Project 1: Focus Group Discussion

In studio our class was split up into groups of 4 where we had a focus group discussion about each others posters while the designer was unable to comment. As a result of the discussion of my posters it was evident that there were a number of issues. Firstly it was commented that the blue curve in the background was too dominant. It was suggested that the shape of the container be improved am move it away from a rectangular form. Another point made was that the context poster could be incorporated into the first poster which would allow me to make greater use of the 4 poster limit. As a result of the discussions i was able to make not of these recommendations and alter the posters.

Product lifecycle analysis

On the 6th of August in our studio class myself and a group of other students set out to disassemble a domestic iron and assess its components with the intention to improve its lifetime and ability to be disassembled and recycled. In today's society consumers are constantly wanting the latest and greatest products and as a result they are prone to throwing away still functioning products. These products mostly end up in landfill as they are difficult to disassemble and reprocess. Throughout the process of dismantling the iron we discovered just how many parts go into a single appliance and the vast range of materials that are used. As designers we have an ethical responsibility to reduce the environmental impact of the products we design so it was very interesting to explore the ways in which other designers create products and to observe the material choices them make. After 30 minutes we had disassembled thee iron and grouped the materials. We were unable to separate one part due to the ultrasonic welding that had been used in the manufacturing process. After grouping the materials it was evident that we could significantly reduce the different types of plastics being used. Our focus was on the ability to redesign the iron with just 2 plastics (PP and Bakelite). Our group learnt a lot about the make up of domestic products and how easily these products could be converted into more environmentally friendly products allowing them to be disassembled with ease. 

Project 2: Peer comments

Mikee Ronquillo
Lukas Cubirka
Seb Gregory
Dale Wakeham
Bec Womersley

Project 2: PSS - Eco Lunch

Eco lunch is a sustainable solution to the issue of employees skipping lunch due to tight time frames. Studies have found that a large proportion of employees have a tendency to skip Lunch breaks on a regular basis as they do not have time to leave the office to buy lunch.  Eco lunch is compact unit which offers a range of different herbs, salad greens and dressings for employees to consume for lunch. Eco lunch addresses the worrying environmental issues of take away food packing waste. The product service system which Eco lunch offers is sustainable and encouraging of ethical social behaviours.

The product service system begins with the Eco lunch Company who germinate a variety of lettuce greens in the innovative Eco lunch pods. As shown in poster 4, seeds are sown directly into the pods into a mixture of perlite and vermiculite. The pods are lined with a layer of geotechnical fabric then a piece of agricultural grade Rockwool is inserted into the bottom and the perlite mix is then added on top to fill the pods to the top. Covering the mixture is another sheet of geotechnical fabric which has a number of small holes for the seeds to be sown into. The pods remain upright throughout the period of germination as to let the roots take hold. After the seeds are sown each pod is watered a substantial amount to allow the Rockwool to fully absorb the water which acts as a constant water supply for the greens.

When the pods are one week from maturity they are delivered to the workplace and in replacement of used pods. The pods are placed in a sunny spot in the office where they will continue to grow until the pods in the vertical garden unit are ready to be replaced. The pods are turned on their side and slotted into the unit where the greens await consumption.

The Eco lunch system provides a range of organic salad dressings which perfectly accompany the salad greens. This system overcomes the barriers surrounding the time taken for lunch breaks as it eliminates the need to leave the office to grab a bite to eat which significantly reduces the time. Supplying employees with a free healthy lunch is a good way to improve work performance. Eco lunch assists in reducing the waste caused by take away food packaging. A study taken by Newstatesman revealed that only 50% of workers bring a packed lunch, meaning the remaining 50% either buy lunch or skip lunch all together.  Out of the 50% who do not pack lunch it was found that 48% leave the office to buy lunch. With almost one quarter of all workers purchasing lunch there is a significant amount of packaging waste being generated each day and Eco lunch is a sustainable alternative which can reduce this waste.

