C O B R E. by We.
Pamela Ibanez | Seju Kwon | Samantha Lebofsky | Hannah Matluck Integrative Research and Design | Robert Rabinovitz | Final Project Book formatted and designed by Samantha Lebofsky
Table of Contents. 5 Introduction 7 Team 9 About We. 11 Our Process 13 The Problem 17 What is Being Done 18 Our Opportunity
19 Research
21 Before the Brainstorm 23 Mind Maps 27 Initial Plastic Research 35 Tap Water Cities 37 Other Materials 43 Personas 57 Survey Results 59 Case Studies 69 Our Solution
71 Creation
87 Implementation
73 Brand Development 81 Initial Sketches 85 Final Bottle
89 Initial Ideas 91 Website 93 Social Media 95 Collaboration 99 Goals
I N T R O D U C T I O N
The Team. Pamela Ibanez is a junior at Parsons The New School for Design studying Strategic Design & Management. She is highly interested in plastics and finding a new way to solve the issue, but with a focus on marketing. Her sun sign is a Leo, she is from Texas, and prefers kittens.
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Samantha Lebofsky is a senior at Parsons, studying Strategic Design & Management. She is originally from South Florida and misses the sun (and her tan) dearly. She’s interested in new ways of moving away from harmful chemicals in everyday products, and thinks finding a solution for this in plastic bottles would keep a lot of people healthy.
Hannah is currently a junior at Parsons, studying Strategic Design and Management. She’s from New York and currently lives in Brooklyn. This topic has been an interest to her for a while as she has pursued several school projects on it and also has always had a passion for healthy eating and living and spreading this sense of education and awareness to others.
Seju is currently a junior at Parsons, studying Strategic Design and Management. She’s from Seoul, Korea and currently living in NY. She is a proud mother of a baby French Bulldog.
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We work to provide solutions to problems. We strive to be respected. We lead by example. We help innovate change.
About We. Global Warming | Consumption | The Quality of Life We. was created with the thought of collaboration in mind. At We. our focus is to think of everything together in a “we” sense. Innovative thinking and implementing a change can’t be done alone, it is a group process and at We. that is our main goal. Collaboration for the future. Our logo and our design processes were thought of with simplicity, sophistication, and universality in mind. Our goal is to be able to bring everyone together because it is never “us” and “them”, but We.
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Our Process. Research
What is the problem? Why is it a problem?
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Creation
What are some solutions that can be used to solve the problem?
Ideation
How can we apply these solutions in real life?
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The Problem. The use of plastics in various different markets has cause the material to become a danger to our environment. With plastics being used in almost all everyday products and the material not having the ability to fully decompose, the battle against plastics is a fight we have to fight together. Plastic pollution is growing at a rapid rate due to the use of plastics in various consumer sectors. Global warming is continuously increasing, causing us to come closer and closer to reaching the third degree. While the majority of the population in America is aware of the environmental, health, political and economic problems that plastic causes due to advertisements and education, not everyone knows the full picture. It is a problem that everyone subconsciously contributes to, which is why we know that there is tremendous room to step in and attempt to solve.
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What is Being Done There are many different companies, charities, politicians, and even celebrities that are bringing the issue of plastics and global warming to the consumer front so that the population is more aware of what is happening to Earth. Because there is still some back and forth between different politicians about whether or not the need for a greener Earth is actually real, it may be a while until there is a country wide law in effect against the use of the material. However, several cities can have an impact on how much plastic is used by charging extra for plastic bags and for purchasing plastic bottles. There are also several ways to not use plastic by buying reusable water bottles, recycling, and more!
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Our Opportunity We believe that there is a lot of opportunity for innovation and to incite change within the world of plastic pollution. With the use of plastics not slowing down and with many people not thinking before using, we need to use a new way of marketing to fight against plastic. By marketing toward millennials and creating new greener, non-plastic lifestyle, the future of our country can start making an impact now.
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R E S E A R C H.
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Before the Brainstorm At the beginning of the semester we were given the task of creating our sketches and ideas on topics that were affecting today’s environment and our quality of life. While we all focused on different topics, when we met for the first time we realized that we focused on plastics and how to be environmentally friendly in the modern, urban world. After discussing what topic to brainstorm on first, we decided on plastic pollution.
Mind Maps. About Our first group brainstorm was centered on the idea of plastic pollution and all the areas it reaches in corporately and environmentally. We went through a range of topics that were connected to plastic pollution including mircrobeads, sneakers, packaging, Tupperware, and much more! When talking we all noticed that we all carried plastic bottles and realized that the most obvious use of plastic pollution was still not being fixed. We are all aware of the dangers of plastic bottles and yet we still use them? Why?
