Materials: 10 action-oriented activities (with Jess)

Today Jess and I worked together to brainstorm for the One Object, Three Materials project. We sat and talked out what we thought "hype" meant. Here is our resulting bubble chart.


We then spat out ideas for a good half hour on some issues to attend to with out projects. I chose to free-write while Jess chose to stick with the chart. We then selected the ten most inspiring issues and sought to hype them in some way.


Our first issue is that of caffeine addiction, particularly in college and the work environment. As I was on a caffeine buzz at the time, the idea was not hard to stumble upon. I thought we could use a jarring image to bring the drinker's attention to the effects of their actions. What better place for this image than the coffee cup itself? I thought we could design a coffee cozy with the image of bloodshot eyes, as if the coffee were looking at you. I sketched up some eyes and grabbed a starbucks cup from the hour earlier and mocked-up the concept.

Jess had the idea of bringing people's attention to their food waste. She had the same thought of hitting the problem right at home. She thought we could use the jarring image a landfill to paste around the outside of a trashcan that people commonly use to dispose of food waste.

An issue that plagues me, as well as many people I know, is a lack of energy and enthusiasm in the winter. I know that my problem is in a large part due to such a deficiency of vitamin D as I am never outside for a long enough amount of time in the winter. Sunlight is very important to your mental and physical health and it is recommended that a person get at least 20 minutes of sunlight per day. I began thinking how I could draw attention to this fact and then I thought of the stakes that are used in potted plants to remind the owner of the plants' needs. I thought I could use this same method to remind people of their own needs.



Jess's next idea had to do with person health as related to inhalation, may it be germs or smoke. This piece bring attention to the fact that how you maintain yourself affects not only you but the people around you.


Our next issue had to do with energy overuse. It deals with the unnecessary use of lighting. It is your natural reaction, upon walking into a dark room, to flip on the light switch. This happens even when the lighting isn't necessary. This object makes the energy user think before switching on the light. They must maneuver into a box instead of just running their hands along the wall to switch on the light. This extra bit of effort will prevent the user from switching on the light out of habit.


This is Jess's idea to hype the fact that war is all around us. She thought to use an image that both makes the viewer think of war and play. Pairing two concepts that don't commonly coexist.

At this point we were beginning to run out of steam. These objects are less developed but the concepts are clear.


Humanity is beginning to overuse technology and substitute it for real human interaction. These pins/stickers would bring attention to this and force the viewer to consider whether it's completely necessary to use technology in a certain situation.


This is the concept for a sign and fingertip cover that brings attention to the issue of germs spreading through elevator keys.


A serious issue that affects the health of many people I know is lack of a good night's sleep. This sign/binder cover brings attention to how sleep affects how one feels an generally lives their life.

Our final issue deals with the absurd prices of textbooks. This sign rides on the coat tales of the go green initiative and adds the message of reselling textbooks you don't need so that others can get reduced rates.