  

With the introduction of the Eco lunch system, workplaces can become more environmentally friendly and employee’s behaviours can be altered to become healthier and more productive.  Eco lunch offers a range of benefits and is an innovative addition to any workplace. 

Cormack packaging awards: Peer comments

Liz Grayburn
Melinda Kingsland
Stella Ho
Andrea Krakovask
Helen Holman

Cormack packaging awards: Patchy Pack

Current adhesive bandages are sold in cardboard boxes which the individually wrapped bandage is stored in until use. This type of packaging is insufficient for use in a portable application as the cardboard box becomes crushed and is susceptible to water damage. Patchy Pack, designed for use by children aged between 8 and 11, and their parents, is an innovative portable adhesive bandage dispenser which stores bandages in a sterile environment. The dispensing system allows users to easily tear off the required amount of bandages (Patchies) while holding the Patchy Pack in the other hand. Each bandage is individually wrapped in a unique ticket like pouch which assists users to open the pouch easily and allows the bandage to be easily accessed when inside the Patchy Pack case. The overall experience of using the Patchy Pack in enjoyable and allows children to interact with the product at a higher level than existing packaging designs.

Sustainable design approach is at the forefront of modern innovative product design. Patchy Pack has been designed through a sustainable approach, as it reduces the amount of packaging required for each lot of bandages. Current adhesive bandages, on average, are sold in packs of 20 and many bandages designed for this age group are smaller than adult bandages, however often require twice as many bandages to cover the injury. Patchy Pack’s refill system allows rolls of bandages to be sold with a clear recyclable plastic film and a small stick on label. This packaging system significantly reduces the amount of ink required to print conventional bandage packaging and also allows the bandages to be packed tightly on the roll which takes up less room than conventional designs. The Patchy Pack case is 100% recyclable so it can be recycled at its end of life.

The Patchy Pack is ideal for use at children’s sporting games to patch up any small cuts and scratches. The Pack can also be used as a replacement for existing bandage packages at home and it is compact enough to be kept in a parent’s bag for any time an injury occurs. Overall the Patchy pack system is an innovative addition to the adhesive bandage market and offers a supreme packaging and storage alternative to conventional products. 

Cormack packaging awards: Final Presentation

Cormack packaging awards: Concepts

Video reviews: The Lightbulb Conspiracy

The short film, The Lightbulb Conspiracy explores the development and implementation of planned obsolescence throughout the 1900’s and early twenty first century. This documentary style film closely follows the journey of design obsolescence and has many significant examples right from the first light globes through to Apple’s IPod. The underlying message of the film is the impact which planned obsolescence is having on the environment, with millions of tonnes consumer good waste entering landfill and dump sites. The film portrays the throw away lifestyle of the western world and aims at educating designers and the general public about the push to move away from planned obsolescence.

The introduction of Thomas Edison’s lightbulb in 1881 was one of the greatest inventions of the 1800’s. However, his lightbulb lasted a significantly long period of time before the need for replacement. This saw a downturn in consumer need and there begun the thinking behind planned obsolescence. The creation of the world wide cult, Phoebus was the beginning of planned obsolescence, where manufactures would fix the life of the product in order to increase consumer need. This behaviour at the time was not seen as unethical but through the industrial revolution more and more consumers began shopping for fun not need which created massive amounts of consumer good waste due to consumer’s throw away lifestyle. As more and more products reached their end of life people began to witness the environmental impacts of their behaviours. Anti-growth societies were created and took on Ghandi’s vision, ‘the world is big enough to satisfy everyone’s needs but will always be too small to satisfy individual greed’. As seen in the video, thousands of tonnes of waste goods were being shipped to Ghana where their natural environment was being destroyed. As modern day designers we can reflect on the past and acknowledge the wrong doings of designers of the twentieth century. A more recent example of planned obsolescence was the release of Apple’s first IPod with an obsolete battery in order to maintain consumer demand. As a result of this immoral conduct they were sued and forced to fix the problems they created. Of recent times Apple has increased their market share by producing more products to complement their range while morally producing quality products.

