Sunday, July 4, 2010
The Story of Cap and Trade
This could be from either, using less material so manufacturing is less, or compacting design so that shipment is less, or even designing so that there are less electronic mechanisms in the world, our challenge is to explore the possibilities in design and adopt them to current projects.
Design For Life
Another key design ethic the Phillip states is that product designers should look behind the product at the meaning, the purpose, the intention, the style, and use. To be able to look in-depth into a product is a key principle that designers should have to be able to design products which consumers will hold on to.
The last design ethic that I would like to high light is the need to be able to present. This is an essential part of being a designer, if we cant communicate our ideas then the clients then they wont understand the product and intern wont buy the product. Phillips metaphor for presenting, as being like your at the circus, taking risks, scaring your self and having fun, I think is a fantastic way designers should approach presenting their work to clients .
The 11th Hour
As designers I feel that we should join together and totally re think the way in which people use resources and change their understanding and behavior towards products. Products need to fulfill A need, so why are there so many products for one need ?? … being just a theory there might be some faults to this but after watching this video I really do think that people and designers need to change their attitudes toward a product.
This seems like a big step for one person but I feel if you want to tackle large scale ecological problems then it has to be a neutral agreement between large scale communities to find the solution and to dedicate their actions to change behavior.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
CHARETTE #2
What an interesting lesson, pulling stuff apart is one of my favorite past times. I was astonished when it came to the breville mixer i was amazed at how many parts were inside. Aim was to redesign the mixer to improve its environment impact during and after use. Were used a program called 'Greenfly' and managed to calculate the major materials which caused the greatest harm.
We found that the upper portion of the mixer, consisting of a stainless steel shell and a polycarbonate insert, could be changed to a single piece of polycarbonate, reducing fittings, material, and dropping the waste. Another change that we made was to replace the PCB with single buttons, thus eliminating one of the most damaging parts of waste.
CHARETTE - #1
With our design we tried to add value to the chair, by having the chair grow with its owner. We had agreed that the target for this type of chair was a first home buyer, mid 20's, low income and is need of a cheap set of chairs to eat dinner off. So they would buy a set of 4 Ikea chairs to sit around a dinner table.
Our redesign saw our chair growing into a rocking chair, when our users grow into a family, with their first child. Instead of buying a new rocking chair, the user can buy an adaption for one of their dinner chairs. This adaption includes 2 half moon shaped feet, and a back support. The feet would be slid on to the feet of the chair,enabling the chair to rock.We considered the fact that the person would be on this chair for a longer period of time, therefore we added additional back support for comfort.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Objectified
Another interesting concept that had been brought up is that with today’s technology, design has shifted from a ‘form followed function’ idea to ‘form with no relation to function’. This has been brought upon by the micro chip and has put a lot of tension on design. This is important my self and young designers as we have to break away from this generic form and some how incorporate new ideas or old ones so that products is more meaning full and understanding to the user. As Dieter Rams stated Good design should be innovative, Good design should make a product useful, Good design should make the product understandable, Good design is honest, Good design should be long lived, Good design should environmentally friendly and Good design should be as little as possible.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Task 1 - Ecological Footprint
At First glance of this file, I was amazed at the amount of worlds it would take if everyone lived the same life style as I do. Upon further reading, I was shocked that the average countries footprint is higher than mine. It seams that our country has an extremely high carbon foot print and it is astonishing that most of the people don’t have any clue of the damage it is doing.
I must admit I was one of the many who had NO idea the amount of energy that has been wasted due to my lifestyle. Being above average in household footprint has got me thinking about how much energy I have been wasting in the house hold. It has enlightened me to rethink about leaving computers, TV, or gaming consoles on or even on standby.
Amazingly this little exercise has widened my view of my own carbon footprint than any other type of medium. I can recall now advertisements about saving energy and thinking that that wouldn’t apply to me and that I was quite efficient with my house hold footprint. Turns out that this survey being so personal really hit the spot.