A really good ted talk from Korean designer and artist Jihyun Ryou about proper storage of fruit and vegetables and some quirky products she’s developed to help preserve food better.
Save food from the fridge.
Today marked the end of Phase 1 of the project and the beginning of Phase 2. Phase 2 is the final stage and means I need to start prototyping the final concept (prototype mark 1 is due on 25/02/13). To mark this, heres a video of all the pages in my main note/sketchbook for the project. Its mainly text but hopefully that’ll change now I’ve decided on my concept and am about to start prototyping.
I’ve finally made some concrete decisions about what the final outcome of my project will be. Heres a quick outline of the project:
My project is based around reducing food waste, specifically getting people to buy less food (that will go uneaten) by getting them to think about the massive amounts of resources and effort that have gone into producing it. My idea is that I will produce a beautiful and well crafted food waste bin that is sealed and therefore cannot be emptied or reused and would have to be thrown out along with the food waste that it contains. The idea behind this being it would make people consider the effort thats gone into producing the food – sort of equating it in the users mind with the obvious effort thats gone into producing the bin.
Obviously this isn’t an everyday product that would be used in every home. Its a bit more of a conceptual, critical piece of design that makes a statement about the carelessness with which we regard our food (which I’m much happier about).
Now I need to start looking into what makes people value and become attached to objects and what makes them think ‘wow, thats really well made’ or ‘a lot of efforts gone into that’. The form and size will also be key decision points.
Another aspect, which was raised by my tutor, is that the final outcome could actually be seeing how people interact with the bin and how attached they become. How much do they not want to throw it away and how does this affect their food wasting habits?
I’m not particularly happy with the ideas that I’ve been coming up with so far, they seem to me to be quite boring, gimmicky and a bit sort of ‘whacky inventorish’ which is really not the aim of this project. I’ve been reminded that the final product doesn’t have to be something new.
I would like to get back to where I started on guru’s day – using a more critical design tone and making a statement with the final concept. Since the project will form the centrepiece of my portfolio when I’m finished I would also like the outcome to be a highly resolved piece of industrial design.
In light of this I’ve been looking at existing food waste disposal bins and designs. They are all incredibly practical, often resembling a scaled down wheelie bin. Could their be something there that I could work on? I’ve also made the decision that, instead of taking on the huge task of convincing absolutely everyone to waste less food, I’m going to focus on users who are already quite eco-concious. Trying to shift the emphasis from composting food waste to preventing the waste in the first place. Again, highlighting the importance of the amount of resources already consumed by producing the food (transport, water, processing, packaging, deforestation, etc.).
One of the reasons why we waste so much food as a society (50% according to http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20968076) is not eating something before it goes off. Some of this waste can be prevented with proper storage, clearer labelling by food companies and maybe a bit more common sense – using your senses to check if somethings off rather than relying on the date on the packet. Although, from talking to people it would seem the biggest reason is simply forgetting or not knowing what to do with certain food item.
In light of this I’ve been coming up with a few ideas to help solve this. Some kind of container or system that would remind users when an item is due to go off is a really simple way of keeping on top of it. This could be Tupperware style boxes with count-down clocks or alarms, or a device which the user would input the food bought, the dates on that food and it could remind them when it’s going off and give recipe ideas incorporating those specific foods.
I’ve been coming up with a few ideas based around getting people to buy less food. One is simply meal planning – getting people to plan their meals and snacks in detail. The idea being that people would only buy the exact amount of food that they will eat – leaving no waste. This could be turned into some sort of product which could either be portable (enabling users to take it shopping with them) or a kitchen based device with the possibility to print out shopping lists.
I’ve also been thinking about some way of getting users to visualise the amount of food they are buying and how much they actually use. Maybe even something as simple as a product that takes up space in the cupboards/fridge possibly with reminders about the amount of energy that has gone into food that isn’t being used.
Just a few ideas that I’ve been thinking about before I commit to a single one and take it into phase 2.
Basically, I’ve been starting to panic a bit recently due to the fact that I’ve still not decided on my final concept and we only have a few weeks left before we have to present our mark 1 prototypes. I’ve been trying to narrow down my project to make it something more specific rather than just ‘reducing food waste in the home’. I’m also still not sure whether my final concept will be a single product or a sort of service, or maybe even a range of linked products.
However, I have definitely decided that the core of my project will be about reducing the amount of food that goes to waste and making people aware of the effort and resources that goes into food production. Making people more focused of prevention rather than thinking ‘as long as we compost it’s still fine’.
Not gotten round to blogging for a while so here’s a quick update. I finished the People, Design and Technology boards as per my last post. I was a bit stumped for what to do for the Technology ones as I’ve still not got a concrete concept so I’m not totally happy with them but it was a good exercise to complete at this stage of the project. They are a bit rough but atleast now I’ve got something to work from. Below is a link to the PDF of the 9 boards.
Donald Struthers Honours Project 