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About After the initial question of why plastic bottles are still being heavily used and produced, we decided to create a mind map to go deeper into plastic and reusable bottles. In the mind map we wanted to write down our opinions on bottles as well as allud After going through all of our research and gathering all the insights we received from the research, we decided to tackle the tough problem of getting more millennials to purchase and use reusable water bottles. We want to do this by changing up the game and focus more on branding and a new material: Copper. By introducing a new material for a
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Initial Research on Plastics.
Health Problems Plastic leaches into the water it holds, which has been linked to health issues such as reproductive problems and different types of cancer. In addition, hormone disrupting phthalates leach into the bottled water we drink after as little as 10 weeks of storage.
Environmental Impact Plastic bottles is the most prevalent form of pollution found. Every square mile of the ocean has over 46,000 pieces of floating plastic in it. Rather than being recycled, about 75 percent of the empty plastic bottles end up in our landfills, lakes, streams and oceans.
46,000
pieces of floating plastic in every square mile of the ocean.
75%
of plastic bottles end up in landfills, lakes, streams and oceans.
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Oil The production of water bottles uses 17 million barrels of oil a year, and it takes three times the amount of water to make the bottle as it does to fill it. The bottled water industry is ruining the planet. The production and transportation of bottled water wastes an incredible amount of fossil fuels. Bottled water production and transportation in the United States uses the energy, equivalent of about 32 to 54 million barrels of oil.
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17 million
barrels of oil are used every year to make plastic water bottles.
3X
the amount of water held in a bottle is used to make it.
Governmental Actions
August 2014
California, being the first state to do so, issued a statewide ban on single-use plastic bags.
25%
of plastic in the U.S. gets recycled.
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While some states are focusing on implementing effective recycling programs, others are attempting to impose bans or fees to discourage the use of plastic bags altogether. In August 2014, California became the first state to enact legislation imposing a statewide ban on single-use plastic bags at large retail stores, requiring a 10 cent minimum charge for recycled paper bags, reusable plastic bags, and compostable bags at certain locations. There are no laws for plastic bottles, but there is recycling and container-deposit legislation. Beverage container deposit laws, or bottle bills, are designed to reduce litter and capture bottles, cans, and other containers for recycling. Container-deposit legislation (CDL) is any law that requires collection of a monetary deposit on soft-drink, juice, milk, water, alcoholic-beverage, and/or other reusable packaging at the point of sale. Plastic water bottles can be disposed of in at least three ways: curbside recycling, returning the bottles for deposits, or simply placing them in with general trash. However, recycling is a very complicated process and only 25 percent of plastic in the U.S. gets recycled.
Top 10 Tap W
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Water Cities.
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Other Materials.
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Stainless Steel We came across these relevant facts in our reseach: Stainless steel is for the most part “stainless,� but the protective coating wears down over time. 88% of stainless steel is recyclable. It easily heats up in warm temperatures, which can be an issue during hot summers. The metal can also lend to a metallic taste in the water. The material is durable and lightweight, but could dent if dropped.
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A Visit to Material Connexion
We visited Materal Connexion as part of our initial materials research. Material Connexion is a company that houses various innovative and sustainable materials, helping clients “create the products of tomorrow through smart materials and design thinking.” Above are some materials we found interesting. From left to right: Bioleather made of bacterial cellulose, a secretion from bacteria fed a sugary solution. Moz graphite, a decorative aluminum or stainless steel. TIIKERI, a bio-based panel made up of 50% recycled FSC certified sorghum straw and 50% acrylic binder. ReWall® Nakedboard, a recycled board comprised of polyethylene coated beverage cartons, cups and other paper goods.
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Copper Copper has been the prime choice for plumbing and piping for over 70 years. Approximately 95 percent of existing homes are equipped with copper plumbing and more than 80 percent of new homes are built with copper water-supply piping. Copper tube is governed and regulated under established product standards. Copper is popular because it is a natural, environmentally friendly material that won’t crack or crumble years after installation. It is also corrosion resistant, light and rigid, leakproof, dependable and leadfree. It generall outlasts the building it is installed in. Drinking from copper vessels have also been known to provide health benefits. Copper bottles have been known to help the digestive system work better, aid in weight loss, slow down aging, kill bacteria, and stimulate your brain. Copper can also help water promote increased skin health and melanin production.
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Personas.
