Monday, September 14, 2009

Design For A Living World Assignment

Amanda Huffingham


Organic Wool Rug Tiles

Christien Meindertsma


Concerns of Animal

Panama sheep are one of two breeds that have been developed in the US and can graze in high altitude mountainous terrain. These sheep produce a heavy, dense medium grade fleece with long length.


Concerns of Place

 The conservation of Lava Lake Ranch, Idaho exists in restoring and preserving the land for its history, beauty and biological diversity. Through a management plan 900,000 acres have been pioneered in a way that sheep can graze sustainably which has resulted in numerous acres of habitat improving in wildlife. One example is significantly more songbirds due to increased Vegetation.


Interests Integrated

Meindertsma, using the place and the sheep as her starting point has creates hexagonal floor tiles from Panama Sheep wool in different patterns that hook together. Each tile is made one sheep (3 1/2 lbs of wool) and when the tiles are hooked together they make a flock. Because things are made all over the world and the connection gets lost- she creates a personal relationship between the user and the sheep by identifying the sheep by attaching a tag to the tile which represents the sheep used to make the tile, while the hexagonal shape is significant in that it emphasizes the unique shape of each individual sheep.

Designer’s Approach and outcome...


Praise:

 “rhythmic sense of time stretched across an act of creation.” Meindertsma sees a person adapting her product into their life as the greatest compliment they could possibly give her. As a “designer in process” I think it’s important to understand this- wise comment and adapt it for myself. The designer has created a functional object that conveys a strong conceptual, personal message as well rather than just a conceptual/aesthetic pieces alone- so it’s a matter of an object not just speaking but acting. I see the narrative quality of Meinderistma as strength as she tells the story of each individual sheep. The story starts with each individual sheep + the personal connection between the user and the sheep is emphasized and conveyed on a level that any person can indentify. The user is given a relationship with this specific sheep. For this reason I think the Product is mass marketable.


Condemnation: 

It’s interesting on Meindertsma’s website “Flocks” there is a sweater project that actually seems more successful that the Wool Rug Tile Project. In my opinion it’s more exciting and the personal aspect of her work becomes stronger when one person is wearing one sheep vs. stepping on one sheep- and then if you wear a sweater and your friend or multiple friends wear the sweaters too- you actually become a flock, which is quite funny.


Project Moving Forward: 

In moving this project forward I would use the sweater idea and emphasis how  multiples of the product become a flock by people wearing the sweater. I would emphasis that people can become flocks with their friends. Sweaters that, using the same idea of the hexagonal tiles, have some abstract quality that sets each sweater about from the other just as each sheep is an individual creation.


Cocoa Grater and Packaging

Yves Behar 


Concerns of Person 

The people revealed here are the women of La Amastid National Park, Costa Rica. Women of the Bribri community of Talamanca began an Organic chocolate cooperative in order to sustain themselves economically.  The gender here is emphasized in the narrative because this cocoa process has stayed in the hands of women. In the Bribri culture the name of the clan always stays in the hands of women. To ensure cocoa plantations stay in control of their specific clan, the land is passed from mother to daughter since men switch clans when they marry.


Concerns of Place

 Clear Cut Rainforests + Global Domains are concerns of La Amastid National Park. The consecration of this national parks exists in the fact that its cocoa is grown in entirely natural ecosystems.


Concerns of Materials

The material here is a hand processed cocoa patty of the indigenous women of the Organic Chocolate cooperative that is made from roasted and ground cocoa. After the ground cocoa is transformed into a patty it’s transferred in Jute Bag-both of which inspired Behar’s final design.

Interests Integrated: 

Behar took the product of indigenous women of the Organic Chocolate cooperative in Costa Rica, the cocoa patty with all of it’s ritualistic significance and put it in a jute bag with instructions on how to use it and a map of Costa Rica. Behar designed a tool that allows the user to scrap the cocoa patty and then turn the tool upside down to use the chocolate as drinking chocolate. Behar’s goal was to take this ritualistic product to a wider audience and make a market for the cocoa these women produce. In fact his design is Philosophy: “devising a solution that embraces branding, packaging and the user experience while celebrating the sheer beauty of well made things”.


Designer’s Approach and outcome...


Praise: 

Behar shares a project with ritualistic significance of a specific culture to the world and brings to light a demographic and their product that would otherwise be ignored. In a way he is teaching others about these women and their ritual.


Condemnation: 

The celebration and ritual is lost because of the new way in which the user manipulates the product- the cocoa patty is used in one way at a traditional wedding ceremony, times of giving birth, or other meaningful ceremonies and another way by users of Yves Behar’s product. The gesture of using the cocoa patty should be the same to fully convey the ritual. So in a way it’s sad because he is taking a…maybe sacred object and branding it and creating a new way of using the product that incorporates something entirely new.


Project Moving Forward…

In moving the project forward I would get rid of the grater and just sell the branded jute bag with the cocoa patty so that the user can focus on the craft of the cocoa patty rather than the beauty of the grater. I would design the jute bag in such a way that it can be used to grip the cocoa patty while you rub the cocoa patty against the side of a mug in order to scrap chocolate into the mug instead of using a new tool. In redesigning the jute bag the jute bag would not only come with instruction on how to use the cocoa patty but would also inform the user of the patties ritualistic significance. The packaging itself could more clearly draw attention to the beauty of the craft in the cocoa patty itself.


Projects Side by Side

(Compared + Contrasted)


Comparing the Flocks project and the Cocoa Grater side by side I think that the Flocks project is a complete story because it richly connects the user to the sheep- each sheep uniquely represented and the characteristics of the sheep their individual pattern and shape. Behar’s project seems more like he is mass marketing a ritual without full conveying the significance of the patty by adding something entirely new to it. The characteristics of the patty’s ritualistic significance get lost in the story. The two projects are similar in the sense that they both take a product indigenous to a culture and land and transform the product to reach a broader audience while attempting to capture and convey the significance and meaning embodied in the product.

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