The aim was to collect waste materials that one person would typically use up within a week and turn them into usable consumer products. Although the tutors didn't directly mention this, the main focus point for this project was the issue of packaging and how excessive it was of natural resources, of energy and its unsustainable contribution towards consumer culture.
Everyone in the project came up with unique and insightful design pieces - examples (from what I remember!) included a pencil case made from melted plastic bags, miniature air conditioning unit made from take-away containers, a lampshade made from glass bottles. I basically just tackled the issue of packaging hoping it would win me brownie points come assessment time :D Here's my design.
A rendition of a drink bottle design
I wanted to design a drink bottle that was different to others on the market, in the sense that it used as little plastic as possible. Since plastic was the number one target in unsustainable materials, avoiding the use of plastic became my personal challenge!
Creating a design using the newspapers, cardboard boxes and existing drink bottles collected over a week and performing crude model making methods to 'manufacture' the design, I set about designing the drink bottle the unconventional way moving away from injection blow moulding manufacturing techniques that demanded high cost for tooling in favour of cheaper alternatives.
Materials used in the design process |
Ideation |
Mock ups |
Final Design |