Conceptual product, packaging, and instructional design
A culturally grounded STEAM concept built around nonlinear learning and identity.
AyaFold! is a craft kit that aims to reimagine STEAM outreach for tween and teen girls through story, craft, and paper-folding kits.
Production: Built in Adobe InDesign as a structured booklet and product system, using realistic print-format constraints, instructional pacing, and layout hierarchy to keep the concept grounded in a usable learning object.
Problem
Imagining a career pathway for young girls in STEAM
How might we help young girls envision themselves in STEAM careers? We started by asking women in STEAM about their own journeys, and the most common theme was that there was no clear roadmap. Most of them figured it out as they went, learning through doing, taking side steps, and changing direction when something clicked.
Most career guidance still assumes a straight line. Real careers rarely work that way. That became the core of the project: how might we reframe career development as something nonlinear and adaptive?
A note on scope and intent.
This project was developed as part of a self-discovery assignment within the Graphic Design program at Central Piedmont Community College. It is conceptual, so the product does not currently exist in the real world. But the research is real, and the design is rooted in an honest attempt to imagine what a meaningful educational product could look like. The project feels oddly specific because it is. It grew out of my own process of self-awareness, cultural curiosity, and reflection on what I would have wanted to see as a young kid. Maya sees art and science as two sides of the same story, and that perspective felt deeply familiar to me. Through her, I was able to bring together cultural history, tactile making, and educational design into one system, and what started as a product concept became a way to explore identity, learning, and the kind of representation that makes a child feel invited into discovery.
Visual Thesis
Key Insights
A STEAM kit rooted in historical symbolism, craft, and adaptive learning can bridge the gap between creativity and technical learning while helping young women and girls imagine their potential.
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Kinesthetic learning became the foundation of the product strategy. The kit needed to feel accessible, with a low bar to entry, while still carrying enough depth to be genuinely educational. The story at its center needed to work as a parable: open-ended enough to apply across many different career paths, not just one.
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The kit uses folding as more than an activity. It turns the learner’s hands into part of the instruction system. Each crease represents a step in the learning journey, allowing abstract STEAM concepts to become physical, sequential, and memorable. By connecting tactile craft with cultural symbolism and career exploration, AyaFold! reframes learning as something built through movement, repetition, curiosity, and self-discovery.
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The historical context needed to be specific to the audience: young African American girls who are underrepresented in STEAM imagery and rarely see themselves reflected in the tools designed to bring them in.
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From those constraints, the deliverables took shape. The kit includes a packaging system, an instructional booklet, a printable infographic poster, and a sticker sheet because self-expression matters at this age, and leaving room for identity is part of the design.
Concept Development
Looking for structure that could hold the project together, I turned to West African graphic traditions, specifically the Adinkra symbol system of the Akan people. That is where I found Mako, a proverb centered on uneven development. It became the perfect metaphor for the uneven path real STEAM careers actually take.
The shape of the symbol also pointed naturally toward origami. Both systems use geometry and transformation to carry meaning, which made folding a strong fit for teaching sequence, spatial thinking, and growth through action.
Adinkra cloth dates to the early 1800s, created by the Akan people of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire using carved calabash stamps and dye from the badie tree. Originally worn by royalty and high-status individuals, the cloths were closely tied to funerary tradition. The term adinkra means “to give message,” and each stamped motif carried a specific meaning, so a finished cloth could communicate personal, political, and philosophical ideas simultaneously.
The visual language drew from popular novels and cultural touchstones familiar to Maya. Colors needed to feel youthful without being childish, and graphics needed to feel connected but modern.
Visual Research
Book Covers and Cultural References
AyaFold’s visual language pulls from book covers, paper-craft references, and cultural material that helped shape the project’s tone. The references supported a design direction that felt quiet, approachable, tactile, and still connected to the technical instruction logic behind origami.
Design Principle
Symbols Are the Message
AyaFold! draws on that same logic: the symbols are not decoration. They are message.
Symbol
The aya in AyaFold! is a symbol of endurance and resourcefulness.
The aya fern can grow in harsh conditions and regenerate after being cut back. It became a strong metaphor for the kind of growth mindset central to the project, and it gave me a chance to bring botanical imagery into the system — something that could move across packaging, print, and digital without losing its meaning.
Design Decisions
Concept and System
Each letter is built from the logic of a folded form, echoing the kit's origami learning model. The angled cuts and interior folds make the wordmark readable at a glance while still feeling handmade. That balance gives AyaFold! instant recognition while keeping the logo playful and tactile.
Color Palette
Brand Color Palette
The palette balances grounded, earthy neutrals with brighter accents pulled from the flora references. Deep greens and slate tones anchor the system, while clay and marigold bring energy for youthful touchpoints like stickers, packaging details, and booklet highlights.
Deep, grounding, botanical, and quietly serious.
Cool, steady, instructional, and structured.
Soft, curious, gentle, and lightly technical.
Natural, calm, handmade, and approachable.
Warm, tactile, energetic, and craft-forward.
Quiet, paper-like, soft, and low-barrier.
Bright, youthful, optimistic, and playful.
Deliverables
Deliverables
Putting it into action
Booklet
As important as the visuals, the core of the project is the educational content. The booklet needed to feel like a natural extension of the kit, with a design that supported the learning process while still being engaging and approachable. Each spread combines origami instructions with STEAM career pathway information, using the Mako parable structure to connect the folding steps to real-world concepts and skills.
Career Specific Activities
Data skills for real career pathways.
A practice of data collection and data visualization to show learners what a career actually takes — translating abstract fields into hands-on, readable exercises tied to the Mako parable structure.
Kit Components
Everything in the box has a purpose.
The packaging system and sticker sheet were designed together as a complete unboxing experience. The box sets the tone; the stickers let learners claim the kit as their own.
Print Ad Campaign
Designing for aspiration, not age.
The print ads were designed to feel fun, bright, and engaging without slipping into something childish. The goal was to strike a balance that could speak to parents and educators as credible, educational material while still feeling visually exciting to young STEAM learners. The ads extend the kit’s tone by presenting AyaFold as both a creative activity and a meaningful learning tool, using playful energy to inspire curiosity, confidence, and interest in STEAM pathways.
Design
Aya Entertainment as the umbrella brand.
To frame AyaFold! as part of a larger ecosystem, I designed Aya Entertainment as the umbrella brand that could hold future kits, stories, and learning products. This gave the project a scalable structure beyond a single concept release.
The parent identity sets the tone, while AyaFold! carries a specific kit experience. Together they establish a brand family that can grow across print and digital touchpoints without losing coherence.
Series Variations
Other kit options in the Aya Entertainment line.
Beyond AyaFold!, the Aya Entertainment series is designed to scale across multiple kits. Each cover would spotlight a different learning pathway, pairing the same visual system with new symbols, colors, and story cues so every box feels unique but still part of the same family.
The project also grew beyond a single kit. Aya Entertainment emerged as a parent brand structure, a way to hold future products and stories inside a coherent system without forcing them to look identical. That scalability felt important to include, even at the concept stage.
Outcome
The work holds.
What I keep coming back to is that nothing in this project is decorative. The Adinkra motifs carry meaning. The folding teaches. The parable travels across career fields. Even as a concept, AyaFold! shows how cultural traditions can help us design learning experiences that are more meaningful, engaging, and inclusive. It’s a reminder that the tools we use to teach can be just as important as the content we teach, and that when we design with intention, we can create something that resonates on multiple levels.
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