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Design Products (MA)

Millie Thomas

Striped wooden legs for a stool - green, black valchromat MDF and birch plywood.

Millie is a textile and product designer from London, currently completing her Design Products Masters. After graduating from Central St Martins in 2018 with a BA Hons in Textile Design - specialising in woven textiles, Millie went on to work in the textile industry and established her own studio - Studio Mito. 

Her BA provided an excellent understanding of how fabrics are constructed and designed alongside fabric handle, colour theory, layout, pattern repeats and technical knowledge. Millie came to study Design Products at the RCA to gain further understanding of the interplay between materials, functionality and aesthetics.

Degree Details

School of DesignDesign Products (MA)RCA2023 at Battersea and Kensington

RCA Battersea, Studio Building, Third floor

Millie smiling in neck scarf and white tshirt

My practice takes a playful approach of learning through making and aims to design products that people want to keep. At the RCA I have been focusing on exploring new prototyping methods such as laser cutting, 3D printing and CNC along side more traditional methods like wood working and metal work to create products. 

During my Masters I have explored the ways we can build emotional durability into our products. While most products today prioritise functionality and efficiency, emotional durability aims to create long-lasting emotional connections to our products, ensuring they remain relevant and cherished over time. By intertwining emotions, aesthetics, and functionality, I hope to continue my career in a world in which our products add a spark of joy to our daily lives and put the fun in function.

Wooden striped stool
'Change of Clothes' Stool
Peach metal coffee table with tray
'At Your Service' Coffee Table

The LIVING Room

This project explores how we can build emotional durability into everyday products aiming to create long-lasting emotional connections to our things, ensuring our products remain relevant and cherished over time. This approach hopes to illustrate a way we can reshape consumer culture, moving away from a disposable mindset towards a more sustainable and emotionally fulfilling approach.

Set in the context of the domestic living room, the outcomes of this project investigate aesthetics, craft, personalisation, interaction and the ability to adapt and evolve with the user. The ‘Change of Clothes’ Stool consists of a wooden body that has been hand crafted to form a durable base. The real magic, however, lies in its interchangeable ‘trousers’. This presents a friendly alternative to traditional upholstery methods, reducing waste and extending the stool's lifespan.

wooden striped stool
'Change of Clothes' Stool – This stool was made in 6 pieces from hundreds if glued up wooden tiles.
pink patterned trousers as a cover for the stool
Trousers for the 'Change of Clothes' Stool
striped stool and metal coffee table
'Change of Clothes' Stool & 'At Your Service' Coffee Table
Aluminium lamp in the shape of a creature
Companion Lamp
stool protoypes - 3D print & laser cut
Stool Prototypes
Glued up wooden blocks
Glued up blocks ready to CNC
BTS shot of wood glue up
Glue Up
BTS shot of wooden seat being CNC
Seat CNC
Dinner table set with products

Kitchen Chaos

This project takes a playful approach of learning through making in the context of the domestic kitchen. Using rapid prototyping processes like 3D printing and laser cutting, ‘Kitchen Chaos’ explores how we can create products that not only address common frustrations in within the kitchen but also build emotional durability into our products and add a spark of joy to our daily lives.

This collection of products aims to put the fun in function, touching on a range of topics and experimenting with different materials and making processes.

Container with ball in
Push Pot – This pot explores how we can use intangible measurements such as 'a pinch' 'a glug'.
Container with ball in
Push Pot – By pushing down the orange ball, water is pushed out of the spout.
Laser cut rings to form salt & pepper shakers
Salt & Pepper Shakers – These salt & pepper shakers explore how we can use pattern and colour to aid usability. Through the use of differing stripe proportions, users clearly know which is the salt and which is the pepper - making them more joyful to use!
Arduino Pizza Cutter
Pizza Miles Cutter – This prototype is for a pizza wheel cutter that counts how many miles of pizza you cut over a lifetime - hoping to encourage users to keep it.
Arduino Electronics
Pizza Miles Cutter – This prototype is for a pizza wheel cutter that counts how many miles of pizza you cut over a lifetime - hoping to encourage users to keep it.
3D printed cups & floral cutlery
Stacking Cups
3D printed stacking cups
Stacking Cups
3D printing
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Royal College of Art

Registered Office: Royal College of Art,
Kensington Gore, South Kensington,
London SW7 2EU