'Stuff- O -Meter' Evaluation

The brief for Stuff-O-Meter was to create a representation of the lifetime of a durable household product. I chosen to do a representation of a hair dryer.

My first intentions with this brief was to focus on information graphics. But that soon changed. Although I created the big hair illustration, the time-line of a hair dryer form cradle to grave, that hasn't really been included in my final resolution. As after a few crits, and hearing what people had to say, I soon realised I needed to make more sense of it, make it clearer as a project as a whole. As the brief was intentionally aimed at a target audience, those about to purchase a hair dryer.

So my resolution for this brief was a proposal for the website, www.birthlifedeath.com. Creating examples of the different pages, what information might be included on those pages, what points are raised etc. A site for customers to go to when considering buying a hair dryer but those who want to find out all the hidden information.

Then to back up the website I created some promotional material. Such as the website pop-up ad, shelf labels, product labels, a product sleeve, a leaflet and the swing tag to go on hair/heat defense related products. Using facts to encourage them to go check it out to find out more.

At first, I intended this brief to be resolved in 2 to 3 weeks. But once I got going with the research into hair dryers, trying to find out the materials it made from, where those materials are mined etc, I soon realised this brief would take much longer than 3 weeks, that being because I wanted to get all the necessary research to help fuel the actual design process.

It took a while to get off the ground once I did have the research, but too be fair, I really enjoyed this brief, doing the research and trying out ways I could take it.

Product Label + Internet Pop-up

I'm getting further and further to getting this Stuff-O-Meter brief completed. I've completed the website. I'm half way there with some flyers and a poster, I've created these product labels and an internet pop up. I'm also half way there with putting the submission boards together. So only a matter of days until this is out of my hair. But now I'm getting somewhere with it, I'm beginning to enjoy it again, which is nice. It's all coming together nicely.

So, the photo's above are the product labels. The idea behind this is to promote the website on the birth, life and death of a hair dryer. The brief asks you to make people aware of the cradle to grave of a hair dryer before the retailer purchases it, so I thought a good way to target the girls who use their hair dryers a lot would be on the hair products designed to help against heat damage, ie, heat defense sprays and the shampoos and conditioners.
So I've done this swing tag kind of thing. I think it works well, I created a few designs picked 3, but these 2 on the photo's are my favourite. I now just need to take some better photographs.

Below are a few ideas for an internet pop-up advert. I figured as the website has an online presence, it would be suitable to provide something else based on the web to promote it. I've focused on placing them on the sites where you can purchase hair dryers, like Boots and Argos, providing a link to the birth, life and death of a hair dryer if anyone is intrigued to find out more. So these are a few I've put together, but nothing is final...

At last...

At last I've constructed the proposal for a website!
And it's only taken a matter of hours. I already had initial ideas for websites and already had a good idea of the construction of a website and how it wanted it to 'flow', but I've been putting it off for so long I could have just done it in a day, and if I had of done that then this brief would have been over and done with days ago!
Bit annoyed with myself that I hadn't done this before the crit, because I've chosen a website layout that no one picked as the one I should go with. Also, if I had of just gone with this then this would have been something I would value the feedback from more. Although I've done this, I'm still not happy that it's done. It just seems a bit...bland :s
But then, how interesting does a website about a hair dryer need to be?!
So I'm going to leave it as it is and now construct some promo material for it, ready for the tutorial next week with Joe, or if can't wait that long I'll grab some people in the studio and get there views, before I start the promo stuff.

Hidden Components pt.4 - Poster Layouts

Here are a few more proposals for the promotion poster for my website.
I feel that I'm nearly getting there with these ones, compared to yesterday anyway.
I'm going to move away from this poster for a few days now and focus on the website, as that will influence the final direction that this poster should go in.
Sine yesterday, I've moved away from the idea of a series of posters, and I seem to be focusing on just one design. But I think I would like to go back and create a series, but that will come after the website I think.

Hidden Components pt.2 - Change of plan...

