November 6, 2009

I am not paper.

i-am-not-a-paper-cup

Just bought this tumbler last week at Target. It fooled me even when it was sitting on the shelf. I thought some one had thoughtlessly left their coffee cup on the shelf when they were browsing the other products. Until…

I picked it up! I was so amazed and surprised by the texture! This is not your standard paper cup – it is a ceramic cup with a silicon lid that is a coffee cup look-a-like. It is a really, really cool product. It has a nice weighted feeling of quality when you hold it. The unfinished ceramic gives it a nice “grippy” texture. And the silicon top is the perfect water tight, flexible material for the top.

The lid even says “CAUTION : CONTENTS ARE HOT”      :)

November 6, 2009

Disposable Valuables? Hmm..

recyclelaptop

 

 

I found this recyclable laptop concept on Yanko Design today. It is a really interesting concept. It got me thinking about this idea of “disposable valuables”. What if the products we use every day and value a great deal were disposable? How would this change they we use them? How would it change their lifecycles?

It is the inspiration for my next studio project… stay tuned.

 

October 20, 2009

Nantucket, Massachusetts Going Zero Waste

My friend Colleen sent me this article from the New York Times >> Nudging Recycling from Less Waste to None. Really, really interesting stuff. Nantucket, MA is running out of landfill space fairly quickly. The island takes more actions to recycle and reduce landfill waste by adopting “zero waste” ideals.

I inserted some of the photos from the article below:

nantucket1

Kiddies recycling.

nantucket2

What mixed recycling looks like before it is sorted into different types (plastic, aluminum, glass, etc)

nantucket3

Nantucket claims that composting is HUGE factor in how they are decreasing the volume of their landfills. Look at this huge room just for compost!

nantucket4

WALL-E anyone?

October 2, 2009

Closed Loop Lecture Video + Slides!

 

The video is mostly of me talking, here is the presentation that I showed : Krystal_closedloop_10.1

October 2, 2009

Closed Loop Lecture 10/1

closedlooplecture

Thanks everyone for coming to the first Closed Loop lecture yesterday! Very special thanks to S.O.S. for giving me the opportunity. I hope everyone who attended enjoyed the presentation, I definitely loved speaking to all of you guys. Someone took a video, so I will post that soon for those of you who missed it.

 

My next presentation is on October 22nd for a brown bag lunch event at Georgia Tech Research Institute.

September 26, 2009

Updates

I have decided putting off posting up pictures of my “powerplant” prototype for a bit… the internet is an insecure medium, you never know who might pick it up and claim it falsely! Better safe than sorry.

Anyways, exciting updates! On behalf of S.O.S. (students organizing for sustainability), I am giving a lecture about the Closed Loop Thursday, October 1st in Arch Lecture Hall 123 from 6-7pm. S.O.S. is awesome for giving me this opportunity. The Lecture will focus on what the Closed Loop is, how I did it, and “big picture” questions that designers and consumers should ask.

closedloopflyer

September 17, 2009

2009 Senior Light Show

Senior-Light-Show_flyer

The culmination of our lighting projects! The crowd was great that night and I got a lot of feedback about my “powerplant light”. Photos from the light show to  come!

September 15, 2009

More Powerplant Concepts

 These are some graphics I created to explain my “powerplant” concept; that plants and soil can be used as power sources.

powerplant

September 15, 2009

“Powerplant” concept

The past week has been a little hectic. My dirt light was due yesterday at 7:30 pm. I finished on time (woohoo!), but with very little sleep.

Here is a peek at a branding scheme I developed for the project. The logo was derived from a cross of a nuclear waste icon, a power on/off icon, and a leaf. Can you see it?

 

krystalpersaud_powerplantlogo

 

I went for the theme of “revolutionizing the power plant” theme witha literal “power plant”; a plant that can produce electrical power. I am going to take some high resolution photographs of my models today, so check back for pictures tomorrow. I will also post some other lights that I thought were interesting from the ID Senior Light Show.

September 3, 2009

Inspirational Sketch

This is the first sketch I did while exploring my theme of dirt powered lighting. It definitely will not be my end product, but it helped get my brain juices flowing. What if a modern lighting device could emerge from something so basic and fundamentally natural?

 

krystalpersaud_dirtpoweredled