Critical Debates - Task 8

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

Sustainable design is mostly a reaction to global environmental crises, the rapid growth of economic activity and human population, the damage to ecosystems, the loss of biodiversity, the murder of nature for our eager of being richer. 

We are already seeing and witnessing all the damages we are making to the nature and all the consequences that those acts bring attached. We are trying to fix it by implementing sustainable design, but is that enough? Is that as fast as our mass destruction in the nature?

In my opinion we need to start engaging again with the nature, embrace more the nature, feel it more, respect more the nature and sustainable design might be a step for that, but we need more! We need to be fast.   

The planet that we have is being used in widely and unfair ways. In my opinion the future is completely unthinkable and dramatic. And the alternative for this problem, for me, at this stage is: unimaginable. 

We don't know yet, how to built a society which is environmental sustainable which promotes democracy, stability, human rights and achievable on the time frame necessarily to make it through the challenges we face. 

Sustainable design helps this process because its aim is to eliminate the wast we create, be sensible while using certain materials, etc and it can be applied in urban design, urban planning design, architecture, engineering, industrial design, fashion design, graphic design, product design, etc. Although it still not enough, it's a starting point! We should embrace sustainability in everything we do, we buy, we create because there are principles in sustainability that can be applied to everything, specially design platforms, like:

Low-impact materials: choose non-toxic, sustainably produced or recycled materials;

Energy efficiency: use manufacturing processes and produce products that require less energy;

Quality and Durability: longer-lasting and better-functioning products to be replaced less frequently;

Design for reuse and recycling: design products thinking in their after-life;

Biomimicry: redesign industrial systems on biological lines;

Service substitution: shifting the mode of consumption from personal ownership to provision of services like carsharing;

Renewability: materials that come from nearby (local or bioregional) that can be composted after being no longer useful.

We need to change our behavior, we need to stop being passive among this problem. We need to start building up a new way of life, more Eco-friendly, in order to promote a better world for our children and for us! We need to re-think our priorities. Human habits caused all these negative impacts have to change! We need to change our habits and our behaviour patterns among nature and the planet! We all depend on the planet in order to have water, food, air etc... we need to stop going against the planet, thinking that we can beat nature... we CAN'T and moreover, we NEED nature MORE THAN EVER! So let's embrace and take part of the planet and do everything we can to create and support sustainable designs!

Critical Debates - Task 7

Thou shalt not advertise...

Advertising is everywhere! In nowadays is a really competitive market. You can find adverts everywhere you go... on the tube, on the street, on the supermarket, on the trains, in billboards, on the bus stop, on the television, on the radio... it's everywhere! Today it's almost impossible to imagine our lives without advertisements. 


So, the role of advertisement is to attract people's attention to make them buy the product advertised, wheter you like it or not, wheter you need it or not. How does adverts do that? Well, they persuade you with the help of logical arguments that you really need it. That's mainly how it works. But there are more types of advertising, some kind of secret and subconscient advertising like the sweeties and other small and unnecessary things near the cash desks. It's there with a purpose... while you are waiting in the queue, you will look at them, and certainly, you'll end up buying at least one.


Though even I know these tricks and I am aware of how advertising works, I, sometimes, can not resist this small joys and allow myself to give in. In the end, we have to admit that wheter we like it or not, today advertising influences and changes our minds a lot! All we need to do is, before buying something and before being trapped by advertising, we need to think if we really need what we are about to buy! Be aware about how the advert is manipulating you... and think... am I being manipulated and persuaded or do I really need this?


A good advertising is when you wish you'd been part of. It's those kind of adverts that are simple, that captures the heart and mind and plays to the common person with the common truth that add something to life. It has to be smart, playful, positive and powerful in its message! It has to make the audience laugh, it doesn't need to be a big belly laugh, a little snigger is often more powerful and more intelligent. It has to rich people and make them think about it, talk about it, comment about it and if it stays for a long time in your mind, then it's a good advert..!

About adverts being banned or judged offensive... There are some adds that use strong images or less appropriate language, etc... well... if it's a good advert then it was studied and tested for a specific target audience and it worked, therefore should not be banned or forbidden. Having said that, sometimes these adverts are placed in public places and everyone is subjected to their message, which sometimes can cause some complaints.
I think each person should be able to choose which ads they must ignore and which they take into consideration. We have a brain, we think, we are more or less free to choose what we want to do, therefore, if an advert says, go and kill yourself because it's cool, you are not gonna do it, are you?

