Gurus Day

This week was all about our Gurus Day; finalising everything, chatting with people on the day and then evaluating their feedback. I personally thought Gurus day was great! It was super exciting to talk to so many different people, both local designers and international business people.

The feedback I got was positively challenging. Leanne gave me a couple of articles to read about sustainable design that critically reviewed the industry and how companies reuse materials. A big problem within the sustainable industry is that products labelled ‘sustainable’ may re-use certain materials, but the amount of energy it takes to do so, or the amount of toxins released in the air during the process makes it just as harmful to the environment, if not more. She also wanted me to explore more; make different products such as clothes possibly and explore the sustainability and raising awareness aspect a lot more. At the end, Leanna also said to keep in mind what industry I want to work in. That way, I can make sure that all the decisions I make and the direction I choose to head into can help me achieve my future work goals.

Andy Ross focused on my project as a raising awareness campaign. He mentioned a masters design student, who melted and shaped HDPE plastic in front of people during his exhibition, showing the process of using plastic as a material to make furniture live. While talking about existing environmental companies, Andy said that the 2008 green movement was not successful because people were too overwhelmed by it all. Successful companies such as Tesla have a very big green aspect, but they keep their visuals very masculine or similar to other competing companies. This supports my findings about people’s reaction towards certain awareness aspects.

Dean Brown’s ideas for possible products were very useful. He said that I could either think about making products or making an installation. Since I was focused on making a product Dean said that I could make a range of different that are made out of plastic, or I could make a monumental public product such as a bench in a forest or a plant pot (Dean really like to have visual contrasts). Lastly, he said to make sure my projects do not look crafty. These types of products often do not look professional enough, especially not for an honours project.

Paul Topen also had some very interesting ideas about the direction of my project. One of his ideas was to possibly create a DIY cutting board set. This set could educate people about the different plastic types and encourage them to recycle their plastic themselves and make cutting boards out of them. The other idea was to make some sort of educational tool for children. Similar to fuse beads, I could use plastic to get children to make something creative. Paul also offered to give me the contact of someone that makes moulds for a relatively cheap price if I needed it.

Along with my assigned gurus, Andrew Cook and Jeromy Henry also made time to talk to me. Andrew helped me to clarify all the different focuses that my project could have, and he stated that my focus needs to tie in with a story. Apparently the most successful project are ones that are able to sell a story! Jeromy’s focus was on the material itself. He really wanted me to concentrate on the material itself and try and figure out a solution to using it in a sustainable manner. Through his work with an aquarium in the USA, he was aware of all the environmental damages that plastic causes, as well as the environmental damages that can occur through the recycling of it.

I feel like it is going to take a while for me to go through everyone’s feedback and see what I feel like will be useful for my project, especially because some comments are rather contrasting. However, I’m so glad we got the chance to talk to so many people from the industry and get their opinions on my project. Overall, all the comments were very helpful.