In order to design sustainably and construct eco-friendly products, planned obsolescence must be eradicated and designers must find new ways to develop products while maintaining consumer demand. There are an abundance of new technologies, materials and processes which aid designers in producing such products.

Video reviews: An Inconvenient Truth

Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth is an eye opening educational presentation about global warming and the impact which humans have of the world. Directed by Davis Guggenheim and presented by Al Gore, himself, the film uses scientific data and estimates to convey his message in order to educate the audience of the dangers which lie ahead if we continue going about our current way of life. Released in 2006, the film became a major talking point in the media and right across the globe which has since attracted more media articles and reviews than any other film. Gore builds his argument with measured data and makes predictions which shock the audience, making them aware of this ‘moral issue’. As designers we have a major role in striving to reduce the environmental impact of consumer goods and design products to assist in the lowering of Co2 levels.

Gore describes global warming as not a political responsibility but as a moral responsibility. It is not up to the governments to implement changes but it is up to the individual person to act morally and reduce their individual carbon emissions. As designers we are the creators of such consumer products which shape the way people live their lives and by designing sustainably we can alter the consumer’s habits and offer eco-friendly alternatives. As presented by Gore, there have been moves to design more sustainable automobiles which significantly reduce emissions. Car manufactures such as Toyota Honda are prime examples of this were as Ford and General Motors have done near nothing to address these issues and remain as some of the biggest carbon contributors. Not only is sustainable design about reducing the emissions given off by the product but, using smart materials designing to use as little material as possible. Using cleaner sources of energy to manufacture the goods we design and designing products which promote and rely on the use of clean energies are just some of the ways designers can shape the future and work towards a cleaner environment.

This moving film is a great step towards reducing the amount of emissions which enter the earth’s atmosphere every year. Al Gore advocates the significantly important issues of global warming and educates the audience as to how they can help to reduce their personal carbon footprint through the use of energy saving appliances and striving t become more sustainable. The  design industry plays a big part in contributing to global emissions and has the power and moral responsibility to act upon this issue through the use of sustainable design.

Video reviews: How it's Made & Giving Packaging New Life

Current packaging manufacturing and recycling process are at an all-time high in eco friendliness. Industrial designers have moral responsibilities to minimise the impact of packaging on the environment and create innovative ways to package products in a way which uses less material to perform the same function if not outperform current functions. Through the use of such videos as How it’s made: Packaging and Giving Packaging a New Life  industrial designers are able to gain an insight into the process involved in producing and recycling packaging and thus design to maximise efficiency and minimise environmental impact.

The mini-series How it’s made: Packaging looks at the various production methods of packaging and enables the viewer to gain a full insight into the entire production process from raw material to finished product. Specifically looking at the tetrapak episode, the video explains how this innovative pack allows products to remain unrefrigerated for up to one year; while at the same time the pack is 100 percent recyclable.  The lamination process to form the outer shell of the pack incorporates three different materials; plastic, paper and foil. While these three distinctly different materials are used they are able to be separated and recycled with no waste entering landfill which is a great triumph in the packaging industry.

At the other end of the packaging lifecycle, Giving Packaging New Life explains in detail how packaging at its end of life is recycled to for new almost virgin material which is used to make more packaging. Everything from paper to plastics and metals are recycled and reproduced which minimises the energy consumption of that of creating new packaging from scratch. The episodes of this series focus on the recycling process in Germany and are a prime example of the recycling with the worlds first automatic sorting plant in Anderten which reduces the cost of convetional sorting methods by as much as 50 percent. Sorting is a critical process in recycling packaging as it allows different materials and material types to be identified and grouped in order to return them to pure granular form. This example from Germany expresses the innovation in technology and design showing that packaging has a promising ecofriendly future.

Both video series allow designers and the general public to gain knowledge into the packaging industry and allow them to improve their designs and behaviours to assist in the process of creating new and recycled packaging. Through implementing the use of the latest technologies, industry is able to work more efficiently, gathering larger quantities of used packaging, reprocessing used packaging and reproducing packaging with higher quantities of recycled materials.