Designing Energy as a Circular System
What if yesterday's food waste could help power tomorrow? LUMOVA is a concept for a household energy system that connects everyday behavior with a broader ecosystem of shared value. The challenge was to make a complex idea feel understandable, practical, and easy to trust. I used investigation, ecosystem maps, and brand strategy to show how people might take part. Familiar settings, transparent feedback, and an encouraging voice bring the concept closer to people. Together, they connect a decentralized energy future with the routines of life at home, making a large system easier to understand through the role each household could play.
Brand Strategy
Opportunity
Households want to reduce waste, but the benefits can be hard to see. A circular energy system needs more than an explanation of its technology. It needs a place in daily life. The opportunity was to make the exchange tangible through familiar routines, clear feedback, and a visible connection between what a household contributes and the value it helps create.
Insight
People need to see that their actions matter. An emerging energy system feels more credible when its benefits are clear, its feedback is easy to read, and taking part fits into familiar routines without adding more work at home.
Strategy
Make circular energy a visible exchange between daily choices and shared value. Connect food waste, home habits, and infrastructure through clear explanations and feedback that help people see their role in a larger system.
Brand Identity
LUMOVA brings an encouraging, practical voice to a complex energy idea. Rather than asking people to understand an entire infrastructure, the brand starts with their own contribution. It makes room for everyday questions and treats participation as something people can understand and build into their lives.
Modular structures and visual flows connect the parts of the system, while familiar household scenes bring it back to the people who would use it. The design balances a sense of possibility with clear information. Ecosystem maps helped connect the household perspective with the wider network, giving the identity a consistent way to move between an individual action and the shared value it could support.
Applications
I co-developed the concept across research, ecosystem maps, brand strategy, and design. Each part helps explain the same exchange from a different point of view: a household contribution, a familiar routine, and a wider system of shared value. The approach keeps the people who would participate at the center of a conversation that could otherwise be led only by technology.
The Team
Developed collaboratively at ArtCenter College of Design with Amanda McKinley, Ingrid Yang, and Valentine Nguyen, this project brought together diverse perspectives in research, brand strategy, and design to explore the possibilities of a circular energy system.
