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.

Fountain smartPOUR

The 'Fountain smartPOUR' has been innovatively designed to minimise the 'glugging effect' which occurs when decanting the sauce. The key benefits of this design are; the vent, the ergonomically design handles, and positioning of the opening. The design features a vent which allows air to enter the bottle while pouring out the sauce. This allows for an even flow and a more control ed flow. The bottle features two handles which have been ergonomically designed to make it easier to carry when transporting the bottle and to make it easier to hold and control when pouring and decanting. The opening has been offset hard to one side to minimise the mess caused by run off. This design decision also allows for easy pouring when pouring into other vessels.

The cons associated with this design include; it is hard to stack multiple bottles on top of each other due to the angled top handle and due to the volume of sauce within each bottle it could be difficult to pour when the bottle is full. Through a range of sketches i have been able to refine the design of the 'Fountain smartPOUR' sauce bottle. I have displayed a refined sketcth which communicates my improvement to the design. My improvement include, repositioning the opening, repositioning the top handle, and repositioning the vent.

In my refined sketches i have positioned the opening at a fourty five degree angle to the rest of the bottle. This slight repositioning would make it much easier for the consumer to pour out full bottles of sauce as the bottle wouldn't need to be tilted a much which would reduce the amount of strength needed to pour out the sauce, thus increasing the quantity control and flow control. I have also reshaped the top handle to bring the overall from of the bottle into a rectangular shape allowing it to be stacked more easily. By reshaping the handle i have been able to allow the vent to flow through the hollow handle which allows air to reach the main body of sauce more efficiently then the current design. Through running the vent through the handle more sauce can be fitted into the bottle and a larger volume of sauce can reach the opening, increasing flow efficiency. The overall form of the bottle has taken on a more organic form in my refined design. This change adds for to the bottle which increases aesthetics and allows the sauce to flow more freely inside the bottle. The reshaping of the bottle remains within the external dimensions of the bottle so that it doesn't not effect the ability to store the bottle in minimal space.

Overall my refined sketch of the 'Fountain smartPOUR' sauce bottle include some slight changes to the design which would benefit the consumer in a variety of ways.

Project 2 - 6 pack packaging

The final design behind the six pack of TNT energy drinks reflects that of the packaging of TNT dynamite as it represents the outer crate in which TNT dynamite is stored and transported in. This is to resemble the energy contained within the product and to exaggerate the power of the product. The packaging incorporates innovative design in the way in which the cans are displayed and removed from the carton. The pack combines function within a compact, portable, durable and versatile design.

Project 1 - Letter Holder

The final design for this project is a multipurpose desk top holder. The product is constructed with sheet aluminium and is folded into its final form without the use of any fasteners. Positioned on the desk top of a home office, this product is used for a number of different functions; holding letters, bills awaiting payment, notes, memos, cards and photographs. The product encompasses a highly angular aesthetic form both when in use and when not in use.

Uniquely formed through folding sheet aluminium, this product is novel, enhances the ‘state of the art’ design and shows awareness of other designs and their place in material culture. The final product is constructed using .5mm sheet aluminium. Through the use of powder coating, the product has been given an up market, office quality which allows the product to fit in with its surrounding environment while also creating a focal point within the environment.

The desk top holder is available in a range of different colours all of which are finished with a powder coated surface. The product is constructed using .5mm light weight aluminium and is thus, more cost effective than using a thicker material and easier to manufacture, saving on labour costs. Although .5 mm material has been used, the shape of the holder strengthens the material and the uniquely designed shaped feet ensure the product does not tip over while under a standard load.

This product encompasses a range of different qualities including, ease of use and safety. As the design of the product is very angular, the sharp points have all been rounded to a 1mm radius to ensure the product is safe to use and does not scratch the surface which it is placed on.

Overall this unique desk top holder meets the project brief and has a range of different innovative qualities. Through the use of bending and folding sheet aluminium a highly aesthetic and functional product has been produced.