We decide

Eco labels exist, work and have a meaning but at the end we are the ones who decide to take the product or not as customers and the ones that decide to have one certificate or not as designer.

Health impacts

The products we design affect not only the environment as I am stating in many of my posts, but also affect the health of the users around it. When refering to users I am talking about all the people that are in contact with the product. From the farmers of the raw material to the ones that burn it when we send it to the landfills.

In our disposable cup studies, we study the different components that affect us and the way they do it but we focus on the effects that the ones drinking suffer. The chemicals we focus on where melamine in the paper cup and styrene in the polystyrene cup.

After researching the dangerous effects they have in our bodies, we realised that the amount of chemical is few so that even if the danger is high with this substances the real danger one is not.

For our presentation we decided to do the theater acting as we were in a press conference about the last news about the high effects of these chemicals. What we were trying to say with this act is that sometimes is more important the way you communicate the risk than the real one. This has to do with the media, and the way in which we trust all we listen or read from it.

However, news and media are not the only things that affects us when dealing with this issues, history do it as well. In the melamine for example, the scandal of melamine in chinese milk is something we cannot change but still is something that affect us when communication that paper cups contain melamine.

To end with I would say that this issues are really sensitive and we really have to take care on what we say and who are we going to say it.

Routines

... kill creativity.

Change the way you do things every day.

Open the door with the other hand.

Surprise your friends.

Go for a walk.

Sing.

Take your bike instead of your car.

Have a different breakfast.

Travel.

Meet new people.

Create. LIVE.

Transforming the world

The truth is that as the graphic above shows, the more we earn, the more we consume and the more we damage the environment. However, we cannot forget saying that money also implicate more human development. Therefore our objective should be the yellow square, where high human development meets low ecological footprint.

The way? Education. Moreover this education should be different in the more or less developed countries. In our case less consumption is by far the objective. In less developed countries the objective should be not copy what "first world" have done, but learn straight away in a sustainable way not to make the mistakes we made.

For my surprise, the other day I learn that even if it seems a trendy topic, sustainability issues are not new. In the early 60s,  The World Wide Fund for Nature was founded (1961), a non-governmental organization that os nowadays the largest independent conservation organization with over 5 million supporters worldwide, working in more than 100 countries, supporting around 1,300 conservation and environmental projects.

Ten years later Greenpeace was founded and from then until these days hundreds of different organizations have started and have gone forward some steps for making our world a better one.

3P's form what we call sustainable development: people, planet and profit. And as designers we have much to do in this three P's because we design for the real world and the world needs to be taken into account. Not only users, not only how much money we earn, but also our planet. Sustainability used to be seen as an anthropometric theory in which human needs were in the center but what about if instead of human we put the earth in the center?

Real design goes though products to meanings and these meanings have much to do with the way in which we think of the world as a place to respect instead of seeing it as an amount of resources we have.

This means not only design but also metadesign, a concept that reach meanings, signs of design. A design which goes from details to social transformation.

Because we all take part in this transformation and it's our choice to transform it in the good or the bad way.

The power of the words

...or the power of the way to say them?

There are five canons of rethoric:

1. Inventio

A method of finding arguments. There is an introduction, a body and a conclusion in everything we talk about not just in histories.

2. Dispositio

Arranging the arguments. The cohesion of the ideas. The structure of the narrative.

3. Elocutio

The style. There are many ways to say the same thing. 

4. Memoria

Practise is the only way to know how to present. Practise, practise and practise again.

5. Pronuntiatio

How you say what you say, because while speaking you are not only telling something with your voice, you are telling something with your body and of course with your face.

For explaining nothing better than an example:

Krista’s structure is clear: from the problem to the final solution. She does it while explaining her own experience, making the audience feel more identified, making them feel that it’s not a problem of the ones who live in India, it´s a problem of all of us. For reaching them, she uses rhetorical questions as well as the emotional value of real histories. Real people.

Her main message of the presentation is clear and she manages not only to affect people but also move.

The visuals help of course to support what she says, maps and points are the best way to know that this is something that can help people all over the world.