...only very slightly though.
I've focused on the the purpose of the poster, and not just a poster with the components of a hair dryer neatly displayed on it, without any actual meaning.
I've decided to not just do one poster, but to do a series. All promoting the website that I'm still composing.
The layout still isn't totally complete, but it's definitely getting there. Having played around with a few layouts, it's helped me realise what direction I want to take this in.
Each poster will have a different message, an interesting fact or something you might not know or ever consider to do with a hair dryer. Something to encourage people to find out more, be intrigued to find out what they can do to make a hair dryer live longer and the recycling process. That kind of stuff.

I've mainly be focusing on type and layout with this, which is the most suitable direction to take this in and links with my proposal in my Statement Of Intent (SOI).

Stuff-O-Meter Progress

Ok...well it's taken much much longer than planned to have reached this stage. But this is just one of the stages with this brief now, as I'm trying out 3 different responses.

1. A poster with all the components of hair dryer (see previous post)
2. A proposal for a website, an information site where you can go and find out the cradle to grave story behind a hair dryer. (see previous post for the layouts I've been looking at)
3. A print based something, which is where this below is going. It's a timeline of everything that goes on in the production of the hair dryer. From the mining of each material until it ends up in a landfill.

It's taken me a long time to get to this point. This brief was meant to be a quick turnaround, but I hadn't really considered the vast amount of research that was required. Research that I needed before I could get going anywhere with the design process.
So, I got all that, which too be honest wasn't very thrilling. And I've now got the job of making all that boring research interesting so that others will want to find out as much as hair dryers as I did!
I'm thinking the way to do this is to simplify it as much as possible, filter through it and only use the most interesting. Then to find out facts and figures that make people think "Ooooo I didn't realise that..."
From example, if only I could find something like; everytime you use your hair dryer, for 5 minutes, you could use the energy used to make a full english breakfast, Something as simple as that. But I don't think it's going to be as simple as that...

At the moment, I'm at the stage of putting all the information into one document, so that all makes sense and is in some sort of order. I'm doing this in the way that I put together spider diagrams....Ooo how I love spider diagrams! But in a similar way to how the london underground map was constructed by Henry Beck. It flows as a time line.
Next job....decide how this might be delivered, how might I incorporate colour into it and make it more interesting to look at?
I had intended to hopefully get this done today, which isn't going to happen. But I think it will only need a couple more days if I crack on with it...



^
An overview of the whole thing. I still need to a little bit more research. Especially into the disposal of electronic goods, where it all goes, the processes it might go through etc
I know Fred was against his idea, so I'm sorry Fred. But I'm currently incorporating into a ladies head of flowing hair....but once it's done and complete it will probably wont be delivered in this way....but that's where my head's at at this current stage :s



^
A close up of all the details. There's a lot there, I think it might need simplifying a little bit more. But I'll how this goes.
Fingers crossed.
Now I'm getting going with the design side of this brief I'm really enjoying it. But it is lasting too long.

Website Layout ideas

Since the last crit I've been stressing about the direction of this Stuff-O-Meter brief.
My intention was for the resolution to be print based, but that's all gone a bit to pot. But I'm still intending to create a screen print poster type thing as an add on to this brief.
At first my intention was to create a blog, but after trying to put together the layout and the navigational stuff I found that there was too many restrictions and I was getting even more frustrated with everything!
So I decided to create the layout of a website, I started off by planning the content, the information I needed to include etc. So not I've got the basics of that, I've been looking at the layout possibilities for my information website.
Here are the layout designs I've put together so far. Nothing is solid, but I feel that I'm getting somewhere, which is nice.

Hidden Components

This is quick response to the Stuff-O-Meter brief. I took apart a hair dryer a, down to every last screw and wire, then scanned them all in and created this poster. It's not totally complete, as I'm not happy with the colours. They work, but I'm not sure if they're appropriate.
Then the wording at the bottom could do we editing too. But it looks nice, I think it works well and it's interesting to see all the components to a hair dryer.

