Oscar Murphy
I was Born in north London and educated at Nottingham Trent University where I studied Furniture and product design. I have always had a passion for designing and through a variety of projects I have developed my skill set and found an area of design that I feel can truly impact on peoples lives called Biophilic deign. I now have a deep interest to improve peoples environments by designing in a way that utilises materials, colours and shapes that humans find innately relaxing in order to make our urban environments nicer places to live in.
Helping plants help people - A self-watering tray for Houseplants
This project came about in response to the prevalence of stress and anxiety in our modern society and the belief that it is in part due to the fact that our new urban environments don't reflect the setting that people naturally evolved for. Plants are one part of the environment we left behind and their benefits are well documented to be positively impactful on peoples mental and physical health as they satisfy subconscious parts of our brain. Recently there has been a large increase in people decorating their spaces with Houseplants however the problem is that a lot of people still struggle to keep their plants healthy. As a way of letting more people have access to the health benefits of plants a non electrical self watering system was developed that allows the plants to self regulate their watering which greatly reduce the chances of over or under watering which are the main reasons peoples plants die. In addition the plants are housed in breathable selves which increase air circulation to the roots which allows plants to grow quicker and reduces root circling. The whole system was then designed to use materials which could take the colours and textures and forms which help to make peoples spaces more relaxing by tuning into our evolutionary biases.
Ply-remedy Desk Enhancer
In the 21 century young creatives are having to make do with smaller workspaces as rent gets more expensive. This often means having to work in cramped and poorly lit areas which is counter productive for their needs. It was found that removing distractions through storage and improving the quality of lighting would be the issues which the design try to solve as they were the areas that peoples workspaces fell short on. The ply-remedy desk enhancer is designed to be intergrated with a preexisting work surface as a way of improving the space for people who may already have a desk and don't want to unnecessarily throw it away because of cost or environmental reasons. Once the device has been added to a workspace it is plugged in to the mains which allows the user to use a wireless charger an over head light and 3 usb chargers which are all integrated into the design in a way that hides wires and electronic devices from sight as a way of helping to focus people on their task at hand. The designs storage can fit up to A2 paper and has a perforated side which allows hard to store tools to be hooked on; these features provide storage for the variety of equipment and materials young creatives need easily access to whilst working.