Finally, it’s not only the message but also and sometimes even more important how you send your message. Visual contact and hand movement are a really important way of making people pay attention of what are you talking about. Moreover, there´s an added value in the case of Krista Donaldson’s presentation that is her demonstrations, the fact that the real product is there and not only in the screen.

To conclude I would say that Krista Donaldson’s presentation makes me wanna stand up and help real people who have real problems and whose product not only change one person’s life but also a whole country and how knows? Maybe the whole world.

This was a way of presenting but there are many ways to do it as well. Our choice was the history;

Little Ville is a 9 year-old finnish boy who as nearly everybody of his class, find orienteering a boring  sport. “What is the purpose of running around looking for a place, and getting lost again while looking for the next one?” He asks himself again and again.

Some of his classmates decide to take the easy road and they divide the checkpoints so that once they found one they share the location via whatsapp with the rest.

But everything changes with Eco-check concept A, a product which converts orienteering into a fun game that kids can play with the assistance of their phones. Eco check concept A is a device that hugs the trees and lights up when the orienteering group’s phone is close and unlocks games when found.

So two parts are needed: our phone application and the physical product. With this concept orienteering won't be a boring sport for little Ville anymore. A group of 2-4 children will have at least one phone that they share. At the checkpoint there will be small games and tasks for the kids. For example they need to find three different trees and take a picture of them before moving to the next checkpoint.

Eco-Check concept A is not only technology, it is a way of hugging trees and learning from our nature, while at the same time having fun together.

The design shows simplicity.

One might think that using your own phone while orienteering might be distracting or unequal for some kids.

Here is when eco check concept B appears. A two-device system, with leaf and branch shape so that it is really part of the nature.

The Leaf has small screen and couple of buttons for interaction. They allow us to create an additional game for the checkpoints. A small quiz would be easy for the teacher to create. For example Leaf could ask “Do you see a birch?”

Eco check a is an ergonomic device. Starting with the leaf, the part which players will hold in their hands. It’s symmetric shape allows use with both hands and its cavities give a comfort and secureness to carrying it. This cavities are actually the same as in our hands so that they become nearly part of our then.As we put more pressure with the thumb than with the rest of the fingers, it’s curved shape helps it sit firmly in hand.

For making the leaf even easier to carry, it has an elastic strap which wraps around the fingers so that it is more easy to use and less likely to fall.

The shape also makes packaging really easy as multiple devices stack together.

The branch part, that is located at the checkpoints, uses the telescopic system of an umbrella,which makes it foldable.
The strap retracts inside the biggest part and is only out when pulled, like a seat belt.


The branch is hung from a tree with the strap, and it also contains a hole in the lowest part where the orienteering flag is attached. -Usually they would be separate at the checkpoint, but our design brings them nicely together.

 
Like the leaf, the branch’s shape makes it is easy to save space in packaging and storage as they stack together in their collapsed form.
The cardboard packaging is recyclable as well as the PLA plastic used in the products.

 
There are 3000 schools in finland and we believe half will be interested in buying our ecocheck pack within the next 5 years, which equals roughly to 320 000 students.
On average we expect to sell a pack of 25 leaves with 10 branches per school with a cost of 35 euros per leaf and 15 per branch. App is free of charge.
If we consider a profit of around 20 euros per leaf and 7.5 per branch. In few words we have an estimated profit of 1.73 million euros.

This proves that ecocheck is a potential success for us but also for little Ville.
And this is how little Ville’s orienteering experience changes thanks to Eco-check.

Oslo

The land of sculpures,

architecture

and peace.

Inspiring kalevala

The 19th century work of epic poetry by Elias Lonnrot, regarded as the most significant works of finnish literature.

"Music as a way of trasmiting history to the country.

History as a way of transmiting sense to the present."

 Sara                               

The secret of the best education

A country where the best grade students want to be teachers, where teachers have a passion they want to share and where a the whole country give the profession the value it has.

