Fresco

"Restoration, Redefined"

🏆 Red Dot Award Winner 2025 - Brands & Communication Design

Fresco is a device for renovating historic buildings: it scans rooms using LiDAR, creates AI-based plans and provides homeowners with action lists and accessible instructions.

01. The Problem

Market Gap: Despite the massive $150B home renovation market, no integrated solution exists to guide homeowners through accurate restoration.

Key Pain Points

  • Restoration projects are intimidating and complex
  • Contractors are expensive ($) and not always historically accurate
  • Online DIY tutorials are conflicting and overwhelming for historic homes
  • Historic details are often lost due to lack of guidance
  • Homeowners abandon projects halfway due to stress and cost

Research Insights

  • 82% of homeowners would take on more restoration with better guidance
  • 70% of historic home restorations cost more than expected
  • 0 comprehensive tools exist combining AI, education, and historical accuracy

02. The Solution

Fresco is like having a contractor, historian, and designer in one device.

Core Value Proposition

Democratize home restoration, preserve history, and empower individuals to confidently tackle restoration projects themselves.

How It Works

  1. AI Scanning: Device scans and identifies surfaces using cameras and LiDAR sensors
  2. Projection Guidance: Projects restoration plans directly onto surfaces showing exactly what to do
  3. Educational Integration: Voice-guided tutorials and connected app with comprehensive learning tools
  4. Material Recommendations: Suggests historically accurate materials with cost estimates

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Technical Innovation

Advanced Scanning Technology:

  • Five 13-megapixel cameras with 5-bracket HDR imaging
  • Handles challenging lighting conditions and environmental variables
  • Real-time data synchronization via WiFi and Bluetooth
  • Precision documentation rivaling professional surveying tools

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AI-Powered Analysis:

  • Compares scan data with historical architectural databases
  • Identifies structural risks, damage patterns, and restoration priorities
  • Generates comprehensive renovation roadmaps with material sourcing
  • Provides cost estimates and timeline projections

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‍Intuitive Interface Design:

  • Tablet app with damage visualization and annotation tools
  • Real-time overlay projection for on-site guidance
  • Step-by-step tutorials covering schedule, scope, and budget
  • Seamless data transfer between device and mobile application

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03. Product Development

Hardware Design

Challenge: Create portable device that's stable enough for accurate scanning and projection.

Solution: Triangular folding base design balancing:

  • Portability (folds for transport)
  • Stability (tripod-like structure)
  • Range (adjustable height and projection angle)
  • Elegance (trustworthy, premium aesthetic)

Technical Integration: Cameras + LiDAR sensors + projection unit in cohesive industrial design.

Software Ecosystem

Central Hub App Features:

  • Project tracking and budgeting tools
  • Educational tutorial library
  • Digital scan storage and restoration plans
  • Material recommendations with shopping integration
  • Voice control for hands-free operation

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Brand Development

Brand Strategy: Bridge modern technology with heritage craftsmanship

  • Name: "Fresco" evokes restoration, art history, timeless quality
  • Visual Identity: Clean typography + warm neutrals + architectural photography
  • Tone: Empowering, approachable, knowledgeable
  • Positioning: Movement to preserve history, not just a tool

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04. Design Process

Research & Strategy

  • User Interviews: 15+ homeowners and DIY enthusiasts
  • Market Analysis: Home renovation trends and preservation guidelines
  • Competitive Research: Existing tools and service gaps
  • Pain Point Mapping: Identified workflow barriers and emotional frustrations

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Ideation & Concept Development

  • Device Exploration: Handheld vs. stationary, various scanning approaches
  • Interaction Models: Projection mapping, voice control, app integration
  • Technical Feasibility: Collaborated with engineering on AI and hardware constraints
  • Business Model: Rental vs. purchase pricing strategy

Prototyping & Design

  • Hardware: 3D renders showing folding mechanism and sensor integration
  • Software: Complete UI flows in Figma for tablet app
  • Motion Design: Animated concept videos demonstrating core functionality
  • Brand Application: Logo, color system, typography, photography style

Presentation & Validation

  • Investor Pitch: Cinematic deck with integrated video and emotional storytelling
  • Stakeholder Alignment: Regular reviews with technical and business teams
  • Narrative Development: Positioned as empowerment story, not just tech solution

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05. Impact & Recognition

Awards & Recognition

🏆 Red Dot Award 2025 - Brands & Communication Design

  • Recognized for seamless integration of product design, branding, and UX storytelling
  • Highlighted for challenging traditional contractor model
  • International recognition for innovative approach to home restoration

