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Allie Bernhard
With experience in jewelry production, management consulting, and materials, Allie integrates research with hands-on work across jewelry, sculpture, and consumer goods, drawing on art history, culture, research, and lived experience to balance aesthetics with practical, user-centered design.
Her 2025 BioBeads project first explored Mardi Gras bead waste through biobased transformation, driven by an initial interest in single-use party favors. This evolved into a deeper inquiry of systematic waste. Since then, her thesis work has shifted toward designing behavioral change within existing systems, using co-design approaches to gently redirect actions embedded in cultural rituals like Mardi Gras, rather than replace them.
Re-Bead
Integrating Mardi Gras throwing rituals with bead collection to boost upcycling rates and reduce waste
Project Description
This project introduces an interactive public structure that collects Mardi Gras beads and transforms a traditionally linear system into a circular one to mitigate environmental impact. Integrated along the parade route, it invites attendees—typically bead catchers—to become bead throwers in an inverse form of participation, redirecting their final throw toward upcycling collection. Using bold, recognizable iconography, the structure captures the ritual of streetscape bead draping and the revelrous energy of the celebration while guiding engagement. In partnership with ArcGNO, collected beads are recovered, sorted, and resold for reuse, extending their lifecycle for future Mardi Gras seasons. This circular system also supports the local New Orleans economy which relies heavily on tourism.
Project Images
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