Teaching in Finland is a work that goes outside the classroom. Outside when they are preparing their own lectures and outside also when they are sharing common areas with students. No offices, no locks, no property, everything for everyone.

Students start school with 7 years old but at that time nearly all of them have learned how to read and write in the home-schools. Once in the real school, teachers have the same students for most of their school life. They know each other, they know in what they are good and in what they are not. Three teachers share the same classroom and extra help in allways available.

 There´s no win/lose education, learning is a team game. Teachers work together in a relaxed way, shoes out and using their own names. No power distance and a lot of trust, teacher are not asked for what to do, they know they trust on them because they know where they are, why and how to do what they need to do.

Teachers believe students are the future and they know they are a key factor on it. They are not the ones that draw the lines students need to walk in, they are the ones that walk with them along the journey.

Since 1891

A family that built an empire.

Their secret?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJrvH8sL-nk

Feeling the competition

One of my first posts of this blog was about Innostava suomi, a company which organizes sport events and which aim is to really change how spectators feel the competition.

Everything sounds so good but it was not until today that I can really say that it is because I was part of the audience and I felt what I think they want people to feel.

Starting from the claps, the poster you see in the picture was foldable and it was a loud way to clap. As a skater I can say that claps are much more than a way to make sound, they are a way of giving energy to the skaters, a way of getting the audience into the performance of the skater.

I did, I clap and and hear others claps. It was awesome. I had also the chance to be in the skater press sesions and all of them agree that the audience was really supportive.

The first performance was the opening ceremony, a performance with a lot of lights and direct music.

However, everything was not on the ice and the seat. Innostava suomi was around all the ice rink:

At the entrance, a sauna and traditional food were the way to wellcome you both to the ice risk and to the finnish culture.

An experimental space where science, art and technology share seats.

Winter is coming and with the winter the snow and the igloo made out of it.

A recyclable piece of art which also reminds of white winter.`

The stress-free zone. Full of nature and confort.

Another inititative was to get closer the fans and the skaters. The way of doing it was that fans from all over the world sent to Espoo their knitted mittens and with a lot of pleasure, I was the responsible for giving them to the skaters. All of the artists will now receive the signature of the skater who took their mitten as well as a photo with them. The skaters were really thankfull and appreciate their work and I feel really happy to be the connection between them.

Thank you Innostava suomi, I feel, enjoy and love Finlandia Trophy.

Yesterday and today

Finland is a country of traditions. One of them is the Helsinki Baltic Herring Fair, the oldest traditional event in Helsinki that has been held since 1743. Straight away from the Baltic Sea and without coming out of the boat, salted herring can be found, tasted and bought.

For 272 years and probably forever.

Thinking in production

Once designing it is a common mistake to design without thinking how to produce. It´s nice to feel free drawing while designing but unluckily sometimes this drawing end in bad manufactured products and high cost mistakes.

Draw,

erase,

draw,

erase

...

There´s always enough pencil and rubber,

but no allways enough money for later mistakes.

Our health and their health

As designers knowing what impacts our products have in the environment is sometimes not enough. There are some impacts they take place in the customers´ health as well and it´s something we cannot forget about.

The health impacts has two main issues: the risk assestment itself and the communication of it.

First of all the risk, there are two ways of knowing it: with direct knowledge or extrapolating it (using animals and models, among others). Once known, it is important to have data based information, and that´s why some organizations such as WHO, OECD or EPA exist. 

Once the risk is known, the complex part arrives: the comunication. The most important issue is to know who the audience is and say the same things in the most appropiate way for them, Independently of the audience and the way of saying the same thing, the most important thing is to be allways honest. 

A lot of phsycology is needed, no underestimations, no overestimations neither prejuicies for crystal clear risk communication. Never forget that we are not talking to machines that record, we are talking to people with feelings and fears behind this screens.

One useful tip to end and think:

"Some remedies might be worse that the disease".

Sustainable plastic?

The other day,looking for the plastic that suits best our future product, I discovered polylactictic plastic. A biodegradable plastic than is delivered from reneweble sources such as corn starch or sugarcane.

