Julia Rupestock

A glimpse into recent projects and collaborations

Rivian Storytelling
Documenting and sharing people, places and experiences through multi-media storytelling.

A week-long, womens-only off-roading race through the desert. Monitoring buffalo herds across tribal lands. A solar farm built on top of a former Kentucky coal mine — telling stories that are unlikely to come from an automotive brand.

Check out a few:

Rebelle Rally Win
Maine Roadtrip
Bringing back the Buffalo
Meet R2 and R3

* Note: each project was touched by many. My contributions are specified under ‘roles’.

Role(s)
Storytelling, Creative Strategy & Direction, Production Planning, Interviews, Creative Writing, Photography, Video Editing

Rivian Sustainability
Applying big-picture thinking and planet-centered design to inspire positive environmental impact.

Electric vehicles are made up of thousands of materials and components, shipped from hundreds of suppliers, assembled by countless human hands and automated robots to create one of the most complex products out there. There is environmental impact attached to every material, every process and every stage of the vehicle’s lifecycle. To do it right, you have to understand it all.

Check out a few:

Impact Journey
Impact Report
R1T Carbon Footprint

* Note: each project was touched by many. My contributions are specified under ‘roles’.

Role(s)
Research, Interviews, Creative Strategy & Direction, Storytelling, Data Vis, Creative Writing

The Unseen Majority
Visualizing scientific research that artfully translates the urgent and complex interconnectedness of human life and microbes.

There are 100 million times as many bacteria in the oceans as stars in the known universe — a statistic that is difficult to understand and nearly impossible to visualize. Indeed, the human eye can't see the microscopic life that enables our very existence. They massively outnumber all other living organisms, making it clear that their patterns, behaviors and evolutionary shifts will have a profound impact on the ecological cycles of our planet.

Read more:

Here and here and here

Role(s)
Research, Data Vis, Living Systems, Design of Experiments

Starbucks Espresso
People research and interface design for behind-the-counter espresso machines, deployed worldwide.

Is it about the coffee? Is it about the milk? Is it about the people? Deploying behind-the-counter espresso machines to Starbucks stores worldwide meant we had to get everything about the new product right. That started with building a deep understanding of the baristas and designing the new experience alongside them.

* Note: each project was touched by many. My contributions are specified under ‘roles’.

Role(s)
Field Research, Prototyping, Design of Experiments, Creative Brief, User Mapping, Wireframes, Usability Testing, User Interface Design, Developer Hand-off

Hyphae Hues
Growing color onto textiles with living organisms.

By now, it is well known that the fashion industry is one of the biggest environmental polluters of our time. This work demonstrates the possibility of keeping thousands of chemicals from the dye industry out of rivers, lakes and oceans by growing non-toxic dye, from fungi, directly onto textiles. Colors and patterns can be naturally controlled by adjusting the environment in which the fungi grows.

Read more:

Here and here and here

Role(s)
Research, Design of Experiments, Prototypes, Data Vis, Living Systems, Graphics

Windows Future OS
Design concepts for systems and interactions of the future.

How will the future influence the way we interact with our digital environments? What will our biggest challenges be? These were some of the questions that informed concepts of various scale, exploring real paint-points of the digital age through cyclical methods of problem and opportunity identification, high-level concepting and user testing.

* Note: each project was touched by many. My contributions are specified under ‘roles’.

Role(s)
Research, Creative Concepting, Wireframes, Usability Testing, Visual Design

Glad you’re here.