Italian-born designer Francesca Lanzavecchia graduated recently from the Design Academy of Eindhoven, gaining her Masters degree in 2008 and M.E. is impressed by her thesis project “ProAesthetics Supports", The Perception of Disability through its Artifacts”.

It's a difficult issue, but Francesca approached it in a strikingly original way; addressing the world we live in a world where there are thousands styles of jeans to choose from, but only a few models of wheelchairs.

By asking "Why is this so, when everyone has the possibility of joining this minority community?" and tackling the fact that aid objects often become a sign of social stigma and in no way help the subject to recover a new and acceptable identity, her thesis looks into the perception of disability through its artefacts.

It does so by researching into user-object relationships and behaviours, self-image versus public-image and the aesthetic-functional language of disability aids.

This research resulted in fascinating series of orthoses and canes that retain full functionality but adapt different styles to match the wish of the user.

These accessories become a stage to discuss, understand and cope with disability, illness and human frailty, and represents a first attempt to create a coherent system of products, values and perceptions.

Disability or no, we think her works are beautiful pieces of sculptural design...