Jellyfish: A Collection of Products Designed to Provide Support When You Need It Most
It all starts with an idea—or a hundred. 💡
Devise 100 ideas for a first aid kit: That was the first assignment in Department Chair Allan Chochinov’s first-year course, Affirming Artifacts. Yuancong Jing ‘25, an industrial designer by training, sketched concepts including a fire stopper, bug wiper, and two-in-one inhaler, but his favorite idea was for an unmanned submarine called Jellyfish.
Over the course of seven weeks, students immersed themselves in creative exercises across a variety of design disciplines; Jing’s Jellyfish brand expanded to include brand partnerships with NASA, IKEA and Nike, as well as an app called Jelly Help and a tabletop card game called Boundaries. At the heart of it all remained the mission of being at the ready when help is most needed.
Above, Jing’s renderings for his original Jellyfish concept: an unmanned sub that’s always ready to come to the rescue.
One page of Jing’s 100 ideas for a first aid kit.
Below, Jing’s product concepts for brand partnerships between Jellyfish and NASA, IKEA, and Nike.
The final concept in Jing’s Jellyfish oeuvre was a tabletop game called Boundaries. The game explores the nature of altruism: whether the act of helping others requires an understanding of one's motivations, and whether mutual assistance involves a significant exchange of value. Essentially, it asks if we need to know why we help others, and whether there’s a meaningful reciprocation of benefits when people support one another.
From an unmanned sub to a tabletop game exploring the psychology of altruism—a perfect illustration of where your first semester at Products of Design might take you.