Afterlife

This poster is part of ‘Afterlife’; a project that investigates the impact of electronic waste on the global community created Matthew Appleton whilst still a student.
These posters are part of a project that looks at the objects we live with, and aims to communicate issues of complexity and means of production in a clear and simple way. For this poster, a cheap consumer printer was dismantled, each component carefully drawn to scale, and juxtaposed with a pencil, also drawn to scale. The parts are arrayed according to size.
incredible to witness the delicacy, precision engineering and sheer number of man-hours that has gone into producing a modern printer, and equally impressive when we consider how affordable such advanced tools have become.

Flat Inc.

A great piece of research as part of my Stuff-O-Meter brief as Flat's main focus is to make information accessible, concentrating on the user experience and the integration of technology into daily life.
In 2000 it launched the first in a series of on-line public service announcements, the website being called 'Flrt'. It is one of Flat's 'home-brewed projects', a place to house its public service announcement series.



It has 6 different sections, such as 'What do the trees want?', 'Computer is Bad', 'The Paperless Office' and 'E-waste', each with its own bit of animation and interaction. Each section appears in a pop up window, scrolling down reveals sub-headings, each with interesting information and lots of facts and figures which are always useful!

Got Milk?

Absolutely FANTASTIC website!
Milk isn't the most obvious of subjects for such a complex and imaginative website, but it works wonders!
Perfect inspiration to give me an idea for my birth, life and death website for the hair dryer. Obviously not as complex as this, but the basic elements.
This site features various pages, one about milk and your health, recipes that can be done with milk, and how to recycle milk cartons and jugs, but by taking a fun approach and not just throwing it away but using it to create, for example, a bunch of paper flowers for mothers day. You can't get much more imaginative than that!

All in some way or another can relate to the website I'm looking at constructing, the elements and content that this can be taken.





Got Milk? website link

Where I'm going...

Since the last crit I've been a bit lost with the Stuff-O-Meter brief, not knowing which way to really take it. But it's got to the point now where this brief should have been resolved two weeks ago, so due to stressing, the creative juices haven't been flowing!
From the crit, the most useful outcome was for me to consider which direction I actually want to take this, whether it be a print or web/blog outcome.

After much consideration, I decided to create a blog, which I started and found it difficult to include all the information I wanted in the layout within the layout restrictions...it was all just a bit of a farse and confused me even more.

So, the plan now is to design a website. Not a full working one, but the layout, the content, the pages etc. Bit out of my comfort zone, but then again it's not really....it's basically just going to be type and layout, an area of design I want to focus on more and get to grips with it more.

I now aim to have this as resolved as possible by the next crit, so need to get into gear....


fingers crossed!

Crit Feedback

Right...well....not too sure where my head is at right now! I'm not in a pickle, I'm just upset that the last week I've been working solid and what I've been doing has been so far from what I SHOULD have been doing. I started off with the right intentions, but I've gone off on the wrong track, slightly. I just have to take a few steps backwards. It has been an interesting learning curve!

Basically...
this has been our first real crit, once in which you should your developing work since before christmas, so the first of our FMP. The chance for us to discuss one current brief, so I chose to concentrate on my Stuff-O-Meter brief, as that's the only one that's actually underway!
I took in my initial ideas, shown on a separate post...
where I've done a lot of background research, such as the components of a hair dryer, where they might have come from etc and then I'd moved on to visuals. Not necessarily because I felt it was an appropriate time, but because I felt I needed some visuals to take to the crit, so I think I rushed before I was ready.
This resulting in me looking at produce stuff that I thought looked good, such as different hair styles and trying to make the information I'd gathered as nice and pretty as possible....but in fact was totally irrelevant and I'd cracked most of this brief nearer the beginning. Back then I was focussing more on the family tree and time line of a hair dryer, the components, what it's made from, where each of the components have come from around the globe, how many miles they have travelled, how harmful it is etc.
Or even list it, as though it might the ingredients. Might be interesting to look at food packaging too, the nutritional labels and the information of how good/bad that food is for you might be interesting.