PLA, as it´s known, can be manufactured in many different ways: injection molding, sheet casting, among others.

It is useful for producing loose-fill packaging, compost bags, food packaging as well as a feedstock material in 3D printers.

Another interesting use it has is the medical implant one, it is used in this human medical implants because this bioplastic breaks down inside the body within 6 months to 2 years.

Going back to the life cycle analysis I was talking about in the last post, PLA can be recycled with no loss of original properties, that is to say it has cradle-to-cradle recycling.

If all this arguments where not enough, PLA can be colored, leading designers to choose between endless colors for their different products.

As every thing, not all is good neither bad and PLA has some disadvantages as well. The one than can affect more the products is it´s low glass transition temperature (60-65º).

Now that you are reading this, another person knows PLA, so what are you waiting for?

PLA is by far the best choice for today and for tomorrow.

Life cycle

Products live even if we sometimes forget that they do. Their life don't start and end while we buy, use and get rid of them. There's much more behind and in front of that.

The desirable cycle of every product is the circle shaped one, the one that is closed. The circle start with raw material, extracted from the land. This raw material is transported in different ways and affecting in different amounts our environment. Then manufacturing transform the material into a product. A product that is used and sometimes reused by customers. This is disposed to the land or recycled closing and begining the cycle once again.

All this stages affect both the product life and the enviroment. They affect the planet in many ways but to analyse in quantity you have to choosewhich environmentaal effects are the ones which do it in a bigger way. Moreover, depending on this choice and also the resources the company or process has same data will lead to a conclusion or complete different one.

In environmental issues there´s no right or wrong, just better or worse and even these two are susceptible to be questioned.

The same product depending on where is manufactured have different effects, even if the amount of damage is the same, or do you think that will be the same cutting 10,000 trees in Finland and in Asia where deforestation is a real problem?

Sadly or not, analysis don´t allways direct us to a concrete solution but understanding the problem is the first step to solve or at least improve it.

RE:

REthink, REduce, REuse, REcycle.

Our homes

"Our homes are not just our homes. 

They are the scenes of the most captivating stories of all.

Welcome to the greatest show on Earth.

Life."

    Anonymous                                      

Riding two ways

A bicycle is much more that a simple way of transport. Bicycles have allways mean a way of life for me but yesterday in the design and architecture museum of Stockholm, I realised that bikes are even more, they are history. They have changed as history changed. They have changed their materials, changed the place of females in the society, and changed many lifes on the road. But even with all these changes, with all the historical moments they have suffered, their basics are still the same. Two wheels, two pedals and lots of kilometres in front to go over. Moreover, they are two clear roads to go though.

The first one is the road of freedom, emotion, sustainability, fun, friendship.. The "life to ride".

The second one, is a road with more difficulties, more hills and longer distances. The good thing is that is this road as in nature, after every storm the sun rises.. After all, the " ride to life ".

The most honest city

Reader's Digest reporters dropped 192 wallets in 16 countries around the world in order to determine which cities were had the most honorable citizens. In the least honest cities, less than half of the 12 "lost wallets" were returned.

Each wallet contains $50, a family photo and a phone number, among others.

Helsinki, was the most honest city by far; only one of the wallets was not returned. In the other way, Spain, reaching the 2nd place, only two wallets were returned.

The difference? Education.

+ For knowing more about what happensed in the other parts of the world and the histories behind these wallets: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/25/least-honest-cities-world-lost-wallet-test_n_3989023.html

Design is..

A way of solving problems.

And what better than finding your own ones in stead of predicting what the problems are?

Today, after practising Orienteering, I can say that I really know WHAT we are designing, the following question is HOW?

Pencils will answer.

Nature is a decoration itself

In the heart of Helsinki

Design District is a place in the very center of Helsinki which is surrounded by design shops, galeries and nice cafes and restaurant to eat and enjoy.

Walking around, I found a space to have a coffe as well as see a really nice exhibition where it was writen: "everything is for sale unless it speaks".

The moral of my story? That I was lost but losing my guide was in fact the way to discover a new path.