» industrial design

Design Futures Council Summit on Sustainable Design

Krystal Persaud — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 20:38:21 +0000

Last week, from Tuesday-Thursday, I attended the Design Futures Council Summit on Sustainable Design. The Summit was held at the Four Seasons in Atlanta. Man, I love design conferences! They are so informative, stimulating, and mind-opening — this DFC Summit was no exception. The days were long (activities started as early as 6:30am and lasted until 9:30pm), but the time really flew by. I went home at night feeling very empowered and optimistic about the future of sustainable design. There were some incredible speakers, including Ray Anderson of Interface Flor, that really make you think, “Hm…maybe I could actually make a difference”. I know, cheesey. I went home at night and although my body was exhausted, my mind just wouldn’t shut down. I stayed up tossing and turning and thinking about all of these different concepts for new products, company models, and strategies to push sustainable ideals.

I met some amazing people from all different fields; interior design, architecture, graphic design, engineering, and more. I was one of the younger attendees and can only hope that, in ten years, I measure up to some of the other folks — their accomplishements and careers were off-the-charts impressive. Design professionals shared stories about how they started new companies, went against the status quo of company operations, and did their own thing!

This is just a general synopsis of my experience at the DFC Summit, I am going to list some links to inspiring projects I learned about in my next post. There are some amazing start ups all over the country that are devoted to public health and sustainability. Radical.

Some photos from the conference:

Woo!

A break out session, where a topic is given [ex-how to break out of the status quo within your company]

Lovely lunch on the terrace! Gorgeous Atlanta fall weather and view of the city.

Alan Balfour, Dean of the College of Architecture at Georgia Tech, was one of many fantastic speakers.

The conference ended with a tour of Perkins + Will new office space.

Natural Leaders Awards (Pt 2)

Krystal Persaud — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 16:53:35 +0000

The finished award! I am supremely happy with the way they turned out. Bicycle gears were slightly damaged and donated by Sopo Bicycle Co-op here in Atlanta. The middle, clear disks were cut out from plastic take out containers. The verbage was stamped on the plastic by hand with paint. The marble base was cut out of marble slab reclaimed from a demolished building in Atlanta. The big “gear head” piece is attached to the base using a simple bolt, no adhesives necessary. I think it has a tough, industrial edge with an elegant streak.

Some of the staff of the Sustainability Division holding an award; (left to right) Leslie Caceda, Mary Talukder, Diana Trettin, Bill Vondersmith, Yours Truly, Suzanne Burnes, & Lauren Travis.

The Governor of Georgia, Sonny Perdue, presenting the Innovation Award to the staff from Unicoi State Park at the Natural Leaders Awards Ceremony this past Wednesday. For more images from the event and the list of winners, go to the Natural Leaders Awards website.

Closed Loop in Mandarin

Krystal Persaud — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 14:57:46 +0000

To offically end my Shanghai shenanigans, I present to you the Closed Loop logo in Mandarin. With the help of some of my Chinese friends, “closed loop” has been translated to “continuous loop”. This is the logo that I will be screen printing on the shirts for my generous Shanghai Sponsors!

To see photos from my trip, scroll down, or visit my flickr page.

6 days.

Krystal Persaud — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:35:50 +0000

In 6 days I will embark on my journey to Shanghai! I can’t wait to attend the Cumulus Conference and exhibit Closed Loop there. I will be in China for approximately 2 weeks. The first week I will attend the conference, check out the World Expo, and generally explore Shanghai. The second week I plan on venturing off to smaller towns outside of the big city. One destination I am eager to see is West Lake (pictured below). A friend once said it was the most serene place he has ever been to.

69% there + new funding goal

Krystal Persaud — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 20:13:17 +0000

With $1100, I am have completed 85% of my original funding goal of $1300. Wow! I can’t believe all of the great support the Closed Loop has received in the past two weeks.

$1300 covers the cost of airfare and a Chinese visa ($1100 + $200). Once I started diving deeper in the planning process, I realized I also needed to cover my Cumulus Conference registration fee ($100) and hotel accommodation for 3 nights in Shanghai (around $200).

A more accurate sum of money is $1600. Keep the donations coming! This puts me at 69% there. Not bad!

