Function and Personality

The first chapter seems to focus on the need for designers to use the connections and connotations that materials have to fully realize the intended purpose of whatever object is being designed. This is important in humanizing the work. The idea of making things more "human" is underlined by the introduction to the chapter which basically states that as humans, we are significantly different from most animals in our ability to see more into and about objects than just its color or form, but also intention, use, environment, permanence or impermanence. They use the example of a violin which is a well designed object for it's function, its beautiful and decorative form, and the relatively simple and holistic materials that make up this instrument that makes raw acoustic music from the vibration of these materials. It seems that the meat and potatoes of the section is to highlight the need for designers to be conscious in all choices and aspects of their design, and to bridge the gap between design and production by taking into account all of the things that are important in an object, all of these things that we, as humans, can "see"beneath the skin, and translate that into tangible produceable product.

Barry Plastics

Barry was very cool if for no other reason than the sheer output volume we experienced first hand. After we had safety glasses, hard hats, hair nets, beard nets, ear plugs, smocks (they were serious about safety) we were led to the companies printing facilities. This process was very different that what I expected and the machines looked like large circular airplane engines with radial pistons firing in slow motion. Each "piston" was just adding pressure to to a specific paint roller that was associated with an ink well. the inks were made in house and capable of mixing to make any pantone system color. Rollers had a plate with a specific aspect of the design to be printed. the product (cups) came through, were painted, dried in a tenth of a second with UV light, and sent on their way at a rate of hundreds of thousands per day.
     Next was thermoforming, which was arguable the most impressive process. Here huge hoppers of plastic pellets were heated to extrude gigantic sheets that were cooled and then reheated to specific pliability before being stamped with a two sided dye press that was probably 30 feet tall. It was then cooled, and cut. scraps are shredded and returned to the hoppers for minimal waste in the production process. When asked about the output of McFlurry cups(that's what they were forming that day) they answered in tons, which didn't help at all but showed how ridiculous the output really was.
     Finally we saw injection molding which wasn't as interesting to look at due to slower production rates and more thoroughly enclosed machinery, but it was interesting to learn the specifics of the process. I had no idea that the injected material was forced into the molds with hundreds of tons of force and that the molds had to me internally cooled in order to have the products set fast enough. I also learned that injection molded plastics are harder to recycle back into raw material because the process puts so much stress on the chemical makeup. But according to Barry, our tour guide this seeming lack of manufacturing efficiency is negated by how little waste material is formed in the process compared to thermoforming.

What influences design?

To summarize the textbook, the primary force in influencing product design in a nation where product design is a major industry (developed country, free market economy) is desire. Wants and needs control economies, and in most developed countries, most people have most of their actual needs met. therefore want people want is a huge factor, and -- it seems to me -- a rather cyclical factor. Much of what people perceive as needs come from advertising and media that play on the idea of creating a better life. Fashion, color ways, patterns, and line styles are in constant flux so product designers often use the fashionable aesthetic in conjunction with a novel improvement on former products or processes to create desire. An emerging aesthetic is that which plays towards mindfulness, eco friendliness, and efficiency. This comes in the context of environmental degradation and massive material science advances, so one could argue that environmental factors and scientific pursuits are major design influences as well. People today are more conscious of what happens at the end of the life of their product, so when a product can be made cost effectively with recycleable material it becomes a selling point for desire, more than it is a necessary tool for sustainability. So the cycle repeats. There is eco conciousness, and new materials, so a product is advertised as the future, as better, as necessary. People see this happening, recognize the fashion and desire to be a part of it, creating a demand. This is a cynical explanation for an example of a good and beneficial trend, but it is nonetheless true. Even our desire for a sheer volume of things, useful or no, is a manufactured symptom of a consumerist economy.

Design and Designing

     I was happy --while reading this section-- to find that there was a heavy emphasis on thinking. Both how we store information and how we retrieve it with stimuli are very important no matter the field, but it seems design has a special application of the extensive and complicated storage systems in our brain. We carry a tremendous volume of information in our heads, but it is useless without the ability to retrieve specific information that relates to the task at hand. So it seems that part of being a designer,  and understanding design is helping ourselves make our retrieval system more efficient in the way that we work through design processes as individuals and groups. One method the selected reading notes is through the tools of software we have available to search and retrieve specific information for the purpose of acting as stimuli to connect and reinforce our own knowledge, experience, and emotion while pursuing a design task. Of course this is far from the full package and that is why different mantras for the design process are so dutifully followed today. Within those there are many consistent tactics. Individual mind mapping, brainstorming, group brain storming and ideation, collage and mood boards, mass sketching, and many other tools help the designer to first and foremost understand what they know/feel about a subject by connecting the dots of their mental storage, as well as creating a more focused or simplified realm of material, mood, intent within which, meaningful work is more feasible.

Waste=Food

Waste=Food Response

Jack hoard

            I have always had an interest in designing after nature. The natural world has had 4 billion years to learn innumerable ways to be an efficient part of an ever-changing system. It is this concept that inspired the title of the film “Waste=Food.” In the natural world it is very rare to see a byproduct or “waste” that is not an immediate factor in maintaining the survival of a species or ecosystem, often times directly as food.

