GD Capstone 09

TITLE: Hungry Soil
Feed the earth

DESIGNER: Roudha Musabih Rashed

COURSE: ART 499 GRAPHIC DESIGN CAPSTONE

INSTRUCTOR: YUNSUN CHUNG-SHIN

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TABLE OF CONTENT

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BACKGROUND

1. 09 CAPSTONE BRIEF
2. GENERAL SUSTAINABLE DESIGN RESEARCH
3. EMOTIONAL STATEMENT
4. INSPIRATION(S)

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CAPSTONE BRIEF (300WORDS):
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RESEARCH

1. PROJECT SPECIFIC RESEARCH: PROBLEMS
2. CASE STUDY PROJECT(S): SOLUTIONS
3. DESIGNER(S)
4. VISUAL COMMUNICATION STYLE(S)
5. SURVEY: QUESTIONS AND RESULTS

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ART DIRECTION

1. CONCEPT (BIG IDEA)
2. BRANDING: NAMING, LOGO, SYMBOL, TAG-LINE
3. STYLE (LOOK AND FEEL)
4. TYPOGRAPHY
5. COLOR

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DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT (FROM SKETCHES TO FINAL)

1. SKETCHES
2. ELECTRONIC VERSIONS (1-3 STAGES)
3. FINAL VERSION

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CAMPAIGN APPLICATIONS

1. POSTERS
* ART DIRECTION
* DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
* FINAL 3 POSTERS
2. MEDIA: PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN ADVERTISEMENT
* STORY
* ART DIRECTION
* DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
* FINAL SCREEN SHOTS 3-6 IMAGES
3. OTHERS
4. CAMPAIGN EVENT
* WHAT AND WHY
* WHEN
* WHO
* WHERE
* HOW

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EPILOGUE (REFLECTION SUMMARY)

BACKGROUND:

1. 09 CAPSTONE BRIEF

PROJECT TITLE: Alternatives
Reflecting on who we are and who we are not in this hot, flat and crowded planet

We are living in a place and time that imperatively requires the most urgent care for our planet, nations, and cities due to Climate Change. The UAE has the highest ecological footprint according to Living Planet Report 2006. This complex and discomforting news is a call for designers to exercise their social responsibilities. We designers have done much horrific harm to the planet with toxic materials, structures, processes, and developments that are not eco-friendly or harmful to both humans and nature alike. It’s time to examine the problems surmounted in front of us and to ponder potential solutions; in order to initiate positive changes in our lives. A promising solution, and perhaps the most vital, is to begin by educating the public with a creative communication of addressing these issues; whether they be immense or trivial.

This project focuses on redefining sustainable living and reflecting a current brand image of Dubai. Currently Dubai images have been established by a diverse range of people and perspectives; this project grants a chance for young Emirati designers to take ownership of shaping Dubai branding and envision a scenario of holistic city lifestyles covering various aspects of Dubai culture and urban living. It is a process of actively engaging in our duties as designers as we understand and exam contemporary definitions of Tradition, Fusion, and Vision of Dubai as a place and people.

This project aims 1)to understand sustainability problems and solutions 2)to envision city images and formulate customized solutions to address environmental issues specifically in Dubai from an Emirati perspective 3)to develop a campaign interacting with the public to participate in proposed campaign activities.
A design solution can be a campaign poster series as well as a media campaign to raise the awareness of the problems, or a more complex systematic design process. The final products include branding, promotional media and/or print products. Students will exercise their creativity, research skills, execution capacities, time management, and responsibilities through their unique stories and designs reflecting their creative solutions as a graphic designer.

Capstone 499 is the final graduation project for Graphic Design students.
In which the students are given the opportunity of a lifetime to think and
produce as a real designers. Each student get to interact with the public where
they deal with worldwide issues and make a change in the word if possible.
In this project we are redefining a sustainable design solution for environmental
problems or issues in Dubai. By designing our own campaign to address
environmental issues specifically in Dubai and raise awareness among public.

