Portrait of a young woman with long black hair, wearing a black top, smiling gently at the camera, against a light gray background.

Ricamae Lumibao

Experiential & Industrial Designer

Imagining | Meaningful | Exhilerating

Visioning and creating purposeful concepts with dynamic experiences

Seawall Conversation

Experiential Design | Exhibit | Graphics

Objective: The objective of this project was to collaboratively develop, design, and build an exhibition with the Seawall Conversation, featuring an open dialogue on reimagining the Seawall. The design process included collaborating with other teams to develop and fabricate four interconnected sections, ensuring a cohesive visual and spatial experience. The design included providing spatially accurate layout plans, material selections, and fabrication details.

Response: After learning about the Seawall, my group and I collaborated to plan and design this exhibit by exploring many ways to collect visitors' feedback. To explore visitors' opinions and ideas for what they want to include in the Seawall, we encourage visitors to write their thoughts on a card and hang it on the strings. This shows visitors are engaged, open-minded, and have every idea to feel validated.

Colorful illustrated poster on a wooden frame promoting building with the sea theme, indicated by a sailboat, lighthouse, and water. The poster has a blue background with a sun, clouds, trees, a bridge, and other scenery. The environment appears to be an indoor setting, possibly a workshop or exhibit related to construction or education.

Luminous Object

Industrial Design | Fabrication | Material & Sustainability

Objective: Design, Document, and Fabricate a small Luminous Object, while exploring the relationship between Narrative, Form, Materiality, and Value— from concept to fabrication.

Response: For this project, I was inspired by one of the Studio Ghibli film “My Neighbour Totoro”, animated by Hayao Miyazaki. The concept was to create a layered wooden lamp that captures the scene in which Mei meets Totoro in a forest after chasing Totoro’s spirit friends.

I was trying to figure out what scene I could capture for my lamp. I then started researching what light symbolizes and discovered that it represents happiness, hope, and knowledge. After learning these meanings, I was inspired to capture a scene of Mei and Totoro's first meeting in a forest, after Mei chased Totoro’s friends. The purpose of this scene is to capture the beginning of Mei’s curiosity and connection with Totoro. This also involves hope for the story’s moral, as Mei and her family search for resilience and comfort during times of hardship.

Wooden lantern featuring a cut-out leaf shaped sign that reads "My Neighbor Totoro" at the top. The lantern has intricate leaf and nature-themed cut-outs and is illuminated from within, set against a dark background.

Extraordinary Object

Storytelling | Research | Papercutting

Objective: From a lottery selection of random objects, identify, research and then design an engaging presentation that expresses the experience of an object in only white paper.

Response: Out of a lottery of mystery objects, I was given an apple peeler to express and illustrate its story. Throughout the process, I had a tough time deciding which concepts to use to represent the apple peeler. After researching and learning that this apple peeler was made in the 1800s, I explored and expanded my ideas through design elements from that era, especially the apple itself.

For the facade, I decided to use vintage flourishes to represent the time period since the design is well-known from the 1800s. Then I added a pile of apples to symbolize the rapidly growing population during that period. Lastly, I included a lattice pie crust for the background to symbolize one of the well-known recipes.

A vintage red coffee grinder with a black handle, set against a decorative white paper background with apple and floral motifs.

Sketch of an artistic design for a paper apple ornament, showing a top view of a decorated apple with a stem, painted with effects of coating, peeling, and slicing, along with handwritten notes on design details and vintage style.

Sketch of two decorative frames, each containing different objects. The left frame shows apples on a wooden basket and a pillow labeled '20/30 apples piling,' surrounded by ornate swirls. The right frame contains a large perfume bottle, an apple, and a dress, also surrounded by decorative swirls.

A young woman in a patterned sweater examining a green apple with a receipt in a modern store or cafe.

A woman with black hair tied back wearing a gray sweater, working on a craft project at a table. She is using a cutting tool to cut white paper with decorative swirls. The workspace has various craft supplies, including rolls of paper, scissors, and cut-out designs.

Young woman cutting paper with scissors on a craft table, wearing a black and white patterned sweater, in a workspace with shelves and decorative fabric in the background.