Then there's the delivery... I had considered looking at distributing this information on the packaging of the product, or when a customer might be about to purchase it. In particular, print based design. But then, Fred pointed something interesting out...
If my subject is sustainability, then I need to really take that into consideration. So, should this be a print based distribution, resulting in lots of paper and ink, or should it have an online presence, such as a blog (because, no way would I get my head round web designing stuff!), which is a really interesting way I could take it. But then...I would really like to focus on print....I guess I could combine the two, as if I was to deliver this as a blog, then that blog would need promoting...

Hard facts and figures are what's going to be key here. That's what's going to intrigue people to read more and find it interesting to read and hear about this kind of interesting that you wouldn't normally be provided with for an everyday household product.

Stuff-O-Meter - Brief One

I've found the first brief I want to do as part of my FMP. I found it whilst searching new and old D&AD briefs, this one being one from 2007, but it's prefect! Relating to my subject of 'Sustainability within Design' that I'm going for.

It's called 'Stuff-O-Meter' and the brief is to create a visual representation of any household product's lifecycle, from 'cradle to grave'.



This 'Stuff-O-Meter' D&AD brief has been sponsored by DOTT 07 (DESIGNS OF THE TIME).
Dott 07 (Designs of the time 2007), was a year of community projects, events and exhibitions based in North East England, explored what life in a sustainable region could be like – and how design could help us get there. Dott 07 projects aim to improve five aspects of daily life: movement, health, food, school and energy.

The focus of the initiative was on grassroots community projects; but there were also projects involving more than 70 schools, plus exhibitions and events in museums, galleries and rural sites. All events explored how design can improve our lives in meaningful ways.

DOT 07 is a thing of the past, but the website is still there, and has loads of information about sustainability and the benefits and the projects that they were involved in during this year. So something that can prove useful to me in the times ahead with this FMP...

Sustainability and Cradle to Cradle Design - Podcast

I'm not too sure how relevant this theory work might be to my design context, but I found it interesting to listen to anyways.
Basically, these are some notes I made yesterday whilst listening to this podcast by Matthew Sweet, the director of Dott07 (Designs Of The Time), this also being the sponsor for the Stuff-O-Meter brief I'm responding to at the moment.

Discussion between Matthew Sweets and Michael Brownguard, a German scientist who had a vision of the future in which nothing ever ends up in a land fill because, as in nature, no waste product is ever truly wasted.

- Some possibilities that need to be considered, some changes that might work to help save the future of the planet...(sorry it's in note form, so very vague)

Cradle to cradle is about reshaping industry to make it mimic the processes of nature, it means ‘to reinvent everything’ so either that things can go back in a biological cycle like shoe soles, like brake pads, like food, like detergent. It’s designed to be good for the biosphere.
Mimic the process of nature.
Reinvent everything.
Look at how ants live, how they have order and how they use natural materials in everything they do.
Eliminate thinking of waste, we are the only species that produce it.
Define the use period of everything.
But it’s not about being less bad, it’s about being good. Right now we think we protect the environment when we destroy a little less

Discussion with Matthew Sweet, Hugh Pearman and Antonia Ward.

As I understand it means that there is no waste product at the end, so that products become infinitely recyclable.
It’s the idea that in nature waste equals food, and that can be food for animals or for systems or for society.

You have to then talk to the manufacturer and say “will you take this back when I’m finished with it?”

What’s embodied energy?
How much it costs to make the things that you…how much it costs in energy terms to make a brick say, or, you know, a steel beam or anything else like that, that’s in the building, concrete, a lot of energy is involved.

Consumers need to demand more. But knowing what to demand is where design comes into it. They need to know what to demand.

The government can help tip people towards wanting to do things more and generally speaking what that means is making people feel they can afford to make a step in this direction.

What we need though is the information to enable us to make a choice. We have labelling on food where we know where food comes from now because consumer demand for food miles has asked for it, you don’t know what its made of, you don’t know how to take it apart, you don’t know where to send the bits to be recycled or if they can, you don’t know how to upgrade it.
The idea of recycling that we know is down-cycling, it’s making worse quality products out of second hand materials. If you build things so that they can be remade and remanufactured you’re up-cycling, you’re making a new and better thing out of an old material.