renee's portfolio

Explore where I play.

the kitchen

food recipe blog

Designing what I eat.

I started @renees.food to share healthy recipes for fun. But after a few posts gained traction, what started as a creative outlet grew into a full-on project. Some videos went viral, and at its peak, my account reached over 26,000 followers. More than the numbers, I learned to tell stories through food, connect with strangers, and manage everything on my own. I've since stepped back to focus on school and other priorities, but a lot of what I learned still sticks with me.

brand partnerships

I worked with brands like Partake Foods, Bob's Red Mill, and Daily Harvest to promote their products!

And yes, good design always takes iteration— even when it’s microwave cookies.

the lab

virtual reality research

I've designed immersive VR environments in Unity and conducted experiments to better understand how users experience virtual worlds. My work supports a broader goal: making mental health therapy in VR more accessible, without losing its impact— through AI-powered avatars. Research I co-authored was presented at the Immersive Media in Medicine Symposium and EDRA56.

how do simulated times of day impact mental restoration?

A not-so surprising finding: people were more emotionally open and engaged in bright, daytime VR settings. Even in virtual spaces, our instincts about when to be vulnerable still apply. It reminded me that good design must account for the invisible psychological patterns people carry with them.

Morning, afternoon, and night VR scenes.

what makes an avatar feel emotionally safe?

We tested how an avatar’s appearance, voice, and behavior shape user connection. This friendly cat avatar helped users feel more at ease and open to self-reflection— something human-like avatars sometimes disrupt due to unconscious biases around race, age, gender, or the uncanny valley.

Traffic congestion at the ordering counter.

Cat avatar interacting with a participant in a Spatial.io world.

Questions that kept me curious.

how do simulated times of day impact mental restoration?

Morning, afternoon, and night VR scenes.

what makes an avatar feel emotionally safe?

Cat avatar interacting with a participant in a Spatial.io world.

the studio

graphic design explorations

Using one shape to tell stories.

first, designing a single unit

then, scaling up to patterns

finally, expressing concepts through form

Evoking physical senses.

Capturing complex emotions.

Using color to shape feeling.

When Chat starts living.

To raise awareness about AI’s environmental impact, I created a carousel post using humanlike visuals made of simple geometric forms— reflecting how something engineered can still feel eerily familiar. See Chat drink water, raise a family, and consume our world's resources.