Meagan
Kyle
Jane
female, age 25
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Megan the Environmentalist Megan is an environmental activist who lives in Brooklyn, New York and works at a non-profit that specializes in environmental pollution problems. She has lived in Brooklyn for the majority of her life and has had experience in various professional fields, however, has found this to be of her greatest interest and passion. She has become incredibly aware and knowledgeable of the pollution problems across the country and has made it her life’s mission to help try and solve them. She bikes to work every day, recycles all of the plastic’s that she uses and every morning she goes to get her coffee, she brings her own mug with her.
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A Day in Megan’s Life.
male, age 28
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Kyle the Athlete Kyle is a baseball player living in San Francisco. He spends his days training for games and hanging out with his buddies after practice. He is constantly in peak shape and carries a duffel bag in his car that has all of his athletic gear so that he can workout or practice at anytime. He tends to only purchase products that are in sports stores or that are convenient to buy. He doesn’t care is as much about being on trend, but he still wants to look clean and put together. He lives by his water bottle because he needs to constantly stay healthy and hydrated. He prefers bottles that are large and carry lots of water so that he doesn’t have to keep refilling it.
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A Day in Kyle’s Life.
female, age 25
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Jane the College Student Jane is a student at NYU studying business at Stern. She currently lives in the dorms at school and even though she owns a water bottle, she doesn’t always use it. She has several different bottles that she bought because they looked pretty and she saw them on social media. She needs a bottle that is convenient to carry and that fits well in her backpack. She also wants a bottle that’s cool to carry and that is on trend. Her goal is to be able to stay hydrated during the day because she is constantly running from class to internship. She tried to stay healthy by going to the gym and loves to spend mornings in the park.
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A Day in Jane’s Life.
Survey Results The majority of people surveyed do own a reusable water bottle. This result showed us that around 80 percent of people are interested in using a reusable bottle, for understandably various reasons. The other 20 percent may or may not be interested in a reusable bottle; a portion of them may have been swayed away in the past for various negative aspects of the bottles currently on the market. The amount that people surveyed actually use their reusable water bottle varies greatly. Slightly more than a third of people surveyed admit to using it every day while the same percentage of people admit to never using their bottle. The difference is made up by people who use their bottles sparingly, around once a week. This discrepancy proves a need for a new bottle.
Most people surveyed, around 80 percent, either don’t purchase a water bottle daily or purchase just one each day. This is seemingly a positive figure, however, it does not line up with the previous results showing that most people either don’t own a reusable bottle or don’t use the one they do own. Since it is widely recommended that people drink 8 glasses of water a day, they are either not drinking enough or the results are not an accurate depiction. An overwhelming majority of people surveyed admit to knowing and understanding the damage that arises from plastic water bottle consumption. This supports the statistic of most people surveyed purchasing and owning reusable water bottles, but still reinforces the concept that there is a greater issue keeping people from using their bottles. Although people know the importance of diminishing plastic consumption, they are still purchasing plastic bottles. Most people surveyed say that they recycle their water bottles. However, studies show that only 25 percent of plastic in the U.S. is recycled. This statistic does not align with our results, leading us to believe that the community within which we held the survey is more inclined to recycle than people in other parts of the country. This realization shows that other questions could have been slightly biased, displaying a more positive scenario than what currently exists.
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Case Studies. 58
SOMA. About
Soma is a company based in NYC that created glass bottles, filters, and pitchers with design in mind. They wanted to create a functional, sustainable bottle and filter that didn’t use plastic and are simple to use. They are also a B Certified Corporation that gives back to the community through social and environmental justice and it is also a Made to Matter product that was handpicked by Target.
How They Help They have teamed up with certain charities, such as Charity: Water, to create limited edition products with proceeds going to help. They also donate to charities to provide clean water all around the world. Soma also strives to have sustainable packaging and supply chain partners.
Good/Bad Soma has created a minimalistic bottle that has a strong aesthetic and has a simple message. They have a small following but seem to be quickly growing. The only downside to their design is that it doesn’t have variety and it doesn’t have the ability to be flexible.
Swell. About
Launched in 2010 with a mission to rid the world of plastic bottles. They sell their signature bottles that come in a variety of patterns and colors and are in trend with the season. Made out of stainless steel, their bottles keep cold liquids cold for 24 hours and hot for 12 hours. They are sold in 35 countries worldwide.
How They Help They give back by being a proud supporter of the United States’ Fund for UNICEF and have donated a total of $200,00 since 2015. Swell also supports American Forests and Drink Up organizations.
Good/Bad They are able to stay on trend and relevant by coming out with lookbooks, videos, and creating a variety of different patterns. The stores they sell to tend to be known for their taste and they also can create custom designs for businesses. However, their bottle is quite expensive and it is very hard to clean. The stainless steel also absorbs the taste of liquids so it is hard to use one for more than one thing.
