Hive vase by Thomas Libertiny

With a little help of bees, Thomas Libertiny made a vase-shaped hive.

http://www.tomaslibertiny.com

Reduce wastes and chemical impacts

http://www.tedresearch.net/3-reduce-chemical-impacts/
http://www.kategoldsworthy.co.uk


Today I had a lecture by Kate about design to reduce wastes and chemical impacts.
I like her idea of recycling old carpets to create new pretty carpets by cutting its surface by laser cutter and make beautiful patterns on it and also dying it with natural materials. Because she's recycling old carpets, her finished products seem like it already got vintage quality and it's adding value to itself.
It is quite a simple idea but could be a starting point for everything could be recycled.


I know it's all by his hand but laser cutting reminds me of works of Rob Ryan.

http://tagfinearts.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/rob-ryan-solo-exhibition-and-calendar.html

Imagine if he uses old prints for his material, it could be anything like old posters, newspaper, ads... He surely creates amazing value to the wastes.

Paper houses by Shigeru Ban

This Paper Partition System one of his disaster relief project created for Japanese people after the tsunami happened 2011. As a Japanese, the disaster was the terror which I can never forget. When the victims had to live in a gymnasium all together, how to keep their privacies protected was a big problem. This partition system is so simple but really clever to separate their private spaces apart with low cost and no difficulties. Also it is reusable when it is in needs and could thrown away easily.

While most of the Japanese people felt impatient with their uselessness in helping those victims, I adore how Ban supported them immediately with his clever design. I yearn to be a designer like him who could contribute toward overcoming any difficulties for the people.

http://www.shigerubanarchitects.com

TED's TEN

1. Design to minimise waste
2. Design for recycling/upcycling
3. Design to reduce chemical impact
4. Design to reduce energy and water use
5. Design that explore clean/better technology
6. Design that looks at models from nature & history
7. Design for ethical production
8. Design to replace the need to consume
9. Design to dematerialise and develop systems and service
10. Design activism

http://www.tedresearch.net

I list TED's TEN here for not to forget it.
These ideas could all used for how today's graphic design should be like. Especially graphic design that we could see in daily life is advertisement printed on paper which consumes a lot of material. I think all graphic designers should consider how those ads could be sustainable since most of them are dumped after they finished their job. Graphic design could also seen on TV commercials which has a huge influence to the audience. It could be a good chance to tell how sustainable design is important to many people. At the same time when we solve design brief, I'd like to think how I could combine the idea of sustainability together.