Luis de Sousa Brand X - Oct 2015
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Introduction Discover / Define
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Initial Research The Current Situation Trends Opportunities Workshop
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Develop
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Developing a Brand Identity Manifest DNA Target Semantics The Graphic Elements Waste Desk Research What’s Wrong with what we eat? Window Farming How Can We Eat Our Landscapes? Visit to the Kitchen Store Developing a Product Satoyama Machine VS. Manual Other Industrial Methods Washing Methods British American Early Concepts Developing a Concept Testing the Concept Prototyping
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Deliver
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Final Product Poster Brochure Conclusion
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The project Brand X is about how our home and its environment could evolve in a five year-time span. It focused in many different areas such as, Rest, Storage, Leisure, Work, Eat, Boundaries, amongst others. Each area would be assigned to a group, which in turn would identify a common need or opportunity and develop a brand around it. The brand’s definition and research would be made in groups and then each member would individually create a product, whilst assurin strong cohesion with the others. This would assure an effective representation of the brand and its values. Our group consisted of three members and we worked with Eat.
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Initial Research The Current Situation Trends Opportunities Workshop
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The project started with a class brainstorm activity around each topic. Once we separated in distinct groups, we interpreted the information related to Eat and divided it in categories to analyse it in more depth. We added additional information and finally developed an initial idea around food and the act of eating in general. The topics were divided in 7 categories: social, survival, health, economical, production, distribution and sustainability. We then defined at which areas each member would look at and come back with the findings. In my case I looked at production, distribution and sustainability.
Initial Research My research started by looking at our current reality and how things work. What are the positive and negative aspects? Perhaps what was once considered good or correct is no longer viable in our contemporary reality. There was a boom around food in the 1950’s and the world has changed and evolved a lot since then, yet we still live under the same processes and mindset when it comes to food production and distribution. 6
The current industrial and distributional process is purely defined by economics, marketing and a lack of governmental initiatives to change. While a part of the world’s populations eat the wrong things and in the wrong proportions, the other part has barely any access to food unless via self-production. Indusctiral food prdouction relies heavily on machinery, preservation methods and many chemicals.
30% of the food produced is never eaten. The definition of food waste relates to the end of the chain of food production, not the loss that happens initially, yet a lot of waste occurs even before products reach supermarkets.
33% of the world’s land is agricultural. Due to the overproduction and intensity of chemicals there is a constant need for new places as the soil becomes easily exhausted. There is a large amount of water used in agriculture, especially when considering the whole process, of growing the vegetables but also feeding livestock, etc.
The Current Situation
Meat production has a massive impact on the environment, not only due to the water consumed, but also energy used, gas produced, etc.
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In order to make people eat locally and know the provenance of their meat, there is a concept of mobile slaughterhouse that travels around certain locations in the US. There is a project in California that looks at endangered species of fish in the ocean. It consists of “closing” part of the waters in order to allow the species to reproduce more effectively.
Rice is the main form of sustenance for poor countries. Due to flooding and genetic modification there is a real threat to its future. Scientists are investigating wild areas - such as Cape York, Australia - to look for the wild specimen or rice in order to develop stronger species for the future. Ugly Fruit is a movement in Lisbon where people can buy fruit that did not meet the beauty standards for supermarkets at a lower price. It became very successful and recognised internationally by environmental agencies and the media. Soylent is a drink developed in San Francisco, based on all the nutrients the human body needs. It’s made out of the chemical nutrients mixed with water. What started as a way to save money on food became extremely popular among people that “don’t have time to have lunch”, despite the ethical issues it raises. 8
As people in cities search for a healthier lifestyle and products with quality, there is a growing trend of urban plots. There are even state owned plots assigned to people as long as they keep it, as we can see in Edinburgh’s many public parks.
Trends
A lot of urban plots grow illegally by the roads whenever green land is found. Although the principle of growing your own products is correct, such lands re poisoned with gases, combustion and vibrations from cars.
Opportunities At the end of the week, the group presented the four opportunities detected and discussed the one they would focus on for the project. These were Social, Waste, Food Diversity and the Everyday and finally Grow your Own.
There many eating habits: some eat with their hands, others share plates or use cutlery. We looked at the different cultural aspects and background surrounding eating habits. How could these be maintained, enhanced or even linked between themselves.
Many people try to grow their own vegetables and many others would like to do it as well. Lack of space and time are real obstacles for GIY. Are there ways to facilitate this process and even empower everyone at home to do it easily?
Households unconsciously produce a lot of waste. Can people make waste part of their lives and therefore prevent it, or even repurpose it? Can we reduce waste in our homes, thus becoming more sustainable and hopefully create a positive impact?