A person using a glue gun to attach white paper strips onto a surface, likely as part of a craft or project.

A person working on a paper craft project at a table in a well-lit room with industrial ceiling ducts and decorative wall panels.

Person in gray sweater writing or drawing on paper with a black marker, with Chinese New Year decorations hanging nearby.

A person in a denim jacket and black pants working on a white decorative wall with carved details and framed mirrors, with a stepladder nearby and industrial ductwork on the ceiling.

Extraordinary Exhibition Model

Exhibit Design | Experiential Design | Rendering

Objective:
Expanding on the concepts revealed in the research and development of the Extra Ordinary Project showcase, render a 20-foot square exhibition space as a model that explores the experience of objects in a dimensional environment.

Response:
In continuation of this project, I decided to have the walls red and have the exhibit rounded to harmonize the apple itself. I started to create miniature display cases where each of them shows an inventory of varied miniature apple peelers to help the audience visualize and understand the trial and error the apple peeler has gone through. For the interactive space, I want to create an activity that includes teamwork. I decided on creating an apple peeler metre where visitors attempt to crank the apple peeler to help raise the metre. The job cannot be done when there’s not enough people to join in.

A decorative black box with a circular cutout revealing a miniature scene inside, including small felt strawberries, greenery, and a tiny red torch.

Close-up of a decorative display including a yellow-framed sign with a black and white illustration, green foliage, red berries, and a small black and gold box on a dark surface.

A miniature model of a red train with a yellow and red border, surrounded by green leaves and small fences, placed on a black circular base, with framed artwork and a plant in the background.

Candy Box

Experiential Design | Typography | Crafting

Objective: In a lottery choice of un-marked candy, snacks or beverage, explore the sensory experience and express it in spray paint and paper cutting, while including a 3-letter adjective in suitable typography.

Response: I was given a mystery candy that turned out to be soda-flavoured, based on how the candy is moulded into a bottle cap. I began by collecting the emotions, colour palettes, shapes, and illustration elements related to soda. I combine the colours into a gradient to capture the dynamic energy and emotion that soda gives. I then created a bottle cap that represents the candy’s shape and added bubbles around it to illustrate the soda fizzing up after the bottle is opened.

Colorful abstract 3D paper sculpture with geometric shapes including circles, semicircles, and a rectangular base, featuring a striped background with horizontal red and white lines.

Black-and-white sketch illustrating various elements related to baking or cooking, including labeled ingredients like raspberry, grape, orange, root beer, vanilla, and drawings of bubbles, explosions, and a cake. Notes about effects such as 'explosion,' 'sweet,' and 'bubbly' are also present.

A collection of color samples on a cardboard background, labeled with names such as Sweet Violet, Grape Gloss, Ice Lilac, Strawberry Fields G, Berry Pink G, Candy Pop Sult, Orange Gloss, Sun Yellow Doss, Warm Caramel Sult, and Aluminum Gloss.

Person wearing a dark gray knitted sweater working on a white arts and crafts project at a table in an indoor room. The person is holding a piece of paper or cardboard, and nearby are scissors and a stapler. In the background, there are signs that read 'A105' and 'A101.'

A classroom or art studio with long green tables, chairs, and art supplies. There are foam cutouts in orange, yellow, and purple, paint sample sheets, scissors, a ruler, and a tape dispenser on the table. A cardboard box labeled "RICAMARE" holds white paper or foam sheets. In the background, there are storage drawers, a black chair, a whiteboard, and other classroom furniture.

A young girl wearing a medical face mask and earphones making a thumbs-up gesture at a craft table with colorful paper, stickers, tape, and spray paint while smiling at the camera.

A young woman with glasses and a beige fleece jacket is participating in a craft activity, pulling a green string on a table. Another woman dressed in black is in the background, also engaged in a task.

A woman wearing a gray baseball cap with 'San Diego' written on it is working on a design project at a table. She is holding a tool and appears to be placing or adjusting paper or foam pieces on a display or model, with a background of colorful words related to design and imagery.