Kleen Kanteen. About Klean Kanteen is a family-owned company that introduced the first stainless steel, BPA-free, reusable water bottle in 2004. They are a B Corp certification, which means they have a private certification that issued to for-profit companies that help socially and environmentally. They sell water bottles, insulated bottles, food containers, kids containers.
How They Help They support a good handful of organizations that help fight against plastic pollution, promote safe consumer products, land & water conservation, and environmental stewardship. Through 1% For The Planet, they have contributed over $1.5 million to environmental organizations. They also have teamed up with the Breast Cancer Fund.
Good/Bad They have stayed true to their mission and their company goal by teaming up with many different organizations and giving back to social issues. They also have a well-known material and look. However, their bottle isn’t on trend and most people who will purchase their bottles are outdoorsy people or for convenience.
Plastic Pollution Coalition. About The Plastic Pollution Coalition is a growing global alliance that is working toward a completely plastic free future. Many well-known celebrities and world leaders, organizations, and businesses have teamed up and support the coalition and it’s fight. They offer resources and information about the use of plastic and ways for anyone to help.
How They Help They get the word out there about the use of plastic and the need to stop by giving readers what they need to know to fight and join the coalition. They provide resources including articles, videos, and pamphlets that give them what they need to know.
Good/Bad
The design of the website and their overall PR isn’t done very well and doesn’t attract a reader or person who is interested in learning more. They should be more vocal on their partnerships and use them to their advantage to create events.
Our Solution After going through all of our research and gathering all the insights we received from the research, we decided to tackle the tough problem of getting more millennials to purchase and use reusable water bottles. We want to do this by changing up the game and focus more on branding and a new material: copper. By introducing a new material for a bottle, with very many benefits, we think that we can bring in a fresh new take to the world of bottles.
C R E A
T I O N.
Brand Development. For our brand development, we focused on copper and other minerals, keeping a simple and modern identity that is aesthetically rich and on trend.
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We initially brainstormed logos using “copper� in different languages in order to emulate our goal of universality and bringing people together, reflective in our design firm. We initially chose to use variations of Helvetica Neue in an effort to stay consistent with our clean and modern design concept.
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Copr
Vask
Swahili
Astonian
Shaba
Tanso
Swahili
Filipino
Koppar
Cobre
Swedish
Cobre.
Spanish
C o b r e. 74
C O B R E. Taking a liking to the modern simplicity of Helvetica Neue, we decided on the “condensed bold� version of as the primary font for our Cobre. logo. We concluded with a color palette inspired by water, copper, and minimalistic ideas.
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C O B R E. C O B R E. C O B R E.
Initial Sketches.
When looking to create a new bottle, we wanted to first look at bottles that we thought were well designed and that seemed to nod in the direction we wanted to take to see what we liked and didn’t like. We also wanted to look at bottle shapes that were more commonly used than others in order to see what worked and what didn’t in terms of handles, lid shape, the colors variety, and other factors. Through examining different bottles, we were able to find out that we like the idea of slight variety. Meaning that we didn’t like it when the bottles came in different colors, but we liked it when they had different ways to create something different when it came to color-blocking or a handle. We also like more simple and minimalistic ideas that were more toward high functioning design rather than just making it pretty.
With our opinions and thoughts in mind we then moved on to sketching. We wanted to have some fun with shapes and see if we would be able to combine a funky vibe with a streamlined concept. We also wanted to create a bottle that is easy to clean, easy to carry, and is aesthetically pleasing. After having some trouble with coming up with ideas we all liked, we thought to look at the background and research of copper to see if it would inspire us to create something with not only design in mind, but meaning in mind. With all the research to back us up, we created a final bottle sketch (as label “Final� on the photo to the side) that fit the criteria we all wanted and had depth.
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Circular shape and minimal outside design inspired by the copper pipes that have been in use in our homes for over 70 years
The tall lid promotes share-ability between consumers and promotes overall togetherness.
The bottle will be made out of copper and will be able to keep cold liquids cold and hot liquids hot.
The tall shape and wide lid allow for easier cleaning and a more minimal look.
The height and width is similar to a normal plastic bottle so it is easy to fit in your bag.
IMPL EMEN
T.
Initial Ideas. Our first idea was to create an app that would let our consumers customize their bottles with embosses initials, stickers, or their company brand name! This will allow for our brand to stay true to it’s aesthetic while also allowing for mass customization. The app will also carry videos about plastic, messages from our partners, about our company, and many other things!
Our main way with communicating with our target market would be social media and a website. They would be able to keep our brand and aesthetic alive as well as help consumers learn more about who we are as a company and what our message is.