Many people enjoy eating different foods and even cook them, however the stress and lack of time in everyday life often leads people to become bored with what they eat. Can there be a way to increase better eating habits while increasing diversity in meals?
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Workshop The second week of the project consisted in a workshop on Brand Archeology. During this week we learned how to analyse a brand, its values and its DNA by looking at the eight steps of brand identity. We then used these steps to analyse two different brands in the same business sector. At the end of this exercise we could use the knowledge acquired to develop our own brand identity.
Brand Identity 1 - Definition of Organisation 2 - Identify Structures 3 - The Basic Elements of Corporate/ Organisational Identity 4 - Central Idea 5 - The Fifth Element 6 - Identity and Variations 7 - Essence VS Purpose 8 - Brand Decoding
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After the exercise we started developing our own brand identity. We started by developing a mood board to provide a feeling of our brand, along with a brand name and early logo possibilities.
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Developing a Brand Identity Manifest DNA Target Semantics The Graphic Elements Waste Desk Research What’s Wrong with what we eat? Window Farming How Can We Eat Our Landscapes? Visit to the Kitchen Store Developing a Product Satoyama Machine VS. Manual Other Industrial Methods Washing Methods British American Early Concepts Developing a Concept Testing the Concept Prototyping
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Developing a Brand Identity After the workshop we started working on our brand identity. We developed our Manifest, Brand DNA, identified our Target, generated a palette of Semantics and created our Graphic Elements
Turn things around.
Turn up, turn down and turn things around! Let’s play around waste, we have it and so do you but maybe together we can have less. Should we work on it? Small steps can change our daily lives. Because everything starts at home.
Brand DNA The DNA once again was to demonstrate how our products were to be made easy and playful. People could see them for the first time and immediately understand ow they work.
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The Manifest The manifest was wrote with the aim to be simple, engaging and pass a clear message. We wanted it to be in accordance with our DNA, thus creating a brand connection.
Target Our Target are families who care about the world around and try to live a healthier and better life despite the stress of everyday life in the city. These people don’t necessarily need to have a lot of space or financial means to own our products and contribute to themselves and their environment.
Semantics For the semantics we wanted to present fun colours and materials that would work well with each other. They also needed to represent are Manifest and DNA, while remaining enjoyable, attractive and agreeable to touch.
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Graphic Elements For our graphic elements we developed four brand colours, logo, patterns and communication standards, such as fonts and styles.
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Green c49 m1 y39 k0 Grey c4 m4 y4 k0 Yellow c4 m16 y95 k0 Blue c17 m0 y7 k0
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Education
Artefacts
New Approach
Repurpose
WASTE
Service
Fun / Engaging
Re-use
Preservation
Before
Prevention
Physical
WASTE
After
Complete Service BRAND 19
What’s wrong with what we eat? What’s wrong with what we eat is a TED talk by Mark Bittman where he discusses the consequences of our current eating habits. Some facts: - After energy production, livestock is the biggest emitter of gases to the atmosphere - 10 Billion animals are killed each year - 1950 - 2000 - The world’s population doubled, yet meat consumption increased five times - People eat double of the protein needed
Desk Research
Leftover box that would make itself noticeable amongst other inside the fridge, as time goes by.
Window Farming A few years ago NASA developed a way to grow vegetables inside (to be used in Mars, for instance) using a hydroponic technology. Using this process, there was a movement which developed the concept of window farming where people could grow their own vegetables as long as they had a window at home.
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A fridge farm? Powered with fake natural light, using hydroponic energy and compost from waste?
How can we eat our landscapes? In Todmorden, England, the population started reclaiming unused land to grow vegetables accessible to everyone. It became very popular attracting many visits, and the whole town engaged with the movement. Their goal was to make every bit of land “edible� and free to anyone.
Could future building constructions englobe a communal plot powered by the compost waste from the households?
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Visit to Kitchen Store
Everything in the kitchen environment is very well-thought, well-designed and appealing to the eye. There is an excess of products that only focus on a single task: a kiwi cutter? There is some evidence of products conceived to think around waste, but these don’t really come up with a solution of what can be done with it afterwards. Despite everything being so designed, there is not much available around the process of cleaning the dishes and the sink itself. The amount of water wasted in this process is vast, especially considering the many households that don’t have a dishwasher and struggle with the space. What if the process of doing the dishes could be improved or redesigned?
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Developing a Product
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Sharing / Portions / Serving After gathering the idea on which areas we were going to focus on, we developed scenarios to analyse the different situations that surround it.