2. GENERAL DESIGN RESEARCH

I begin my research by reading this amazing book “Cradle to Cradle” by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. The book was an eye opening; I have learned many things such as how we should think of our way of lifestyle using modern technology considering the design aspect that would be sustainable. In addition, how we can make science and design work along to achieve sustainable lifestyle. How we can use both science and design together to achieve a sustainable lifestyle. “Remaking the way we make things” this is the quote that attracts my attention, it made me think of how thing are made and what are the possibility of how things can be redone to became sustainable. After reading this book, I started thinking and even more important, believing in a sustainable lifestyle. This is possible if we start thinking twice of what, how much and exactly in what way we are consuming in order to stop the faults and give our future generations a chance to live in a green world as we had.

3. EMOTIONAL STATEMENT

One weekend on my way to Sharjah, there was an extremely terrible smell and I could not help but wonder what it was that was causing this dreadful smell and where it was coming from. Driving ahead, I noticed a shocking scene; a large amount of waste was dumped in a big landfill where everyone could see. This intrigued me and got me to ask my mother what exactly we were driving by and she explained that it was a large dump site for the city wastes such as: plastic, food, glass bottles and cardboards and so on. What really surprised me was that food was being thrown there. I thought to myself, do they really throw food out like that? A blessing from god being thrown in an open space exposed to all kind of other wastes that generates toxic gas. This disappointed me because I felt so helpless and could not do anything about it. Since then, the image from that day has been stuck in my mind and made me think restlessly, but now is my chance to step forward and propose some alternatives that will help save the land space and get it to a better use.

4. INSPIRATION

My first inspiration came from my passion for simple nature, I would rather live in a quiet place surrounded by nature rather than a noisy place surrounded by man made creations and buildings. The world is running out of natural space & resources; being said that, Dubai has the beauty of the desert but even that is slowly depreciating with all the construction work and hideous waste fields such as the big landfill where I had driven by previously.

Some of inspiring quote:
1-Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites.  ~William  Ruckelshaus

2-We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.  ~Thomas Fuller

CAPSTONE BRIEF:

It is a green campaign to raise awareness about environmental issues and encouraging people to act towards it. The targeted audience on this campaign are kids from age 10-12, because kids this age are more likely to participate in the events and will help spread the idea by discussing it with their parents and friends. The main message of this campaign is 1) reduce the amount of landfill food waste since we can’t stop it. 2) Find an alternative way to properly dispose the food waste.  3) Raise Awareness of how this waste generates toxic and harmful gases that will be treating the their health and their future generations’ health. “HUNGRY SOIL” is the title of my campaign; I chose this title to show some kind of comparison between the earth and the human, where am picturing the earth as a human who is dying from hunger and need someone to feed him and heal him. I will be approaching my campaign to the audience by 1) Using media 2) Series of poster 3) Campaign event.

RESEARCH:

1.    PROJECT SPECIFIC RESEARCH:

Landfill:

Landfill is the easiest way to dispose leftover and the city waste. People find it easy to build new landfills every now and then to get rid of their waste with out knowing the consequences. For hundreds of year’s people have used garbage dumps to get rid of their waste, people tossed all sorts of waste in to this dumps. However, yesterday’s waste is nothing comparing to today’s waste and it will be nothing comparing to tomorrow’s waste if we didn’t have any strict action toward this gigantic landfill waste.
As we all know how Dubai had the enormous transition from being a hot and dry desert city into a trade and tourism hub. Considering the period of time this hug transition happen and the amount of changes that had taking place such as shopping malls, man made islands and a lots of daily constructions, plus the anonyms growth of population. However, Dubai has the high amounts of waste generator. According to Mohammed Abdul Rahman Fareed from OhmyNews “At present, Dubai generates 7,000 tons of waste daily, dumped in various landfills located at Al Ghusais, Jabel Ali, Lehbab and Hatta, with the Al Ghusais landfill the largest. On average, 6,000 tons of waste is taken to Al Ghusais for disposal every day.”
As the days goes by the disposal will get bigger and they will be having even more landfill to liberate the waste eventually the city will run out of landfill and the sum of waste will get bigger and bigger.
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=328297&rel_no=1
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL0353057620070503

