Postage Present Rational

I wanted to create something that people use every day, not something that is put on a mantel piece and is used once a year at Christmas. I randomly came up with the idea of doing the wallet within 5 minutes of the last class we had to work on this assignment. The initial idea was to make it very simple with the user able to just fold a couple of lines and then have a wallet, not have to use glue or staples or anything of the sort.

My original idea was to create the product out of polypropylene plastic, to score the edges which would be folded, but the problem I encountered was that every time I tried to make the bends, one of the scored lines would crack end I would have to discard the whole thing. I realised I needed to get a different material that would be able to take the strains of bending, but also have strength to hold itself together. I toyed with other plastics and ideas of using layers but all turned up to be dead ends. Then I remembered Andrew saying something about how he likes d the idea of using magazines in creating new products. This gave me the idea of layering several pages of magazines together to make the material of which it would be made.

In the using of magazines for the making of the material for the product I found that it was a very good way to recycle something that would usually be thrown out after it was needed or finished being read or used. The second thing that I found about fixing several of the pages together was that after a while they became more like plastic than paper in the sense that the material had become quite hard to rip and it held its shape well. The third thing that I found was that the material bent really well and was able to have a very tight fold which was great for the overall size of the wallet not making it bulky and heavy in the pocket.

Andrew said I should think about adding more folds to the net of the product so I could have more little pockets and such. I tried doing that but I found that not only was it going to take a lot more material than was allowed for use but it also became much too bulky when holding and it caused a lot of the folds to not fold properly and then I was faced with the problem of a very think product and on that was unnecessarily thick.

Yes I think there is still room for my idea to be developed in different ways, but I am happy with the simple design and material that I have been able to come up with. Although the material I wanted to use has been deviated away from quite a lot I still like the feel and the qualities of the magazine pages.

I think I have been able to complete my goal in trying to design something that is used every day and is not just left on a desk, mantle piece or in the cupboard. The wallet although when thought about without seeing is a hard thing to imagine, a magazine wallet, it is very sturdy, strong and surprisingly durable compared to its pre-recycled state.

Ross Lovegrove: The power and beauty of organic design: www.TED.com

Ross Lovegrove is a man of ambition, instinct and is the self imposed Captain Organic. To be honest at points his self infatuation was a little tiresome but once we got passed that we were able to see some amazing things that he has been able to design. I was really intrigued with him saying “instinct plays a huge role in design”. It was very interesting to hear about how we are inspired from some very strange things that we may not always think about.

His water bottle and the way he thought about the image of water with just the squiggly lines on a page. The most interesting thing for me was how he was able to go from a simple line drawing to a beautifully formed bottle that had a inspiring organic feel to it.

I did like it how he talked about how organic design is just for the bare essentials, just for what is important for survival. I did like his approach to trying to mimic this idea in his designs, nothing for decoration but everything just for form and the bare essentials the design needed. By doing this he is able to get a truly wonderful feel to all his designs that makes him very interesting and in the end his designs look much better than if he had added the unessential decorations.

He sends a very important message about designing to mimic nature, using less and more sustainable materials and we, humans, make larger and larger impacts on the environment and we continually reduce the resources we have. By doing this he is also able to be involved in the new and futuristic development of materials that we will all be using in the future.

As designers we have the responsibility to help humanity lead in a direction of sustainability, we have the influence through our designs to do this which gives us the responsibility to do so.