Storage / Leftovers / Visibility With these three areas we identified that our products would work together and create a solution of storage, eat, and wash.
Eat Washing Up / Preparation
Store
Wash 25
Satoyama Satoyama is a village in Japan that has its own traditional water supply system. In this small place, people have small tanks instead of sinks where they wash their food, drink water and do the dishes. Inside these tanks they carps that eat all the leftovers and purify the water due to their physical attributes. The water leaves the house in the same manner as it entered: clean. It goes into the natural water flow system and is used for plants and animals. This village as been a case study of how natural processes can solve major sewage problems. It also retains a rich flora and fauna due to the lack of pollution and conservation.
The french designer Mathieu Lehanneur developed his Local River project, which was an aquarium that worked as a home storage for fish and greens. The greens would be maintained by the fishes that would purify the waters.
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Machine VS Manual I also looked at how industrial dishwashers work, at its specific steps and the water wasted in the process. Finally I looked at other types of washing, such as car washing or even at assembly lines where things only work if all steps are respected in its specific order.
If dishwashers save more water than hand washing, how could we make the latter more efficient? For that I looked at how these machines work, and if there were aspects we could learn from and apply to the manual process.
Other Industial Methods
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British Washing Method The British method consists of filling the sink with hot water, wash the glasses, dishes, cutlery and finally pans. Afterwards these are put on a drying rack without being rinsed.
Has drying rack allowing dishes to dry and the water flow to the sink. These also offer more space in smaller spaces.
As the washing is done in the same water, it produces less waste and becomes more environmentally cautious.
The drying process with no rinse is not the most appropriate as there are many chemicals in the detergent that remain in the dishes.
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Wash test Two dishes, two sets of knife, fork, spoon and two glasses. 1L = 11secs For these items it took 55 seconds to fill in the sink to wash them afterwards, resulting in 5 Litres of water used.
American Washing Method The typical american sink has two basins and no drying rack. The water is constantly running while doing the dishes and these are dried with a towel in the end. Although this process keeps the dishes very clean, it causes a lot of water to be wasted. The double basin allows to separate dishes - one to wash, the other to rinse - however there is no drying rack, which forces people to dry dishes manually or get the kitchen bench wet.
There is usually a hose present, which is very useful to rinse the dishes as it reaches every point of the sink.
Drying the dishes with a towel is not appropriate, unless a fresh clean one is used every time. Towels become humid, which is the ideal condition for bacteria to expand.
Wash test Two dishes, two sets of knife, fork, spoon and two glasses. 1L = 11secs For the specified amount of items, it took 1 minute and 55 seconds, resulting in a 10,45 L of water. 29 In both tests 3.4L of water were used just to heat it, which were not included in the totals.
Early concepts
Layers of the sink? Clean water - Items that don’t require an intensive washing (ex: glass of water) Leftover water from the light wash up - Used in dishes, cutlery, etc Bottom Layer - Intensive washing and scrubbing (pans, etc)
Adpating Sink Sinks provide a rigid shape which many times is not the adequate for the type of washing needed. Could the sink be built in a material that adjusts according to the item and its weight, thus pushing the water to that same area and reducing its use?
Pressure Sink Like new pressure showers that reduce water consumption, could a sink be connected to tap and distribute pressured water evenly around the sink?
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Shape Game Sink Just like shape children games and with the steps of industrial washing in mind, could a sink with defined areas for each item be developed? It would allow users to make the correct use of resources during the task, thus preventing excesses.
Toaster Sink Based on the pre-wash process, could recipient consisting of water and detergent be created, where dishes were washed and then rinsed in the “normal� sink?
Vegetables Water Many people wash vegetables in the sink while the drain hole is covered in order to re-use the water for dishes after the meal. Could a double bottom sink be created, where clean water is kept and reused when needed? Watering Can The water used in the dishes - as long as it was used an organic detergent - is full of nutrients and can be re-used, for instance in plants. This basin can change its shape and become a watering can to be used afterwards in plants. 31
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Developing a Concept During the tests between the American and British sink, I noticed both the processes involved hot water, just like any other washing process, whether mechanical or manual. Why is hot water needed? Most importantly, what happens to water wasted while waiting for it to heat up? In both processes 3.4 L were spent just heating up the water and this happened in my own kitchen where the boiler is right there and therefore the waiting is minimal compared to larger houses. With that in mind I started developing a concept where that water could effectively become part of the process.
1 - Fill a container with the water used while waiting for it to heat
2 - Once the hot water is coming out fill 1/3 of sink
4 - Rinse with water inside the container
5 - Place the dishes in the drying rack
Why use Hot Water?
