The Story of cap and trade

This video shows the Cap and Trade schemes to counter carbon emissions are flawed and won’t work. We are all trashing the planet and we need to understand and fix the systems in place to improve our future in this world. They had an idea of putting a cap on carbon emissions meaning that it would not go past a certain point. Saying “Innovative companies will get on board building clean alternatives and getting more efficient”, save the planet and get rich! However, it is not as simple as that. This is not a solution as coporations will be getting richer but the carbon emission levels will stay the same or even increase. Giving free permits to polluters is an even worse idea resulting in polluting of the homes of others.

Instead of having the government making laws that won’t lead to a sustainable future, we can make use of the smart minds of the society to can make our own laws to a greater future. This is the “biggest crisis humanity has ever faced” Us as designer can help by thinking and inputting sustainable designs. We need something new and not what is working currently! “Time to design a solution that’ll really work!”

BECAUSE

“No law that encourages coal use can stop climate change. Peroid”

Vest

Design for Life

Design for Life is a reality tv show which follows 12 design students and how they fare in the care of Philippe Starck. After having watching the first few episodes its quite intriguing as how Starck thinks in comparison to that of the students. Where students think of a product as one thing, Starck has an amazing understanding with the “story behind the product”.

Reflecting on the ethics that Starck wants the students to implement and demonstrate is one of simplicity. He has these short simple concepts which he emphasizes to the students such as for good design you think about life, sex, flesh, sweat. I think this shows design is not just about design its everything else and the way everything works together. Sustainability is also mentioned throughout, ”design decisions now, affects all our lives later ” so thinking about the future is very important issue to address. Tomorrow will be less!

It is not a school of design but a “school of creativity” meaning ‘less design and more of everything else’. So also the philosophy of life, he establishes the thought that it’s not all about design! Well going back to the story of a product, an example shown was when the bike was picked for sustainability. Starck just shot it down breaking it into little parts such as child labour and that its just a sheet of metal. So he is looking for the story behind the product, trying to establish this point in their heads.

I liked how one of the girls at aged 13 or 14 answered her mum to” no money in art” that just looking around us design is in everything, it is fascinating to see that at young age she is thinking of that!

Charette 2

The 11th Hour

This movie documentary sends out a pretty strong message about the environment, laid out in an easy manner to understand and in a way hard to ignore through the strong images they reveal. The environmental neglect shown has instrumental effects and they are not isolated incidents in the media like they mentioned. Incidents happen all over the world whether they are big or small it eventually adds up to the total of damages.

The documentary started off with something that really caught my attention this was when he said everybody is talking about saving the environment, but the fact is the environment will survive and we will eventually die. That is strong stuff so we ourselves as people are committing suicide we are not looking after our surroundings as well as we should, our planet is our only home they are mention.

Also saying people were separate from nature but we are part of nature in reality, we are nature. Humans act superior than everyone else as it mentions hogging all the resources from everything else, too many of us using too many resources too fast. There are people out there who are stupid! Thinking global warming is a belief it is not! Its evidence as they clearly cover this.

As industrial designers we do not know the future but we know the past, we can learn from it and at least try to make it a better place. Creating a culture where the surroundings are around us and us not damaging it. We have to consider materials that’s vital to redesign. The time is right now we have a choice!

Charette 1: Lifetime Optimization

Our groups final solution to the chair problem was a simple one! by adding a sliding table underneath the chair it provides the user of an added experience. Eating away from the table has at times outnumbered the times at the table so having a chair and table is convenient for the user.

From charette 1 i learnt alot of things it can be hectic when just given a short amount of time to generate ideas out, so we have to think fast and pump those ideas out. With everyone inputting different ideas an ideal outcome will eventually arrive

This particular activity has shown an importance how a product can become to the user so having just one use can never be enough for the users. Having different uses can make the product a more used thing and also a more useful thing to have therefore making user happier experience.

Designing beyond the original product was a fun thing to do! Adapting the product for another use was a good objective to partake in.

If you were to design a piece of furniture from scratch, how would you do it differently?

If i were to design this from scratch i would take my time and iron out all the kinks before having a solid concept, if i was to do this again i would take my time on solid concepts rather than rushing some not flashy ones.

Objectified

Society doesn’t look into everyday objects too much, just looking into a simple object wouldn’t equate into any deep meaningful thoughts surrounding it. I think the perception is simple equals easy to make. However, the fact is designers think to a great degree in designing this object so it is simplistic in nature. Like what Alice Rawsthorn mentioned “Many of the best examples of industrial design, are things that people don’t think that were designed at all, like the post it notes”. She goes on to say that the moment we wake we are surrounded by things in their world that are designed in one way or another. One of the examples that caught my eye was the Japanese toothpick, this toothpick means something different culturally to the Japanese to say someone from America. They would not understand the meaning towards it, this shows that every object has a story of its own to tell. So some of these designs are improving our daily lives without us even thinking about it.

Another point which stood out from this was What happens afterwards? The example of the washed up toothbrush shows that once used it can literally end up anywhere! So the sustainability factor is very important for to know about, in this case one of their concepts were one handle for life which would create meaning.

From this video, I’ve learnt that we have to look into things in heaps of different perpectives. Like Marc Newson, “dreaming of buying things that don’t exist” and designing for “what’s going to happen and not what’s already happened”. So looking through their eyes we take note of the objects surrounding us in everyday life. Also, people are never satisfied!!

Ecological footprint