Business Impact

  • Market Opportunity: First-to-market in $150B+ restoration space
  • Funding Readiness: $1.5M raise positioned for production and marketing
  • Scalability: Clear roadmap from historic homes to broader renovation market
  • Partnership Potential: Historic preservation societies, DIY influencers, retail channels

Innovation Highlights

  • Technology Integration: Novel combination of AI scanning, projection mapping, and educational content
  • Market Disruption: Challenges expensive contractor dependency model
  • User Empowerment: Transforms intimidating process into confident, guided experience

My Leadership Contributions

  • Project Vision: Proposed original concept and drove strategic direction
  • Cross-functional Coordination: Led team across UX, industrial design, and brand design
  • Brand Development: Created complete identity system and product packaging
  • Presentation Excellence: Developed award-winning presentation approach

06. Key Learnings

Cross-Disciplinary Product Leadership

Leading a team across UX research, industrial design, and brand design taught me to translate concepts between disciplines while maintaining consistent design vision throughout complex product development.

Emotional Storytelling in Product Marketing

Positioning Fresco as a movement to preserve history rather than just a technology tool created stronger emotional connection and differentiated us in the crowded home improvement market.

Hardware-Software Integration Design

Creating cohesive experiences across physical and digital touchpoints requires early alignment on interaction models and consistent design language throughout all product components.

Award-Winning Presentation Craft

Developing the Red Dot Award-winning presentation taught me how cinematic storytelling, integrated motion design, and emotional narrative can elevate technical product concepts to international recognition.

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"60 minutes of timekeeping, a lifetime of cuteness."

Fresco

Role

Type

Brand Design

Timeline

Tools

Project Overview

"Snow: The Fairest" subverts the classic fairy tale into a visceral horror experience for Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights. In this twisted retelling, Snow White is a feral child vampire terrorizing a kingdom, while the Queen becomes the unlikely hero attempting to stop her reign of terror. This comprehensive design portfolio piece—presented to Disney Legend Bob Weis—demonstrates end-to-end attraction development from concept through operational specifications.

Key Achievements

10-scene, 440-foot

walkthrough attraction

Designed

Calculated operational capacity:

840

guests/hour

Created

photoreal

environmental renderings

Developed complete

technical documentation

The Challenge

The Brief: Design an immersive experience based on a fairy tale, myth, or legend—no existing IP.

My Approach

Rather than create an unbounded concept that could never be built, I chose to design within real-world constraints. I gave myself the parameters of a Halloween Horror Nights attraction at Universal Orlando because constraints drive better creative solutions (and because I'm a longtime admirer of the event's storytelling - I want to create a love letter to all the things that make HHN special).

Self-Imposed Design Parameters

  • Work within a standard Universal soundstage envelope (94' Ă— 134', ~8,500 sq ft walkable space) - I found a CAD file online of the soundstage for reference!
  • Achieve an operational capacity of 600-800+ guests/hour
  • Design for seasonal operation with scareactors
  • Subvert the source material rather than adapt it directly—guests need to feel surprised, not nostalgic

The Creative Challenge

How do you take a fairy tale everyone knows by heart and make it genuinely terrifying?

The answer: invert everything. Make the princess the monster. Make the queen the hero. Force guests to confront their assumptions about beauty, goodness, and who deserves to be saved.

Concept Development

The Story Inversion and Central Themes

Traditional fairy tales teach us that beauty equals goodness. "Snow: The Fairest" weaponizes that assumption. Guests encounter a kingdom where the 'fairest' princess has become a bloodthirsty monster, and the 'wicked' queen is desperately trying to save her people from the daughter she once loved. Playing on the central themes of the original narrative from "the hunter vs. the hunted" to beauty and youth, this new retelling takes a dark turn.
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This inversion creates cognitive dissonance that amplifies scares—guests want to trust Snow, making her attacks more shocking.

Characters

Snow

A feral child vampire, cursed at birth and turned monstrous, hungry, and with incredible supernatural power.

The Queen

Forced to hunt her own stepdaughter to save the kingdom she has sworn to protect. Armed with magic darker and darker as her desperation grows, she vows to end this forevermore.

The Prince

Enslaved by Snow's supernatural control, he is her puppet - but does that glimmer in his eye mean he's still in there? Or is it just the moonlight of the Black Forest?

The Dwarfs

Complicit companions, defending their vampiric mistress. They come from the deepest caverns of the Black Forest, and have become Snow's thralls, minions, and playthings.