- Easier and faster to remove dirt - Kills bacteria and microorganisms - More effective with grease removal - Faster to dry
3 - Add liquid and wash the dishes
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Testing the concept In order to assure the concept’s integrity, I tested it in my sink to understand how it could work in a real life scenario. Using the same steps described in the previous page, this test allowed to identify issues that needed to be tackled in order to make it work, such as how the water needed to be evenly poured during the rinse and how it only leaves one hand free to grab the dishes. Could there be way to rinse the dishes without touching them?
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I then looked at how much space would the container take inside the sink, and what sort of shape it could have. For that I used boxes with 3.4L and then a plastic bag as I could change its shape and detect how it could cause less impact. Our goal as a brand was to keep our products simple, resorting to manual methods rather than technological. In the American sink, the hose proved to be quite useful and would be ideal for the container. In order to pump the water to the hose, I looked at many manual pumping systems and how these could be applied to this product. At the same I developed cardboard prototypes in order to understand the three dimensional product and its context. 35
Prototyping
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After the testing, I started sketching and developing an aesthetic for the product. Inspired by Ole Jensen’s washing-up bowl and its playful character, I initially created a rounded shape alluding to a pillow, as it could inflate and deflate according to the amount of water inside it. I quickly realised that, though those details could make it friendlier, they take extra space from the sink, which was much needed. After testing the concept and identifying its issues, I quickly realised the need of having the dish ware organised in the sink in order to ensure the rising would be easily done. In that sense, I incorporated a rack and went for a slightly more rigid structure. In one of the tutorials it was pointed out that the aesthetics of the hose, pump and the water lid were simple and playful, but could also be more attractive, even sexier. This comment made me redesign these outputs: the lid was designed at the same level of the container along with the pump that would rest at that same height. As I couldn’t easily incorporate the logo on the product, I decided to redesign the hose in order to work simultaneously as a logo when in the resting position.
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In order to complement the roughness of the prototype, I developed a 3D model, where I could provide a refined and better detailed look of the model. I explored it in the different colours to give it the level of perfection and materiality I could not provide by hand.
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Final Product Poster Brochure Conclusion
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Final Product Pimp My Fridge I’m easy-going and love moving around! Now don’t ask me to hide leftovers, i’ll make sure everything is in sight.
Share I’m all about sharing, the more the merrier! I love to see forks, knives and hands from everyone, just make sure you leave me empty in the end.
Wash-less I’m an avid drinker! Fill my container while you wait for the tap water to heat. In the end use me to shower those soapy dishes. 43
I’m easy-going and love moving around! Now don’t ask me to hide leftovers, i’ll make sure everything is in sight.
I’m all about sharing, the more the merrier! I love to see forks, knives and hands from everyone, just make sure you leave me empty in the end.
I’m an avid drinker! Fill my container while you wait for the tap water to heat. In the end use me to shower those soapy dishes.
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Poster The poster was inspired in a 1940’s advert from Paul Rand, that seemed ideal to for our three product display. While Diane worked on the graphic layout, I worked on the texts and renderings. The final result was communicative, simple and playful.
Brochure The brochure was aligned with the aesthetics of the poster and the texts expanded. In order to set us apart from conventional brochures, we used a bottom pin to tie the pages, creating a simpler interaction.
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Conclusion Brand X was a very enjoyable project. Similarly to Brand Experience, in the previous year, it approached the same branding topic. This time however, we were requested to create a brand from scratch. It was also focused in a near future, rather than the present, and was group based. It was a challenging process as our group was composed of three members from schools with different methodologies, who had never met or worked together before. Being in a group also allowed us to produce more and deliver a deeper and richer brand development. The topic was very interesting and once we found a way to meet everyone’s needs and apply our skills, the results made us happy. It was good to see that the feedback to our project was positive and how it was easily identifiable as a family of products representing one brand. With regards to my own product, I found interesting the approach of water waste, as it is something that happens almost unconsciously. We may be careful when taking a shower, but we rarely think about it when doing the dishes. I liked a lot the idea of the sink and was happy with the product. Nevertheless I had to follow certain guidelines in order to make it part of our brand, which makes me wonder how it would become as a product on its own. I was fascinated with the traditional sewage system in Japan, and would have enjoyed to explore ways to bring such an ecosystem into our homes in the city. In terms of the product developed for the project, I would have liked to develop more its physical aesthetics and functionality, as there were certain issues I could detect once the final prototype was completed.
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Hose to Rinse Dishes Manual Pump Water Entry
Cutlery cup / Universal Sink Cap 47