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An interactive infographic worth the click to the link: Fast Company’s Consumer Electronics Evolutionary Tree.
Recently I stumbled upon two interesting projects that aim to provide insight into who we are. One does this through a closed small American town sample and one relies upon happen chance encounters along a nationwide road trip. Both intriguing.
A collection of photographs and narrative that portray the people who make up a small American town, all 670 of its residents. The first series of portrait photographs were conducted in 1984, and each is paired with its corresponding photo completed two decades later. A longitudinal study of American life and a seemingly interesting portrayal of juxtapositions and uncanny similarities.
“What a marvelous way to get at ‘who we are’ as people. This powerful confessional book draws its strength from the truth that so-called ordinary people, not those with bold-faced names, are actually the heroes of our American drama.”
—Ken Burns, Walpole, New Hampshire
A David Lynch project that documents a 20,000 mile road trip over 70 days. Interviews were conducted at random with people they found along the road.
“The people told their story.” – David Lynch
“It’s a chance to meet these people.” -David Lynch
Packaging is simply a disposable by-product of purchase for most, but for some they see packaging as an opportunity to be more. Although the jury has yet to get hands-on experience with the packaging concept by the Environmentally Conscious Organization (it remains an idea that is hoping to see commercial actualization), the simple design of thoughtfully placed perforations to the standard pizza box provides extended functionality for the packaging.
Even though pizza boxes are made from cardboard, a commonly recycled material, they are not accepted by most centers because they become soiled by their use as pizza packaging. By thinking about the box, this concept allows for a longer life of the cardboard – as make-shift plates and leftover pizza storage — and maybe a glimpse into the benefits of considering the packaging as more than just the barrier between you and product it is enclosing.
Perhaps not the end-all-be-all design, but a definite reminder that the packaging can, and maybe should, be more than just a box.
The Make: Magazine team recently made available online some great projects collected in their book, The Best of instructables. The innate ingenuity of people never ceases to amaze me. Each of these projects come from a consumer with a need, a goal, or a specific task at hand that required a solution – which they were able to design, make, and provide instructions for others to repeat their creation.
My favorites are the ideas that involve using objects in unintended ways, especially when the object has already been used to serve one purpose and is reused for something entirely different and is reappropriated, if you will.
Check out the myriad of ideas spawned from consumer creativity. Not only are many of them just plain neat, but the end life marketing of objects may be able to be rejuvenated or new product concepts may evolve from the needs being self-addressed.
