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Final Concept Decided

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?

Whacky Inventor?

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.).