STUDIO — WATERBOYS
STUDIO OVERVIEW — 02
Founded in Brooklyn in 2019 by Dom Akerele, Nick Barnette, and T Tachaworasinkasem, WaterBoys operates as a hybrid research and design practice. We are three principals — backgrounds in design strategy, industrial design, and creative direction — with a decentralized network of collaborators, researchers, and craftspeople assembled around each project.
We work at the intersection of speculative and applied design. Our research projects investigate futures scenarios and weak signals — the emerging conditions that will reshape how communities live, make, and consume. Our studio projects translate that research into physical objects, designed services, and strategic frameworks with direct applications today. The two practices are not separate. The research informs the making. The making tests the research.
We build our practice around work we believe needs to exist — studio research and internal projects developed with intention and an informed point of view — and apply what we learn to client and collaboration work where it matters most.
THE PRACTICE — 03
A process built around evidence and forecast.
Our process is organized around four phases — Discover, Define, Design, Deliver — with a design futures layer running through each one. This is not a standard design process with futures thinking added on. It is a process built around the premise that the most useful design decisions are made at the intersection of present-day evidence and near-future forecast.
In the Discover phase, we conduct design and market research: material precedents, behavioral signals, and weak-signal futures scanning. We do not brief from the first conversation — we brief from the evidence. In the Define phase, we build a brief that holds: seven non-negotiable constraints, a dual-horizon vision (5-year market reality and 10-year+ speculative trajectory), and a clear design direction for every collaborator on the project.
Design happens in parallel — physical and visual thinking running alongside each other, with mandatory alignment before high-fidelity work begins. Delivery is not documentation. It is a publication-ready case study, a physical object, a deployed service, or a strategic framework — whatever form the work demands. A project is not complete until it is published.
TERRITORIES — 04
research AND STUDIO DISCIPLINES.
TERRITORY 01
WASTE
We treat waste as a design material. Our research and projects explore what happens when waste streams — disposable masks, surf industry offcuts, pet waste, mixed plastics — are treated as feedstock rather than landfill. WSTED, Trash Fins, and the Nano Factory Futures research are all working proofs of this position.
TERRITORY 02
WATER
Water is our original territory. We study how cities source, distribute, and consume water — and how design can make sustainable water access convenient enough to compete with the plastic bottle. WaterBoys, the circular water bottle service, is the studio's first applied proof of this research.
TERRITORY 03
MATERIALS
We work with commodity and reclaimed materials — concrete, plywood, scrap metal, recycled fiberglass, bio-resins — and design the layer that transforms them. The WaterBoys material position: the most considered design decisions are the ones that reveal their process. Perfect Imperfection.
TERRITORY 04
VENTURES
New ventures as applied design infrastructure — incubating products, services, and business models that translate futures research into viable, community-grounded outcomes.
THE TEAM — 05
Dom Akerele
DESIGN STRATEGY & FUTURES RESEARCH
Leads design research — project briefs, synthesis, and studio documentation. Based in Brooklyn, NY.
Nick Barnette
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN & MAKING
Leads physical design, fabrication, materials, and technical specification. Based in Atlanta, GA.
T Tachaworasinkasem
CREATIVE DIRECTION & BRAND
Leads visual direction, image systems, and all aesthetic decision-making. Based in Bangkok, Thailand.
We operate as a small core team with a deliberately decentralized collaborator network. For each project, we assemble a team — industry specialists, academic researchers, craftspeople, and material experts — bringing the most relevant expertise, experience, and application.
SELECTED WORK — 06
STUDIO RESEARCH
Water Futures
URBAN WATER SYSTEMS · 2023
Waste Futures Series
MASK WASTE + CIRCULAR MATERIALS · 2022–2024
Nano Factory Futures
HYPER-LOCAL MANUFACTURING · 2025
STUDIO PROJECTS
WaterBoys
CIRCULAR WATER BOTTLE SERVICE · 2023
WSTED
COMMUNITY MASK WASTE SERVICE · 2022
Trash Fins
RECLAIMED SURF FIN FABRICATION · 2024–2025
Fin Futures
SPECULATIVE COMMUNITY FINS · 2025
COLLABORATIONS
EcoByRy
SUSTAINABLE SURF SHAPING · SOUTH BAY CA
Metsa Design (Markus Uran)
AI-DRIVEN SPECULATIVE DESIGN · NYC
Rheom
BIO-RESIN SURF FIN DEVELOPMENT