We want to incorporate sustainability and anti-plastic in all the spaces we can, even in our packaging. By having recycled materials as our packaging we can further help the fight against plastics. In order to spread the word about our packaging, we thought that we could create could ways to ship product that could maybe be reused by our consumer.
We would want to collab with different companies in order to reach different target markets. The first collab we thought of was to team up with Smart Water to create a pop-up shop where consumers would be able to buy a bottle and fill it up with everyone’s favorite bottled water through a keg. We would also want to collaborate with cool NYC stores that have sustainable morals as well as charities.
Because many people in New York City are too busy to read posters unless they are on the subway or on social media, we thought that postcards and stickers would be a better way to advertise as well as educate. We could pass out postcards in the street with stickers as well as give them in packages. These would also for our loyal consumers to always rep us and for them to be able to pass on the postcard to educate other future buyers!
In order to keep Cobre. trendy and it’s images constantly moving, we thought a lookbook would be best when advertising for different seasons and collaborating with different celebrities, stores, and charities. We can also use the lookbook to show our consumers what is currently going on in the fight against plastic and give them tips to help them!
Because we would be mostly marketing ourselves and selling our products online, the idea of having pop-up shops came up. We thought that we could have pop-ups during high selling and PR seasons like NYFW and holiday markets. This would allow consumers to get face-to-face with our product and try it out before they buy.
Website.
For our website, we wanted to focus on having a clean design that stayed true to our branding colors and kept in mind functionality. We want our target market to be able to look at our website at first glance and immediately be intrigued. We believe that having a good looking site and some good looking photos will increase session time and increase the percentage of returning users. The website will feature our products, have a bit about the company, how to support our organizations and put a green foot forward, and a lookbook we will update every season with updated photos of our bottle and editorial shots of our bottle in action. The lookbook will also contain blurbs about the organizations we are currently helping and teamed up with and tips for our consumers to help provide a cleaner tomorrow.
Social Media.
Since we are focusing so heavily on imagery and aesthetic for marketing our bottle to our target market, social media will be our ally. Instagram will be our main way of communicating with our consumers and as a way to present who we are as a company. By posting on Instagram, we can inform our followers on events, collaborations, new products, etc. all while staying in line with our brand visually. Eventually, we would like to go into pinterest and host Facebook and Instagram live sessions to bring the consumer into the world of Cobre.
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Collaboration: Working with New York based charities will help us gain respectability in the world of non-profits and also gain access to more opportunities to help provide clean water and prevent plastic pollution. Although we would want to eventually help a variety of different non-profits as to increase the amount of social justice we can do, we think it would be best to start with two that relate to both of our goals—conserve & provide water and prevent plastic pollution. The first charities that we would like to work with are Charity: Water and Plastic Oceans. We think that they both fit well to our needs and that we would be able to grow with them as a company. We hope that our bottle could provide support to these charities and that we would be able to host events, popup shops, and even create limited edition product in tandem with them to strengthen the support for them.
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Charity.
Collaboration: By collaborating with retail locations we will be able to reach the sector of our target market that doesn’t care as much about not using plastic and more about the look and feel of the actual bottle. Teaming up with brands that support activity, togetherness, sustainability, and other positive ideals can increase our consumer pool while also sticking to our own mission as a company. For our example we decided to collaborate with the company Outdoor Voices because of their goal to create apparel for everyday recreation and their devotion to quality products and a good brand. They are also a small company that is based in NYC, which makes it easier for us to reach out and make a collaboration a reality. Other stores and brands we were looking to were Reformation, Bandier, and Everlane.
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Retail.
Goals. Short-term In the short-tem, we would like to get the word out about our bottle and have people give us feedback so that we know what we can do to fix the bottle and use it for future research. We also want to create a good aesthetic that can be viewed over Instagram and on our website; we want our followers or early adopters looking at our brand to know who we are and be interested. In an effort to increase this interest, we want to host events around social media “live� sessions that bring our consumer inside and let them be involved. By attracting people to our brand, we will also begin creating a dialogue about the dangers of plastic and living a plasticfree life. To further this experience, we want to team up with various charities to help with volunteer efforts and proceeds.
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Long-term Our long-term goal is to know our consumer and what he/ she wants, letting them be a part of the process of creating new bottles. We want to look into creating more than just bottles, going into all kitchen-wear that is easy to port and aesthetically beautiful. We want to host pop-up shops and have our products that are sold in some stores in NYC We want to become a B Certified Corporation so that we can be known for how we give back. We hope to establish a set partnership with a charity that sees our vision and can have events with us. We also plan to create events that allow our consumers to come together and get to know the Cobre team.