The Nerd Kit

The Nerd Kit - Alex Gennette

This project is a collection of “nerd” items that would be useful to the stereotypical nerd including glasses, pocket protector and bow-tie that would present the user as an smart and environmentally conscious person. The audience for this product is defined as people who are young to middle age adults who are environmentally conscious while living a faster pace city life style.
This way of reusing the carton is called “upcycling” and displays the consumer as an upstanding progressive citizen who wants to decrease our carbon foot print on the planet. My pattern would be printed on the inside of the carton and the user could then cut open the box and make each item.

This Isn't Milk, It's A Lamp.

Proposal;

What’s my idea? What can “Boxed Water” become once its sole purpose has been expired, well a lamp of course. With a few simple cuts you can transform a product into a lamp shade to decorate your house in fancy design boxes while still impressing your hippie friends by keeping around junk and calling it art. Now who’s sophisticated, you are with your recycled water boxing and awesome décor. Oh hell yeah, going Martha Stewart all up in this shit, we make something from nothing, and save the world all at the same time.

Who is the audience? The targeted audience would be faux-environmentalists who pretend to care about the earth but really just like the image and the social aspect of recycling. This is shown by the location of the closest store, being in Miami, and the store is a record shop, and who buys records? Hipsters buy records. Congrats Boxed Water you are a fad but a smart fad that has seem to fallen into the wrong dimension of saving the world. Whatever the case is this lamp is perfect for people who care about not caring and wanting to show that ability off, or lighting a dark room, I guess it’s better for the latter.

Why bother upcycling? Why not is the question, you’ll have more fun trying make a lamp or something you’ll actually use, more so than going to the recycling center and throwing it away, but let’s be honest you’ll just throw it in the trash. You can make basically anything that your talented little sausage fingers can muster, so start off with a lamp, and if you get ballsy enough or have enough cash after buying the first over priced box of water then maybe you could make something useful to the world. Upcycling keeps items out of landfills and allows you to be creative and share with friends. There are better things out in the world to upcycle than “Boxed Water” but the idea is key and that’s what starts change, one step at a time.

This isn't milk, It's a salt and pepper shaker.

Salt and Pepper Shaker by Katrishia Powell

We live in a society where most of the things we buy are thrown out once they are used. What we have not noticed is that many of those materials being thrown out could be used to create other usable things. This idea is called upcycling. By upcycling we can prevent wasting existing useful materials to create something new and useful. We have seen many purses made out of recyclable materials, such as cans or plastic. This is a good example of upcycling.

For those people that like to be environmentally friendly, boxed water has been created. This helps reduce the amount of plastic used and at the same time the boxes can be reused to create something completely different. After drinking the water inside the consumer will open the box to find a new pattern to create a salt and pepper shaker. This is something used daily in every household and it does not only have to be filled with salt and pepper. Several of these can be made and filled with spices of any other condiment necessary. These shakers will be refillable since they have the side caps to keep adding as much as you need.

This isn't milk, It's a Snack Box.

Nikki Jensen Snack Box Proposal:

When told we had to create something that could be recycled out of a paper carton the first thing that popped into my head was a way to contain something. That’s when the snack box became an idea. I intended on developing this idea by adding multiple holders in one so that your snacks will not mix. It also had to close in an easy way. The audience of the snack box would be parents. Parents can use this product to pack their children’s lunches. Putting the snack box together can also be an activity they can do with their kids to teach them about recycling. This product is not only designed for kids, it can be a snack carrier for adults that need something on the go. You should up cycle because it’s giving another use for something and helps save the environment saving our resources. Why use something new when you can make it out of something that you already have? A project that has inspired me would be the dinner set for the campers that are flat and you can fold them into the pieces. The idea of creating less space intrigued me. The shape that inspired me would be the soup thermos that you use for to go lunches.

This isn't milk, It's a pinhole camera.

Proposal for “boxed water is better” pinhole camera

When you repurpose something from something else, you have to think what it will be used for; functional, entertainment, or both. If you are looking for both function and entertainment then this is your answer; the pinhole camera. A pinhole camera is a simple camera that can be made out of anything and that it’s light safe. You create a shutter that moves up and down as if it’s a button on a normal camera. Taking a thumb take, you poke a hole in a can and that becomes the lens. Once built, it can take pictures anywhere with good sunlight. A pinhole camera is a perfect example of upcycling because it uses household items and it can be made out of almost anything. It’s important to upcycle because in this day and age, more people are being wasteful in everything they do, you can instead take the waste and you could make things such as a clock out of a orange juice carton, or a purse or wallet out of old candy or juice wrappers. The possibilities are endless when you think outside the box and outside new items.

final critique of pinhole camera prototype

final critique of lamp prototype