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How many students can say one of their first class assignments was to go shopping?

That unusual first assignment is how students in the EPOP Studio course prepare to create sustainably sourced gifts that are sold at a holiday market.

For the past five years, environmental design faculty with CU Boulder’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information have partnered with the Firefly Handmade holiday market to give students hands-on experience in product design.��

The twist for students who participate—all of whom are majoring in environmental products of design—is the requirement that their creations have a strong sustainability component, which becomes part of the story for each product sold. Students who complete the degree go on to careers in virtually every design field.

“We want to be the people who make cool things to sell,” said senior Pilar Agostine, who was part of the team that built the EPOP storefront—itself created from sustainable materials. “We’re designing the everyday products for a home, but in an environmental way.”

The EPOP Studio draws its name from the EPOD major and the annual�� powered by the students. The goal of the course is to challenge them to think critically about sustainability while developing technical, interpersonal and business skills.

“The theme of the studio is diverting design—they have to identify waste streams, capture material and transform it into a product,” said Jared Arp, an assistant teaching professor of environmental design who teaches the course alongside Melissa Felderman, associate teaching professor.

All products were made with upcycled materials, which many customers felt was both unique and important.

Once students identified a waste stream, they used their experience from observing the market to identify potential products to pitch to classmates. Among this year’s product themes were creative, decorative, fun and—for the first time—masculine.

“Shopping for men, in my opinion, is so hard,” senior John Davis said with a laugh. “When you think about the context of a handmade market, a lot of those things tend to be directed toward feminine audiences.”

Davis and his team had “100-plus ideas” before settling on a set of�� made from bottles sourced from Spirit Hound, a distiller in Lyons. Even the glasses’ complementary coasters were made from a mixture of crushed glass, rockite—a fine concrete material—and a cork base. Davis estimated the design is made from about 80% reclaimed material.

“I'm really proud of the fact that we have all consistently shown up and created this product, and of how sustainable we were able to make it,” Davis said. “We were lucky Spirit Hound was willing to give us their bottles for free. That made our story a lot stronger.”

According to Arp, that storytelling is critical to EPOP because it connects customers with the shop’s mission of promoting sustainable design. When the link connecting the waste stream and final product is clear, he said, the audience is more receptive.

As in past years, customers beat a steady path to EPOP’s storefront: Well before the Firefly market closed, the students’ 240 products had sold out. Sales from the weekend amounted to slightly more than $10,000; adjusted for expenses, their gross profit was just shy of $6,100, all of which will support next year’s studio.

A steady flow of customers kept EPOP students busy at the market.

“That’s 240 decisions from shoppers to purchase the students’ work,” Arp said. “There’s no better jury than live people.”

Those live people weren’t just impulse buyers. An hour before the market opened, curious passers-by were watching the shop—partially constructed from reclaimed wood—take form. Within minutes of opening, the first customer bought six�� made from reclaimed outdoor gear, like jackets.

Uniquely, the structure included more than just the items for sale. It was outfitted with 12 tablets, which ran looped videos showing the creation process and sustainability story of each product. Buyers also received cards with the product name and a blurb about the item.

“Foot traffic is really important for markets, and I think the shop itself is incredible—it stands out,” said Chrissy Howell, a yarn artisan who frequently participates in markets like Firefly. She and her husband—the parents of a CMDI student—picked up a number of items for their holiday shopping.

Another customer, Jean, stumbled upon the market while visiting Boulder from Frisco. She, like Howell, thought EPOP was perfect for picking up a unique gift—she purchased the�� for her daughter—while being environmentally conscious. She said the students’ mission really spoke to her.

“This is the culmination of their whole semester, and it makes me really happy for them that they get this opportunity to be out in public to get feedback about their work and ideas,” said Mary Kay Cunningham, another holiday shopper and parent to an EPOP student.

For the students, it’s more than just holiday gifts. In addition to learning to tell a story that resonates with potential customers, the class challenged their technical and teamwork skills, teaching them creativity and resilience as they brought their ideas to market.��

The Waste Knot yarn bowls, Respirited whiskey glasses and other items made by EPOP students.

“They warned us at the beginning that we could use software to generate a concept of a final product, but it will dampen your creative experience,’” said Elliette Igel-Manvitz, a junior on the Waste Knot team.

Felderman said that’s an important lesson for students in the studio class. While many CMDI classes challenge students to find useful, ethical and responsible ways to use generative artificial intelligence as part of assignments and projects, she asked them not to do so in the early stages.����

Doing so “stymies their creative process and pigeonholes them,” Felderman said. “We offer guidance to our students both on when and how to use A.I. in the design process, so that it can act as a tool, as opposed to a hindrance.”����

Students said working through the front-end creative challenges of their projects furthered their learning.��

“I’ve definitely become more adaptive,” Igel-Manvitz said. “When we realized we’d have to change our materials because of resource availability, we learned from other teams.��

“After working on it for so many months and not really seeing the final product until the very end, it feels unreal.”

Hannah Stewart graduated in 2019 with a degree in communication. She covers student news at the college.

Photographer Hannah Howell is studying media production at CMDI.