It is only humans that create such outlandish and varying types of waste, and subsequently damage environments greatly. It is a sad fact our consumer based economies and societies will most likely continue to accelerate the amount of waste that they produce. All is not lost however. We just need to redirect out profit minded systems to recognize that waste is ultimately lost profit. Almost all waste can be reduced, altered, refined, or reused so that it becomes a viable part of either the biosphere or technosphere in a way that benefits industry, whether through reducing taxed carbon footprint, increasing worker moral, reducing energy cost, or making businesses more self sufficient. Effectively, waste can become food for business.

            Businesses following this “Inteligent Product System”  can make huge difference in the amount of waste humans produce, and the way we utilize resources. Currently we use up an estimated 4-6,000 times as much topsoil as we replenish through all types of industrial processes. Our current use of raw material is incredibly inefficient. one example being that it can take as much as 50,000 lbs of raw materials to create a 3,000 lb car. Thankfully, companies like Nike are  adopting smarter and more efficient systems in the hope of  being waste free by the year 2020.

 

  Some general methods for attaining goals such as this are:

·      Green roofs: reduce energy costs in winter and summer, naturally filters and uses rainwater that would become industrial runoff, creates habitat for native species, naturally cleans the air, drastically increases the life of the roof.

·      Responsible sourcing: for instance in the textile industry, buying biodegradable fibers, and eco-friendly dyes makes product waste easier to recycle, and if it is not able to be used as textile it can be sold to farmers as organic, biodegradable top soil protection and nutrient infuser.

·      Designing “Cradle to Cradle”:  Designing products to be more easily assembled and disassembled with reusable, non-toxic material creates more flexible business models, and a product people are more likely to recycle

·      Natural Insutrial Parks:  filling open space in industrial parks with the native ecosystem not only provides habitat for species, but improves employee morale and helps to brand the business with a more sustainable image.

Watching “Waste=food” has made me less pessimistic about the consumerist culture in which we make and sell goods. I am interested in designing for more sustainable systems and my view has been broadened to looking at how those systems can be built from the ground up, using existing infrastructure. Learning a few specific tactics that are being employed most effectively helps to guide my design process to fit what will surely become common industrial practices, if not from the success of others than through necessity.

Lawrence Paper Company

As the name suggests, Lawrence Paper Company is a company based out of Lawrence, KS that specializes in making paper products, primarily corrugated cardboard.

They produce, cardboard sheets, boxes, and other packaging, as well as custom cardboard displays.

Lawrence Paper Company has an incredibly wide market. Really anyone that needs cardboard boxes or displays.

The fabrication process begins with gigantic rolls of paper stacked like a forest in the storage section of the facility. Rolls are transported to a huge machine that crimps and glues the brown paper to become sheets of corrugate. These sheets are stacked and moved to a punch that creates the blanks to be shipped to a given customer. These can be any type of box, cutout, or display you could imagine.

For a company that mainly makes cardboard I was not disappointed by the tour. The environment was very cool with the massive machines and forest of paper rolls, even though not all parts of the factory were active.  It was cool how the primary machine that made corrugate just kind of ate paper rolls and spat out sheets, but I wish I could have seen more of the inner mechanism. The most interesting part was definitely speaking with the designers about the process for designing displays that are both functional and aesthetically appealing while working solely with the cardboard material constraint. Additionally they had a cool paint set up and it was nice to hear that their excess paint is recycled.

Huhtamaki

Huhtamaki is a paper product fabrication company founded in Finland, with several plants in the U.S.  We toured the DeSoto facility, which primarily made fountain drink cups, coffee cups, and ice cream containers.

Huhtamaki primarily fabricates the items listed above, but also collects their industrial waste paper from all over and uses them to make the Chinet product line. In addition, they have their own shop for machining parts for all of their custom manufacturing equipment.

Huhtamaki supplies an insane list of customers including Burger King, McDonald's, Costco, sysco, Ben & Jerry's, Kroger, and many others. Our tour guide said "If you've used a paper cup in Kansas recently, it was probably made here."

While the primary material utilized by Huhtamaki is paper, they also used adhesives, clay, "commodity plastic resins," metals, and engineered plastics (like UHMW and Polyacetal) for their machine shop.

Huge rolls of paper with varying thicknesses are unrolled, cut to size, rerolled and stored for the next step of production. A roll for a given product is then coated in a microfilm of clay to prevent print failure, printed on, coated in a microfilm of polyethelene on both sides, dried and cut into sheets which contain the blanks for various products. These blanks are die cut, and then fed into machines which form, glue, press, and roll them into the correct shape. they are then hand packed into plastic sleeves, which are then put into boxes and stacked for transport.

I was not super excited to visit a company that makes paper cups, but I must say I was impressed with the level of technology used, the amount of human work that was still involved, Huhtamaki's environmental mindfulness, and also the general quality of the tour. Everything was explained in detail and questions were answered thoroughly starting with the presentation on the materials of packaging  and products that encompassed far more than just Huhtamaki's processes.