Experience Design

The Guest Journey: 440 Feet of Escalating Terror

The attraction uses environmental storytelling and strategic pacing to build dread before delivering shocking scares.

Pacing Strategy

Using principles from Halloween Horror Nights' most successful mazes, the experience follows a calculated fear curve with three major peaks (Snow Feeding, Glass Casket, Bungee Drop finale) interspersed with atmospheric tension-building moments.

Queue
Village Square
Black Forest
Queen's Workshop
Poison Apple
Glass Casket
Banquet Hall
The Final Battle

Guests enter a blood-soaked medieval village. Overturned carts and barrels hint at a hasty retreat as half-timbered facades loom overhead. Guests experience the aftermath of Snow's siege - and tension grows as they wind through alleyways and see the carnage for themselves.

The path winds through a twisted forest where Snow and her dwarfs stalk from the shadows. Gnarled trees create natural hiding spots for scare actors while spraying water simulates fresh blood and environmental effects heighten vulnerability during the reveal of snow herself.

In the Queen's candlelit workshop, guests discover she's not the villain—she's the solution. Alchemy tables, magic mirrors, and spell circles reveal her desperate attempts to create a cure. Gothic windows bathe the scene in purple light as guests realize they've been rooting for the wrong character. She whispers feverishly, desperately, as her grief for her daughter becomes clear to guests passing by.

Stepping through the magic mirror, guests watch as Snow bites the cursed apple. Her body convulses—the sound of snapping bones fills the room, and they hear the monster, or perhaps the girl, cry out - "mother, no!". Shrouded in shadows, the huntsmen and the queen warn guests to run, for she will not stay down for long.

Guests enter a gothic chamber where Snow lies in her famous glass casket. Red-lit gothic windows line stone walls and guests are closed in, forced to inch closer and closer. The casket suddenly rattles—she's very much alive, and very hungry. She lunges at guests and shatters the coffin in a flurry of air, sound, water, lighting, and fog effects as they narrowly escape.

Guests then enter a grotesque royal banquet where Snow, her feral dwarves, and a hypnotized prince preside over a horrifying feast—corpses and gore presented as delicacies. Normal children have tea parties, but Snow has this twisted banquet. Eagle-eyed guests will notice torn, bloodstained tapestries of the kingdom's history, showing that time, and Snow, have laid ruin to this kingdom.

Guests are thrust into the climactic confrontation between the Queen's forces and Snow's dwarf defenders. Pine trees provide cover for scare actors as the Queen makes her final stand. A 10/10 intensity bungee drop scare delivers the ultimate shock as Snow attacks from above.

Technical Design and Operational Planning

From Concept to Buildable Reality

Every creative decision was validated against real-world operational requirements—the hallmark of professional themed entertainment design. Elevation drawings show how half-timbered village facades, gothic cathedral walls, and forest scenic elements fit within the 94' × 134' building envelope. Every prop, scare position, and sightline blocker is strategically placed to maintain show quality and operational flow.

Capacity Analysis:
Operational Capacity: 840 Guests/Hour

  • Total path length: 440 feet
  • Walking speed: 2.5 fps (accounting for low light and fear response)
  • Walkthrough time: 5 minutes
  • Dispatch interval: 30 seconds
  • Group size: 7 guests
  • Theoretical maximum: 840 guests/hour

This exceeds Universal's typical 600-800 target for seasonal haunts, ensuring the attraction can handle peak Halloween Horror Nights crowds.

Design Process and Research

Research-Driven Horror Design

The project drew from historical vampire mythology, particularly the 17th-century legend of Jure Grando (the first documented vampire, 1656) and Countess Elizabeth Báthory's alleged blood-bathing rituals. This research grounded the fairy tale subversion in genuine folkloric terror.

Reflection & Impact

What I Learned

This project taught me to balance creative ambition with technical reality—a crucial skill in themed entertainment. Designing solo meant wearing every hat: creative director, technical designer, renderer, and operations planner.

Presentation to Bob Weis

I was beyond lucky to have the opportunity to present to my professor, my classmates, and class mentor Bob Weis, former president of Walt Disney Imagineering. Presenting this project to a Disney Legend provided invaluable industry mentorship and validation that the work met professional standards for attraction development.

Key Takeaways

High-concept storytelling must serve operational requirements.

Every design choice should answer 'Can this be built? Can it be maintained? Will it work at 3 AM on October 31st?'

Horror design is about psychological setup as much as jump scares.

Capacity calculations aren't constraints—they're creative parameters.

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