Me¶

My name is Daniela Meza Balvanera in love with life, art, nature, shapes and color

I'm 22 years old and I'm currently studying Industrial Design in the Universidad Iberoamericana de Puebla. Through this space, I want to explore how far I can take my understanding of the subjectivity of creativity, while sharing some of my interests, experiences, and projects, as well as the ideas and processes that shape my perspective. I believe we create relfections of who we are, where we come from, what we see, what we experience and what we think, showing ourselves through desing.

I am new here, so I am still learning.

About me¶

My dad has always liked photography and he used to let me borrow his camera when we were on vacation, I loved it so much that the camera became more mine than his, now is one of the things I enjoy he most and truly one of my passions, although I don't spend as much time on it as I would like to. I train with the university's representative football team and my favorite team is, of course, Barcelona. I enjoy sports a lot and I consider myself a pretty active person so I always like trying something new. One of the things that inspire me the most is nature, makes me fall in love with life every time I notice its perfection, from huge mountains sourounded by nothing else to the seeds of a tangerine or simply the flow of water.

A little bit of my work so far¶

Wood¶

Here are some of the projects I’ve done with wood and different techniques, such as gluing pieces of wood together and shaping them by hand. One of them was a chair inspired by a flamingo, which I designed and cut using a CNC machine. I have also used different modeling programs to create and cut the designs I wanted, and then assembled the pieces to achieve the final result.

Biomaterials¶

I’ve experimented with different biomaterials, exploring their properties, textures, and possibilities through various tests. Although I haven’t developed a final product from them yet, I created a material sample collecting and documenting the results of each experiment and the different materials I worked with. This has encorage me to keep working with this and to better undersand their potential.

Sketching¶

One of my favorite parts of the design process is sketching because it is exactly where you start bringing your ideas to life. It allows you to shape them into communicative tools, explore different forms, sizes, and proportions, and see graphically what you want to create. I feel like I flow when I sketch. I enjoy sketching not only designs or products, but also the things I see around and moments, using a pen as a way to capture and remember anything.

Origami¶

This project is about preserving the importance of our city’s historic center by introducing its history and landmarks to children. It consists of an interactive children’s game in the shape of a Platonic solid, designed to guide children toward some of the most important and emblematic places in the city center, such as the Cathedral and 16 de Septiembre Street, one of the area’s important streets.

The structure also features decorative walls inspired by Talavera, a traditional ceramic art form from Puebla. The project was exhibited on 16 de Septiembre Street, in front of the Cathedral, allowing children and people passing by to interact with it. It was satisfying seeing children interacting naturally with the game whithout telling them to.