Sharing means awareness of the fact, that you are not alone. Awareness of the fact, that we are all connected while living on this planet. Giving away what you no longer use seems like the easiest thing, but sometimes it’s not. Making giving reality and knowing, that you have helped someone with something that simple, and you have changed that person’s life for the better feels really good.
As the brief states I should “design a service, that gets better or more useful the more people use it, so that sharing it becomes more attractive or viable.”
As the brief states I should “design a service, that gets better or more useful the more people use it, so that sharing it becomes more attractive or viable.”
The purpose of this project is to encourage people to share their no longer used belongings, because the trash for one is a treasure for another. The purpose is to change peoples perspective on charity sharing, and to inform them about the benefits sharing does for the environment and the world we live in.
After some research I realized, that the best way to make people share their belongings these days is through internet platform. People advertise much more online in recent years - houses, cars, electronics - you name it. This is why they would choose to notify online, about their no longer used sofa, couch, table etc. The furniture will then be transported from people’s homes to a workshop. Then people willing to help, design and art students, practically everyone interested in the cause involved in the process will be able to redesign the donated furniture and then it will be donated to homes for children, old people or families in need for furniture. In the online platform people would be able to actively participate in the cause – the site will be divided into three sections – people willing to donate, people, who would need furniture, and people willing to volunteer .
After some research I realized, that the best way to make people share their belongings these days is through internet platform. People advertise much more online in recent years - houses, cars, electronics - you name it. This is why they would choose to notify online, about their no longer used sofa, couch, table etc. The furniture will then be transported from people’s homes to a workshop. Then people willing to help, design and art students, practically everyone interested in the cause involved in the process will be able to redesign the donated furniture and then it will be donated to homes for children, old people or families in need for furniture. In the online platform people would be able to actively participate in the cause – the site will be divided into three sections – people willing to donate, people, who would need furniture, and people willing to volunteer .
After deciding to do the “Shared Assets” brief, I started to research and think about what people share these days – they share information about themselves, photos, news etc. In order to invent something linked with my specialty – photography, at first I decided to think what could benefit the society in that connection, and decided, that giving objects a second life and photographing them would be interesting. I got inspired by the recent visit to the Victoria and Albert museum, and the Postmodernism exhibition. The one object, that stuck in my mind was the “Proust chair” – a design created by Alessandro Mendini in 1978 for Studio Alchimia. Redecorating something from the 18th century in a modern way is quite inspiring for me. Then I had a conversation with my tutor and he proposed me to contact several charity organizations in connection with my idea for redesign. He gave me directions to make the project more socially engaged and to include people in need. I did some more research, and my idea became more clear.
What can easily be shared by many people is used furniture. Everybody has some old pieces, that lie somewhere forgotten. But if these pieces are turned into attractive and refreshed, whole newly decorated and redesigned ones they would be valuable and useful. Someone else might be happy to have them. The benefits, that such project can offer are both social and environmental. According to my research ten million items of furniture are thrown away in the UK every year, four million children live in households, that cannot afford to replace worn or broken furniture, and three million cannot afford to replace broken electrical items. Reusing old furniture saves energy and reduces CO2 emissions and waste harmful for the environment.
What can easily be shared by many people is used furniture. Everybody has some old pieces, that lie somewhere forgotten. But if these pieces are turned into attractive and refreshed, whole newly decorated and redesigned ones they would be valuable and useful. Someone else might be happy to have them. The benefits, that such project can offer are both social and environmental. According to my research ten million items of furniture are thrown away in the UK every year, four million children live in households, that cannot afford to replace worn or broken furniture, and three million cannot afford to replace broken electrical items. Reusing old furniture saves energy and reduces CO2 emissions and waste harmful for the environment.
Design as a tool is as we know a very powerful thing. If it is used right it can create miracles. Designing a social campaign, that raises the question for sharing, and making it strong, but simple was my goal. According to my research across friends and relatives I found out, that for people it is too much trouble sharing their old furniture. They would prefer to just throw them away in the garbage, but as I started to explain them the benefits of sharing, some of them changed their minds, and said, that they might be interested if such campaign is realized. That is why I realized, that a social campaign with emphasis on the facts and numbers would be a powerful tool. I made posters, that state facts, that the society should think about. When doing something for charity people would like to see the result of their actions. That is why there is a “What we did” section on the site of the project. So people can see for themselves that there is a point of sharing and doing good.
At first my idea for the project was to be named "Art of Recycling", so I started to think of the concept of the logo - I decided to create a logo symbolising the idea of a cycle, and a particular object in the middle (in this case furniture), that would present my idea of recycling and reusing, then after a small research in my target group, I understood, that the name I chose is not clear enough, and a person not familiar with the idea would not instantly understand what it is all about, I rethink the concept, and realized, that I should emphasize on the idea of sharing. If you HAVE you can GIVE. I decided to keep the general "recycle" vision, included colour furniture in the middle, so a person can recognize easier the main purpose and also to present the art and refurbish idea. For the poster I chose a clean and accented vision. Decided to keep it simple, and to include quotes in the different versions of the poster, which I found during my research concerning people in need. To make the person, who sees the poster involved. I decided to create T-shirts as well, so people participated in the project can have some kind of good memory and reward for their good will. The T-shirts include designed quotes such as ”I GIVE” and “I CARE”.
Overall I liked my experience during the project. I had some interesting conversations with people, learned things about subjects, that I wasn’t that much familiar with and hopefully came with a adequate solution of the given problem. I had some difficulties with naming the projects, which delayed my designing part, but if I have another project similar to this one I would trust my instincts more and try to keep things as simple and smart as possible.
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