2020.09.25
Post-Graduation Activity Report for 2018 Pokémon Scholarship Recipients
2018 Pokémon Scholarship recipients Amir Afshar and Jesse Cahn-Thompson have continued to work hard after graduating from the Royal College of Art. Here, we present a report on their post-graduation activities.
Amir Afshar / Innovation Design Engineering
Since graduating, I’ve gone on to Co-found The Shellworks where we are addressing one of the biggest global climatic issues today; plastic pollution. Along with my co-founders, we are developing completely degradable alternatives to plastic focusing initially on the packaging industry. In order to achieve this, we harness naturally occurring biopolymers and create custom formulations that meet the needs of our customers while having tunable degradation rates.
The Shellworks recently closed a pre-seed funding round and is set to deliver it’s impactful solution to the first pilot customers within the coming months.
To find out more visit theshellworks.com or follow @theshellworks
Jesse Cahn-Thompson / Information Experience Design
I am currently exploring new ways to combine digital media and handicraft sustainably and am experimenting with how to tap into the making process as a collaborative ecosystem. My first project is an art publishing press based in Los Angeles, where a fellow RCA graduate and I are powering a refurbished Risograph duplicator with California’s abundant solar energy. We chose the Risograph because of its use of soy-based ink and rice paper, its handmade feel, and its history as an affordable and democratic medium.
Currently, we are planning our first collaborations; one includes UCLA’s Conditional Studio and their exhibition and research project on the history of how artists have worked with the internet in Los Angeles since it was born here, fifty years ago, with a transmission from UCLA to Stanford.
You can find out more about us online at poolside.press/.
