Paperclip to Spaceship
MA Graphic design major project research question "How can I as a designer make an impact through education to teach kids about sustainability?"
Starting Point
I had my initial project idea when I worked on my city project, which was about reuse of packaging. I decided to take this concept further as my major project proposal.
I initially researched in India because waste management system there could be better planned. I came across few people and asked them what sustainability meant to them. The definition varied from person to person, which was the root of my problem. At this point, I realized that people should be more aware and educated of being more sustainable and have one clear idea about it. As kids are our future, I thought it would be a good start to focus on education for my project.
Why Sustainability?
Sustainability has become a buzz word in the recent years. It is being used everywhere in the context of preserving natural resources. It is about reduce-recycle-reuse. Reducing and reusing is not at par with recycling so we end up creating more waste. There is now, more than ever, a need to act on this issue.
Why plastic?
As sustainability is a wide subject, I needed to focus on one part of it. I thought about which is the product used by everyone and at the same time is harming our environment?- Plastic.
From paper clip to a spaceship, everything can be made out of plastic. It is versatile, durable, flexible, weightless and a very strong material. It can be molded into different shapes. But, overuse of plastic is causing a lot of environmental problems.
In-depth research
I had to gather information on plastic starting with the basics like- What is plastic, how is it made, types of plastic, problems with plastic and how reuse-recycle-reduce of plastic is been done in the world.
I started observing plastic products around me and discovered few symbols which are common in all. They are 1-7 numbers enclosed in a triangular symbol. To understand more about these symbols, I referred to my source website and a book called ‘Recycle- the essential guide’. I found out that these symbols are actually a resin identification code, which was introduced by Society of Plastics Industry to differentiate plastics when sent for recycling. These codes do not symbolize the recyclability or the toxicity level of the product
I further researched about how and why is it affecting us and our environment. I found out that plastic affects each and every part of our ecosystem.
- Burning of plastic results in global warming.
- Landfill waste causes land pollution
- Plastics dumped in the oceans are getting consumed by the marine life which leads to their death.
- Oil is a non-renewable resource which is used to make plastic.
Target Audience
As my project was on educating kids, I was unsure of the target age group. I came across a book about designing for children, which helped me understand what kind of intellectual and physical development go through at a certain age. I decided on an age group of 8-10 years old because they have now an understanding of what is good and bad and they can bring their own interpretation of the knowledge to the design and are open to understanding complex information.
Key contact
Education is a subject I am tackling through design for the first time. So to get more clarification on how teaching works, I got in touch with 2 schools in Surbiton area, out of which St.John’s school was quick to respond my queries. St.John’s primary school is located in Kingston and has been awarded eco-school award. It is a program which actively involves children and creates environmental awareness among them. This school was perfect for my project. I got in touch with the sustainability teacher- John Hastings who showed interest in my project and helped me out in mapping out my content.
Turning point
After having few meetings with John, I had mapped out my content and decided on doing a book. I searched for similar books in the market which made me evaluate the language used for kids.
I had another meeting with John, to have a feedback on my book. He gave me a feedback saying ‘Kids already have so many books to read, how is your book different from the rest? How is it going to impact the kids and their understanding on plastic?’ This was the turning point in my project. I reflected back on what I had done and decided to go in another
the direction which was the interactive learning. It helps in fast knowledge transfer and skill enhancement is fast.
Before I could go further with my interactive learning process, I wanted to test my prototype on the kids in St.John’s school. In the session, before informing them much about what my concept was, I let them discover it by themselves. The feedback I got from the kids was exactly what I was hoping for. They understood what I was trying to explain in my design and were curious to know more about plastic.
Branding
For the name of my project, I came up with a lot of options. I decided on ‘Paperclip to spaceship’ as it captures the essence of my project.
Color
Plastic originally does not have any color, but it can be mixed with any pigment to give it color. I imagined a color scheme which would seamlessly translate from one to another. Also, there is not a single color plastic could not be made up of. Hence I decided to incorporate gradients in my designs.
Interaction involved for each design solution
I came across few fun interactions which I could use to teach kids about plastic. For each question, I decided to do go with a different kind of interaction.
1. How plastic made? - Puzzle
2. What are the types of plastic?- Cards
3. how it affects our ecosystem?- Magic card
4. Why recycling is important?- App design
5. How to reduce plastic in our lives?- Stamp
Packaging
I have designed 'All in one' educational box on plastic. This project would serve as a textbook on plastic to the students in school.
Design Output
The final physical output was a box which included all the elements put together. This project is going to be donated to St. John's school in Kingston, UK.