I have been working on the graphic design of the Closed Loop T-shirts! Check back, I will post the final design soon.

Thank you for all of the support, I can’t wait to go to Shanghai!

Closed Loop Cartoons (?)

Krystal Persaud — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:42:14 +0000

I’ve been working on some cartoons that tell the story and process of Closed Loop while I was in Lund, Sweden. I have been struggling with a fun way to depict Closed Loop — because looking at straight up photos at garbage isn’t all that intriguing — so I decided to try this out. Here is the beginnings of a scene …

Help me raise money to fly to Shanghai to exhibit Closed Loop!

Krystal Persaud — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 02:17:22 +0000

Closed Loop Experiment has been selected as one of five projects to represent Lund University and the School of industrial design, at the Cumulus 20th anniversary exhibition in Shanghai during the World Expo. Unfortunately, there is no funding for exhibitors to fly to Shanghai and be with their work. I am trying to raise money to help me cover the cost of airfare. To donate, go to the “donate” tab on the upper right and follow paypal instructions. Your donation is greatly appreciated. Every person who donates gets a custom screen printed Closed Loop shirt.

The Closed Loop Goes to China!

Krystal Persaud — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 22:15:29 +0000

I just received an e-mail from a former classmate of mine at Lund University that the Closed Loop Experiment has been selected as one of five projects to represent Lund University and the School of industrial design, at the Cumulus 20th anniversary exhibition in Shanghai during the World Expo.

I am really ridiculously excited to exhibit in Shanghai! Unfortunately, there is not enough funding to give all of the exhibitors free tickets to China, but I am none the less very honored to have been selected.

I am currently working on the posters I have to design for the event. I will be sure to post them when completed!

Drug Recall + Wooden Pallets. What?!

Krystal Persaud — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:03:49 +0000

As many of you know, Johnson and Johnson had a HUGE recall of some medications in January 2010; Tyenol Extra Strength Rapid Release Gelcaps and Benadryl Allergy Ultratabs.

Well, the reason for the recall was WOODEN PALLETS. What?! is exactly what went through my mind. My mind was blown, once again.

“The January 15th, 2010 recall was initiated as a result of consumer complaints of a musty or moldy odor that has since been linked to the presence of trace amounts of a chemical called 2,4,6-tribromoanisole (TBA). After a thorough investigation, it was determined that the source of TBA was the result of a breakdown of a chemical that is applied to wood used to build wooden pallets that transport and store product packaging materials.”

Almost every product is shipped on pallets. Food products, baby products, medical products… There are so many scary thoughts circling my brain right now, I am not sure how to even express them.

Read the full story here.

HUGE recall on Tyenol Extra Strength Rapid Release Gelcaps and Benadryl Allergy Ultratabs and recommends not using any products manufactured by McNeil Consumer Healthcare.HUGE recall on Tyenol Extra Strength Rapid Release Gelcaps and Benadryl Allergy Ultratabs and recommends not using any products manufactured by McNeil Consumer Healthcare.

I want to be a designer.

Krystal Persaud — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 20:48:26 +0000

But, I don’t want to work at just any design firm. Every time I imagine myself working in a design firm – I hate it. I can just imagine myself in front of a computer solidworks-ing the next great remote control thinking “why… am… I … doing this… “

I don’t want to design new toothbrushes, vacuums, and other mass produced products that don’t provide solutions to real problems. Of course, toothbrushes and vacuums solve legitimate problems, but does there need to be 100 different kinds of each?

I am 3 weeks away from graduating from Georgia Tech with a B.S. in industrial design. I am excited to graduate, but also a little nervous, and definitely nostalgic.

As of now, I do not have any full time job lined up after graduation. I have an internship at the Department of Natural Resources that will end in August and then I will have to find something else to do…

Should I just take whatever job I can get and deal with internal moral issues that I am another designer producing future landfill waste? Or be selective about my job search and hope that an awesome, sustainably-minded firm is hiring?

I am growing pessimistic and am not sure that right job is out there for me. Plus there is the building stress of earning enough money to save up for rent and (hopefully) being able to afford health insurance…

Or maybe I am viewing this all wrong. Perhaps I should take whatever job I can get and try to influence them in making environmentally conscious decisions as much as possible.