PSS Peer Comments

Melinda Kingsland

Mikee Ronquillo

Nicholas Baroni

Deon Pazpinis

Helen Holman

PSS: 'Go Green'

Cormack Packaging Student Comments

Liah Kang

Alexander Lord

Patrick Luwia

Helen Holman

Jonathon Harley

Product Disassembly Exercise - Breville Kettle

Cormack Packaging Awards

Rationale:

Baby Buds cotton applicators are an innovative design that is both practicle and portable. It’s a must have for any busy mother who needs that extra support in giving her baby the gentleness and softness they deserve. 

Baby Buds are different to existing cotton buds on the market as they offer a more hygeinic way to handle the cotton bud. Contaimination occurs when the user retrieves the cotton bud via the cotton tip, instead of using the plastic handle. Additionally, there is no product waste as the cotton bud is dispensed one at a time.

Baby Buds are refillable so as to reduce waste. Simply purchase a cartridge to refill the dispenser and the cotton buds are ready to be used again.  Each cartridge contains 6 cotton buds which is the perfect amount for when on the move. 

Constructed of 1mm polypropylene, the packaging is light-weight and comfortable in the hand.  

Baby Buds are ideal for every mothers’ bag for that extra support and softness when needed most.

Video Blog C

'The Light Bulb Conspiracy' 


This video highlights the fact that planned obsolescence occurs all over the world- it's the secret mechanism at the heart of consumers society. 

We live in a society dominated by a growth economy whose logic is not creating because we need things but just for the sake of it. 

Since the 1920s, planned obsolescence has become a part of the consumers world, where by they desire to own something a little newer and a little sooner than is necessary. It interesting to find out that although the  light bulb has always been a symbol for ideas and innovation, it's also one of the earlier examples of planned obsolescence. This is because lasting light bulbs are a ergonomic disadvantage'. 

This theory of being 'designed to fail' emerged during the great depression by Robert London in order to relieve New York from its poverty- If the consumer does not purchase, than the economy does not grow. He pushed for it to be compulsory by law, however it never made any progress. London was trying to achieve a market where there would always be a need for new goods and labour. All products would be given a lease of life with a set expiry date after which it would be considered dead. Consumers would then turn them over to a government agency where they would be destroyed. 

A new generation of consumers has started challenging manufacturers to eliminate planned obsolescence to help promote a sustainable future by reducing the amount of waste produced by society.

20 years on and this idea returned , channeled via a desire. Design and marketing seduced consumers into wanting the latest model. Critics of the growth society point out that it's unsustainable in the long run because it's based on a flagrant contradiction. 

All industrial designers should view this video as it will give them a greater appreciation for design, particularly sustainable designs that have an 'after-life'. They will consider this element in their future designs which will create a trend in the market. 

Three key messages that can be taken from this video:

- the theory of planned obsolescence began as early as the 1920s to relieve America from the great depression. 

- A product life cycle is a modern euphemism for planned obsolescence 

- Today, desire is the main driving force of planned obsolescence 

Video Blog B

'The 11th Hour' The opening of this film highlights the continuing and worsening devastation occurring all over the world. The reason for this- human interference.  The two most important and complicated relationships on earth are that of human society and earth. It's important for there to be a balance between them, for us both to co-exist. Interesting to hear that when people talk about saving the environment, in a way is misstated because the environment is going to survive and human society is the one who may not survive, or it will continue to exist in a world that we may not want to live in.  The main point of this film is to inform their viewers that the biosphere is sick and we are causing the destruction to our life system. As we destroy nature, we will be destroyed in the process, unless we find a solution to save our ecosystem. An interesting fact stated in the film is that homosepeans  are very new to earth- we arrived very late in the calendar of the earth. If the earth calendar started 1st January and now we are at 31st December, humans arrived 15 minutes before midnight on 31st December.  What caused this devastation to the earth? The human mind. It threw us out of balance with the rest of nature. We can't keep thinking that we are separate to nature- we are one. This alternative thinking is causing us to live in disharmony with the planet.  The industrial revolution has made a huge negative impact on our environment. Nature was considered a resource and was seen as abundant and now with decades of devastation, society is feeling the effects. We are using too many resources too fast- Particularly oil. Our entire life is subsidised by oil.  This global disturbance of climate change/global warming is a world-wide crisis. The direction to go is to start being de-coupled from our dependance on oil through efficient transportation, better insulated houses and development of renewable alternatives like solar and wind, and getting those to become the major part of the market using efficiency as the transition. Unfortunately, this should have started 30 years ago.  All industrial designers should watch 'The 11th hour' because we must be informed of the current global events and we can help find and design products and opportunities to help combat these issues. Our designs must be sustainable as we are designing for our future. 

Video Blog A

Giving Packaging a New Life

How it's Made: Packaging

It’s amazing how many of us know little about the everyday products and their packaging we interact with.  It’s not until we research and discover the processes involved in creating this packaging that we realise the sophisticated process and technology applied/involved to create them.  Efficient and economical is the key to this process with as many as 10,000 units of packaging, specifically aluminium cans are produced every hour using highly technically advanced machinery. It starts with a disc shaped aluminium ‘slug’ and travels through a series of steps and tooling to produce these cans. Great human intelligence and skill has created this machinery to make it as time efficient and cost-effective as possible, eliminating the need for human interaction and reducing the potential risk for error and contamination.

It’s important for other industrial designers to see these videos and have an understanding of these methods.  This will help them with their future designs and the way they construct the object for creation with machinery. It also helps to design a product that has a life after its consumption to reduce waste and landfill. Surprisingly, the relatively simple aluminium can be melted down and re-used many times over without deteriorating. Whereas recycling tetrapack can end up in a variety of different products i.e. the aluminium layer is separated from the others and is added to the mix of components that make up cement.

Key messages that can be taken from these videos are:

-       * Everyday packaging of consumer products, experience a variety of processes using technically advanced machinery.

-       * Many packages continue their life cycle in other products.

-       * Machinery can monitor the quality control of packaging by an infrared system.

-       * Fully automatic sorting plants, cut costs of sorting and preparing plastic packaging by up to 50%.