// Beyond the Screen • Environmental Graphics
UC San Diego: The Village at Torrey Pines West (Wayfinding)
Graphic Designer • Carrier Johnson + CULTURE
Environmental graphics and wayfinding for UC San Diego's North Campus Housing, a $122M, 321,500 SF complex of low-rise buildings and a 14-story tower. From concept through construction documents, I deconstructed the typeface into sculptural, puzzle-like building numbers that double as architecture, then saw them fabricated and installed across campus.
Construction Documents:
The construction documents that took the sculptural building numbers from spec to fabrication.
Installed Signage Photos:
The finished signage, built from those drawings and installed across the UCSD campus.
// Beyond the Screen • Landscape Design
Landscape Design
I transformed 1,500 SF of thirsty turf into a drought-tolerant oasis, from concept to construction.
Challenge
A 1,500 SF turf lawn: thirsty, high-maintenance, and underused. The goal was to replace it with a water-wise landscape suited to San Diego's Mediterranean climate, without losing any curb appeal.
Solution
I trained through the WaterSmart Landscape Makeover program, then took the project end to end. Site and soil analysis fed a Low Impact Development plan, a custom climate-appropriate plant palette, and a drip-irrigation retrofit, all in a full construction-document set.
Impact
The redesign cut estimated landscape water use by about 86%, from roughly 23,000 to 3,200 gallons a year. It proved the same research-to-delivery process I run on screen holds up in the physical world, from concept to a signed-off build.
Aerial Before, During, & After:
1,500 SF of turf becoming a drought-tolerant landscape.
Low Impact Development Plan:
Designed the site to capture its own runoff, using decomposed-granite infiltration, a swale, and a rain barrel.
Plant & Color Composition:
Built a custom, climate-appropriate palette, hydrozoned by water need, documented like a design system with a plant and tree list.
Before & After:
1,500 SF of turf, reimagined as a drought-tolerant landscape.
During Install
Sheet-mulched turf, drip retrofit, and the new palette going in.
The Finished Landscape:
A low-water, climate-appropriate palette, down to the succulents.