Here is an example of a banned advert:

Some adverts are just bad...

 

This advert is selling two products at the same time. And none of them has nothing to do with the other!

Another disaster... there are better ways of advertising!!!

It could have been a good campaign, but for me, this is the wrong place to put this advert!

On the other hand, there are plenty of good advertising:

The tag is: "Not pretty but fast"... Simple, funny, different, eye catcher... brilliant! 

 

 

Strong, powerful, REAL, great and simple!

Critical Debates in Design - Task 6

PACKAGING

The role of packaging is to contain, preserve and protect the product and help the consumer quickly understan what the product is all about, it's a sort of silent man.

Packaging is also a primary mechanism for branding and in nowodays I think branding is taking over the packaging itself and creating more waste which is regretful! The problem seems to be that modern society cannot function without it. So, our role, as designers, is to create less waste and a recyclable packaging. 

There are already some packaging designers that think about all the issues and create a great packaging design for the products, like: KNOEND - Lite2Go Lamp

The packaging is the product. It's functional, it's clean, it's attractive and it creates less wast an normal lamp pack, as you can see in the following video.

What is Carbon Footprint? 

It's a measure of the impact our activities have on the environment, and in particular climate change. It relates to the amount of greenhouse gases produced in our day-to-day lives through burning fossil fuels, for electrivity, heating, transportation, etc.

What is Green Packaging is environmental friendly packaging solutions that protect your product and the environment.

Newton Shoes:

Take this Newton shoe packaging example that was all the rage because its use of eco- friendly packaging materials. On the surface it looks like a solution but unfortunately as it turned out the packaging actually was more costly to produce, took more space in shipping and distribution and was a nightmare at retail due to the unusual shape. Consequently was not really an environmental win even though the package design is great.

Wine will light up your night! Literally! Tatiana Guimaraes has given a new meaning to reusing packaging with her Ciclus wine bottle packaging that transforms from a box to a lamp.

The Brazilian designer wanted to extend the life cycle of wine packaging and I must agree that she found a very creative way.  The lamp is beautiful and would make that house warming gift bottle last a little longer.  I am not sure everyone who buys a wine bottle needs a new lamp so there is some excess. However, it makes us think that, YES, we can package things better.

What is traffic labelling? We all lead busy lives nowadays, so making healthier choises when shopping need to be quick and easy. Developing a consistent way of clearly highlighting how much fat, sugar and salt a food contains will make it simpler for people to put healthy eating advice into practice when shopping.

Critical Debates in Design - Task 5

2 Designers (or designe groups) with strong ethics

Banksy

I choose Banksy because I really like what he does. He carry with his work strong political and social messages and also he relocates our eyes to art, statues, places. He has a satirical way to deliver his message with some kind of dark humor, and that's why I really like it! I also like the fact that he uses stencil most of the times and moreover, his identity is not noun. 

I was going to my part-time job in the Royal Albert Hall and something caught my eye when I was passing near by some statues. They had those road pins on top of their heads. I thought it could have been Banksy, although that's one of the things he had done before, and he is known for not doing the same thing twice, so... I'm still not sure if it was him, but if it want's, it was definitely based on his work, and it caught my atention! I don't have the picture of that with me at the moment, but soon I'll post that here. So for now, enjoy the next pictures of some of his work.

OBEY

The OBEY sticker campaign describes “the process of letting things manifest themselves.” They make posters and stickers to enable people to see clearly something that is right before their eyes but obscured; things that are so taken for granted that they are muted by abstract observation.
The OBEY sticker attempts to stimulate curiosity and bring people to question both the sticker and their relationship with their surroundings. Because people are not used to seeing advertisements or propaganda for which the product or motive is not obvious, frequent and novel encounters with the sticker provoke thought and possible frustration, nevertheless revitalizing the viewer’s perception and attention to detail.
Many stickers have been peeled down by people who were annoyed by them, considering them an eye sore and an act of petty vandalism, which is ironic considering the number of commercial graphic images everyone in American society is assaulted with daily.