Week 2

What I did

This week, I spent a great deal of time collecting text material on packaging concepts, as well as templates. I spent 1 hour on tuesday during our IP workshop at Tappan hall collecting materials that caught my eye. These, unlike the other books which I had found, were not directly related to packaging.

During my 3 hour studio session on Tuesday, I delved into the texts. I had the concept of a 'life-cycle' journal in mind while doing this, so I found a lot of sections in various books dealing with re-design process. This concept came from my group discussion on Tuesday with James and Juliet, as a suggestion to begin thinking of design issues, starting with my everyday life. I spent 30 min on Thursday creating a miniature booklet to carry around and begin this process.

The first book that I picked up from Tappan Hall, Travel through Europe, touched on some distributive aspects I thought of in my piece. The book is composed of various work of design agencies from all over Europe, who mail their work to a specific studio in Barcelona, to promote traveling through graphics. I spent 3 hours in the studio and at home on wednesday browsing through Travel through Europe, thinking of how this mass produced, promotional aspect of interaction might help my piece.

I first began thinking of this aspect of distribution of packaging when I began to work on my 2-20 sketch variations of dream projects. When thinking of an audience for my main idea (a practical package that transforms into its use when folded), I thought of under-resourced areas that may come of use for the sustainability of two functions in one material. When I met in my 1 hr discussion with James, Juliet, Ryan, Marian, and Jimmy, I was given feedback that I should think about design issues that would need to be worked out for that audience. For a 30 min today, I spoke to Professor Smotrich about what kinds of communities may be of use to a project like this (such as elementary students, the elderly, the autistic etc) to broaden my scope of audience. From here on, I plan to make a list of as many communities that may be of use to sustainable, practical, and transformation packaging, then come up with reasons why the physical construction or concept may pose a problem (such as arthritis in the elderly, motor skills in mentally challenged...). 

I spoke to Matt Shlian for about 15 minutes about my project and keeping in contact with him if I should need any resource. He was happy to help.

When I spoke to Krista (my partner for Tuesday) and Professor Smotrich, I confessed that my biggest challenge thus far was getting into making anything physical. For my 3 studio hours today, I spent time in the Duderstadt researching packaging template books and began to print them out and assemble them. The physical act of creation felt wonderful after all of my scattered thoughts. Jan Henrik once said something along the lines that you can think as much as you want, but until you begin to physically make something, you are completely unaware of certain design issues and thinking that only accompany this process. I think a balance of the two is a place to start.

I also spoke to Dylan Box ( an IP student) about his planned project. He said that he wanted to make furniture or products that were created out of materials from abandoned buildings in Detroit. I immediately thought of a connection between the reuse of his materials, and of my conceptual idea where the material is transformed. I also thought of the possibility of distributing this to an underprivlidged area. When I told him my thoughts, we discussed a possible colaberation of gallery space and even more so, he showed me a related lamp that he had made the previous semester. The container was made of brown cardstock and was pre-installed with a small light bulb. When you pulled on the bottom of the container, it extended into a vertical rectangle of paper. Then you attached a cord and a light made from it's very package was displayed. I found a project similar to this in one of my packaging design books, where the package was made from thick mylar-like material. You then folded the box in a few areas, installed the light, and you had a modern-looking fixture to hang in your room. Ikea also had a lamp like this in their recent catolog, but made of paper. These transformative packages are along the lines of things I want to explore.

After reading the New York times Article for 20 minutes during class time (after the professors went to visit the first studios), I thought about keeping up good habits with constant research as well as exercises to keep me thinking about my project. I think the 'life-cycle' journal will be able to change my thinking pattern around seemingly mundane actions I take through out the day.

What I discovered

Most importantly, I found that I need to change my habits to organize my thoughts. When speaking about my project, I am often jumping around between ideas without a concrete message to say. Basically, I want to say that "For my IP project, I would like to create packaging that can transform into a practical use (for an under-resourced audience)." I am happy to say that I have found a path that I'm passionate about, but I'd like to have more specificity. I also discovered that there are endless resources in the Duderstadt to use, right now I have like 15 books checked out. I feel like an addict. I also know that it can't be my only resource, I have to jump out of my 'comfort zone' to make any progress since I am dealing with real-life issues that take place outside of my studio.

 What I plan to do next
For the next week I plan to get contacts from various shelters and explain my project to the staff in hopes to observe there. Before this, I want to write a concrete description/proposal of my project so I won't confuse anyone like I have been lately, especially these contacts. I will begin to fill up my 'life-cycle' journal for packages/products that I carry around to see when a design-issue occurs. I also want to stick my toes into the water by finding a 'case-study' sort of contact whom I can interview, and observe before jumping straight into a community. I plan to make a list of all the possible communities I can look at and think of what resources are lacking. Perhaps I will get in contact with teachers who feel that their schools are lacking certain materials. BUT MOST OF ALL I will create various packaging from templates to get a feel for the shapes and to begin to work.