Three design graduates from the University, finalists from Spain and Portugal in a L'Oréal contest with 135,000 participants.
The project by Daniella Hanabergh, Jeannice Dutari and Danika Melville, graduates of accredited specialization at design of Services, facilitates direct communication between people with hearing disabilities and stylists.
02 | 08 | 2024
L'Oréal Brandstorm is an innovation competition focused on redefining the future of beauty. Graduates of design with the accredited specialization in Services from the University of Navarra Daniella Hanabergh (Colombia), Jeannice Dutari (Panama) and Danika Melville (Guatemala) didn't think twice about participating. Their project L'Oréal 4 All was selected as one of the four best among the 700 participants from Spain and Portugal, in a contest that had more than 135,000 entries from all over the world.
"It all started as a result of winning the challenge fashion Hackaton organized by Innovation Factory, the entrepreneurship center of the University of Navarra. Precisely, one of the participating companies was L'Oréal and it launched a challenge on the future of professional beauty in the age of technology," explains Daniella Hanabergh. "Afterwards, we decided to participate in the competition of business itself, L'Oréal Brandstorm, and we went through stages until our project, L'Oréal 4 All, was selected as one of the 10 best projects in Spain. The next stage was to defend our proposal in front of a jury of the business in Porto as finalists from Spain and Portugal," continues Danika Melville. For this last final stage in Portugal, they were able to count on a mentor. "We chose to count on the guide of our teacher Aitor Acilu Fernández, professor at School of Architecture of the University, who traveled with us to Oporto and supported us at all times. We are very grateful," adds Jeannice Dutari.
design in the service of society
With L'Oréal 4 All, they focused on adding to My Hair iD, a L'Oréal platform that personalizes the customer experience in salons through the use of advanced technology, a new feature: HeadTalk, which facilitates direct communication between people with hearing disabilities and stylists. "HeadTalk uses artificial intelligence to translate real-time conversations in both spoken and sign language through an interactive mirror, ensuring that the technology empowers human connection. In addition, to ensure accessibility in all contexts, such as in underdeveloped countries, we proposed using any device with a camera as an interactive mirror, making our proposal even more sustainable," the designers explain.
As they did not win the Spanish and Portuguese finals, they did not advance to the international finals. The three recent graduates participated in the competition at the same time as they were developing their end-of-term work Degree . "The experience has been deeply enriching. For months, we learned about work as a team and overcoming numerous challenges, met inspiring people, improved our presentation skills and had the privilege of collaborating with a renowned global business ," says Daniella Hanabergh. "I think our positivity was an important factor. We were always confident that we would make it through and that confidence carried us quite far," adds Jeannice Dutari.
"Being recognized by a business of this magnitude validated our skills, gave us great self-confidence and motivates us to continue developing innovative projects and inclusive solutions that improve people's well-being. This competition has reaffirmed our passion for design services and drives us to continue exploring creative ways to improve the Username experienceand contribute positively to the world," concludes Danika Melville.