Greenhouse Gas(Methane):

Methane is greenhouse gas that is produced by the household waste, which are send n dumped on a landfill. Methane is a harmful gas, which remains in the atmosphere and allows big amount of solar radiation in to the earth atmosphere and trap them, which then leads to global worming. “Methane is over 20 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide”
In Dubai the activates is major which then contribute to generate greenhouse gas, with all this going on in Dubai the amount of leftover is get bigger and bigger and what is an easy way to get rid of it then landfill. “According to a U.N. Development Program report issued last year, UAE greenhouse gas emissions were 33.6 metric tons per capita in 2003, compared to 19.8 metric tons per American or a world average of 3.7 metric tons per capita.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL0353057620070503
http://www.morethanwaste.com/Site/Default.aspx/BE223BDFC1BA87959E9B
http://www.epa.gov/methane/

Compost:

Compost is a natural process to get rid of waste and at the same time make it useful. Composting is when you decompose and recycle the leftover to use if for your own benefit. Almost anything can be compost if it can be eaten. “A third of all household waste can be used to make compost for your garden.”
If we think of it everything in this goes back to where it came from, they go in a crucial. So what are a better way then returning the leftover to where it came from rather then just imposing it on a landfill somewhere that could be harmful to the soil and to our health. Moreover, by composting the waste we are helping the Mother Nature by doing the half process decomposing the organic matter and feeding it back to the earth.

http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/B1189.htm
http://www.biggreenswitch.co.uk/waste_reduction/compost-food-waste
The Climate Diet. By Jonathan Harrington, 2008. London, Sterling, VA.

Problem:

-    wasting food lead to many other waste of other resource such as production waste, transport fuel waste, and money waste.

-    Food waste takes of a valuable space from landfill, because we are using it to storage the waste instead of benefit from it to expect our needs.

-    Gathering the waste on one place produce harmful greenhouse gas  methane as it rots.

Solution:

NatureMill PLUS Fully Automatic Compost Machine
Automatic food compost it can be used indoors or outdoors
The composting process is continuously every to two-week and it’s a very clean and fast process.

You do u want to compost?

1)    By composting we are reducing the landfill mass

2)    By composting we are reducing the amount of green house gas(Methane) that is generated my the food waste

3)    By composting we can use the compost food waste to fertilize our soil

4)    By composting you can have your own fertilizer and save money, the compost creates a superior fertilizer and produce a healthier garden with better soil.
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/reasons-compost.html

2. CASE STUDY PROJECT(S):

“Planet Green” it is an American organization launched in June 2008. Planet Green is an online and on air 24-hour network. their aim is to help people think green and live green. “We are committed to helping people take that next step toward a sustainable future. “Said Laura Michalchyshyn, President and General Manager of Planet Green. They signify a wide sort of perspectives and thought so they can target all ages with different background.

“Love Food Hate Waste” it is an England, Wales organization, awareness campaign to encourage people to reduce, reuse and recycle the waste. Well-known chefs and food professionals are support the campaign. It aims to make people think what they buy for their kitchen and instead make them use the leftover food, where the chef is giving the tips on how to make great meals out of leftovers.

“Guilty Of Housing That Ugly Peach” a Brazilian organization, awareness campaign aimed at making consumers more conscious about their choices. They came up with a brochure that imitated the style of those used by supermarkets to advertise by showing the food all rotten.

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/about.html
http://www.wasteawarenesswales.org.uk/1741.html
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-health/build-worm-compost-bin.html

3. DESIGNER(S)

4. VISUAL COMMUNICATION STYLE(S)

My visual communication is thought animated illustrated characters that will be addressing the problem solution. More over three series of poster one of them will be a diagram that will show the process of the event that will help raise awareness