels
Produces biodegradable material
filled with nutrients necessary
for plant growth
Finalizing our design
After finalizing our research, we created the physical products that would pair with our product.
Closing the Loop
Our Product consists of a biodegradable mycelium based urn. After a pet goes through the aquamation process and be placed in the urn. The urn would then be buried under a wooden planter where flowers could be planted.
The nutrients from the urn would feed the flowers, completing the circle of life.
Project Takeaways
Competing in this design challenge was an
Owen Hudock
owen.hudock19@gmail.com
linkedin.com/in/ozhudock