Week 2- Rice Packaging working progress & Development

Last week, I was suggested to develop the rice packaging concept and the suggestion was to design a stand up pouch packaging for arthritis patient. I have developed an idea (and maybe improved along the journey) of a stand up pouch packaging for 2 Kg rice (which is consumed for 60 serves) that will be easier to open for the arthritis patient.

60 serve of 2 Kg of rice

The materials for the inside pouch is laminated polyethylene plastic
the benefits are: 
-its ability to stand up on a shelf for maximum sales impact through its packaging pouch design. 
-use 75% less plastic and can be flat packed for transport and disposal (lower warehouse cost)
-perfect for printing as well 

The outer layer is made out of recycled cardboard, the front part can be teared out and folded to make a box for measuring cups and the back part works as a handle/ support, making it easier for the user to pour out the rice. 

The top cap is made out of polyethylene. The cap has push cap mechanism, which results in the ease to open (rather than twisting action) it prevents the user from spilling the rice and allowing the user to reseal the packaging with easiness. 

Tutor's comment:

Can this be monomaterial rather than multimaterial?

A 2kg bag is too small to justify such extravagant use of materials.

(In our household a 1kg bag goes straight into the rice cooker, so there wouldn’t be need to re-seal. In your case it might be more sensible to have 2pcs 1kg bags which are disposable – less materials, less complexity, less rituals)

The planning for next week: 
-trying to make it monomaterial, research what has existed in the market and try to do some emphatic test for the exisiting packaging
-Designing a plastic cap that can easily lift up.

First Research and Concept Presentation (5th August 2013)

Today is the first studio research and concept presentation, Here are the presentation i have presented.

 

 

Mar: The tutor suggested me to go with the Rice packaging concept as they are innovation opportunities that i can develop for this project. Another suggestion being made was for me to consider thin film stand up pouch packaging to minimize the use of materials and flat packed for disposal. 

Progress findings:

My finding is that 2 KG of rice is to serve up to 60kg of rice. It means that it is quite worth it to design a sort of plastic cap that can make the openings easily, since most of the packaging at the moment are hard to open and require scissors to open. Another observation that i found, they use tape to re-seal the packaging and i found it very inconvenient. So i am hoping to design a cap that is easy to open at the same can seal the packaging properly to protect the content of the rice. 

Peer comments: 

Antony Chen: The idea of a push button is good, however the concept shown for the rice packaging is actually gonna take lots of materials. you should consider how to minimize the materials at the same time make it easier to people to use. I like the band-aid concept, although maybe you can make the scroller bigger to make it easier for people to scroll. 

Clement Yoong: the band-aid concept is quite innovative, however you need to consider the hygiene issue regarding the use of cutter in the packaging. Maybe for improvement you can have a bigger scroller, Rice packaging is a better choice to pursue since there are not so many good rice packaging out there. However, the use of blow moulded plastic means more expensive manufacturing. 

Sense of Place

The brief of this project is to create an innovative public furniture element that helps give a public space its sense of place and encourages the community to proudly use their local areas with their neighbour. For this project I have decided to design a recliner bench, which is incorporated with a bicycle rack. Firstly, I chose the place and I have decided to revitalize Joynton Park in Zetland. The reason behind it is because it is a nice local park which sometimes being used by people to read books, walking their dogs and rest after cycling around the park. However, as I observed the place, I can’t feel the sense of community there as people don’t stay there for long and they sit separately on the grass. I also observed that there is no comfortable benches or the place to sit on except on the grass or at the BBQ area, which sometimes is being booked and can’t be used publicly. I also did the survey and people think that wet grass often what resist them to sit and relax at the park. So I came up with a bench design which has an luxurious organic shape and bicycle rack which can be used by people to relax as they finished cycling and read books as well as promoting social interactions through the allocations of these benches at the park. The recliners will also have shade to protect them from direct sunlight. The recliner will be made out of ply- wood and it will be oiled to protect them in various weather conditions. The bicycle rack however will be made out of steel as it is durable and will be galvanised to protect it from corrosion.

Peer Comments

Shermen Lie
http://laichorming.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/project-2-technical-drawing.html?showComment=1337039985826#c1072082047177830270

Clement Yoong
http://clementyoongides2161.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/project-2-packaging-pill-container.html?showComment=1337040236186#c4472824135100029017

Dong Wook Kim
http://dongkim926.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/pacakging-child-resistant-cap.html?showComment=1337040543457#c1031512294247051264

Anthony Chen
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6797674082400671831&postID=5046445488995904191&page=1&token=1337040888303&isPopup=true

Ren, Zihan
http://renzihan.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/images-of-model-technical-drawing.html?showComment=1337041082490#c2454729356965787814

Moo-wy Light milk for kids product shot

Social Packaging

"Who Killed the Electric Car"- Video Reflection

From the video, we are being told that electric cars have been existed for a long time., however in fact people nowadays still have the mindset that electric cars are actually a new technology which is not dependable yet in terms of quality in comparison to fuel energy cars. 


It's an really eye opening video as it shows that electric cars existed in different period of times and i am sure it must have enough reason of why they design electronic cars or otherwise there is no point for designers to design it as there will be no markets who will purchase the product, To some extent, it indicates us the significance of the electric car itself. 


After watching this video, i am convinced that human nowadays care more about the money they can earn rather than the world they live in. They don't care whether what they are doing will affect the next generations who will live in this earth, This can be shown from the answer to the question of, "Who killed the electric car?" and Yes, the fuel energy car company, the oil company, the consumers who purchase it as well as government. Why? because it's so clear that they are afraid that the development of electric cars would take off their market share and instead they decided to kill this potential competitors. 


Though electric cars are a really innovations, the development of electric cars is still a kind of big challenge in comparison to petrol cars. Because as we produce this product we have to also think about the supporting system that allow the car to function properly such as the public recharge station and the place where the cars can be fixed when it is broken. I think that the car company they might have less preparation about how this product cycle works and what the problem they might have.

Secondly,it is the energy-based society. As we can see, nowadays the whole society rely so much on the nature resources. Almost every family have their own cars and off course the car needs petrol to be operated. Furthermore,we are becoming more vulnerable in facing these nature resources providers.Taking this electronic car as an example.The electric broke this kind of game rule.Even when a lot of people support it,the rules would not be changed by this single product. So if every designer get involved about this kind of environment-friendly design then we will not need this kind of rules anymore.Furthermore,It might encourage people to do design more sustainable products.