A Cup of green

The interesting thing i want to say that I got a red mag from my accommodation, firstly it  used be a  pan container. I did not recognise this action could linking with green design. But when read the book, I found this little action is the big step of our awareness. Because I was already recycle something that people do not use. So I want to making my mag as a enter of green design. When I research the materials
I still not left my mag. I want to do more changes of this red mag. Why not give it a life, so I found the moss of my garden and plant them in the red mag. I found that is beautiful when I have done.
The color is so lively. The most thing I excited is that I redesign the mag.
As the deeply of research, I have read more book of green design. I have though that what I can do of green design? Especially as a green designer. But I gave up the fix idea recently. Because I got a lot from this research and I have many excises. This is changing. When we do it, we gain.
The other picture shows my try, that model show the house waste of UK of 2008. I want to make the information (data) tell a story. I want to change the form to express the data. Making them more attractive and more interesting.

Story of data

Data for us usually present as form, chart even just a long paragraph. This situation make me feel boring when I read data. But there is big change that the book called The Visual Miscellaneum thoroughly changed my my prejudice.  I found that date could be own another appearance, like the picture shows below. This picture is  made by Gaz Battersby and Bryan James which is The Interactive UK Energy Consumption Guide. (http://www.evoenergy.co.uk/uk-energy-guide/) This website shows the consumption from 1970 to 2010, when you move your cursor on the year, the different categories of the fuel present different colors in the crown. Let us move on the right section, when cursor on the category that the data will show the percentage on the circle of the crown. For this information design work, we could clearly saw the changes of consumption from 1970 and 2010, we also could saw the percentage of different fuel during the 40 years. So I think this system shows the data very well. This work inspire me  making the data more diversity and easy to read. And the data also could interactive with the audiences. For the successful communication, the first thing could make a deeply empress, lead to curiosity and then more efficiency delivery the information.

Making stuff little change

Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value.
The first recorded use of the term upcycling was by Reiner Pilz of Pilz GmbH in an article by Thornton Kay of Salvo in 1994.
Upcycling is the opposite of downcycling,which is the other half of the recycling process. Downcycling involves converting materials and products into new materials of lesser quality. Most recycling involves converting or extracting useful materials from a product and creating a different product or material.
For example, during the recycling process of plastics other than those used to create bottles, many different types of plastics are mixed, resulting in a hybrid. This hybrid is used in the manufacturing of plastic lumber applications. However, unlike the engineered polymer ABS which hold properties of several plastics well, recycled plastics suffer phase-separation that causes structural weakness in the final product.
The next example I want to introduce which is made by the paper axle of bumf. The designer make the paper cutting. Make the useless object like work of art. We could called it Upcycling process. As  green designer, we could just make the stuff that brand new, we also need to make the useless material to be better.

The background : Household waste

The UK produces about 330 million tonnes of waste a year, a quarter of which is from homes and business. The government is looking at a series of measures to reduce waste, including charging people who fail to recycle their rubbish and, in parts of the country, weekly bin collections have been reduced to fortnightly.



Councils in England have been told to increase recycling rates to 50% by 2020 - that is about double the current rate. An Open University survey suggests kerbside collection in England of recyclable items like glass and paper has already contributed to increased recycling rates. The survey also shows more kerbside collections of garden waste have been introduced - with about a third of households in 2006 setting out compostable waste for collection, up from 27.6% in 2005. Fortnightly bin collections, now being introduced in many areas, have also seen recycling rates rise. Defra figures for 2006 put North Kesteven district council in the East Midlands top of the municipal waste recycling league with a rate of 48.4%.




The United Kingdom still produces more waste per head of population than many of its European neighbours, with an average of 592kg (1,306lb), above the EU average of 577kg, (1,274lb). It also lags behind in the amount of waste recycled, with a UK average figure of 18% based on these figures, well below the EU average of 36.4%. The Netherlands leads the way in Europe with a national recycling average of 64.4%, more than double the level achieved in England. Greece is the worst offender on landfill, dumping 90% of its municipal waste, with Portugal and the UK dumping about three-quarters of their waste.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6222288.stm)


All above the statistics shows that the comprehensive information of the household waste. During our daily life, too many objects waste, so how to reduce the waste is a significant problem. I want to research the area to make my project.

Green design in architecture and textile

Green design is more connected with architeure、textile and industry design. There are many examples all over the world. The home of life  is a sustainable residential project coming from Danish architects AART. Located near Aarhus in Denmark, this building is an  “Active House”, making a statement in the field of architecture by emphasizing on low energy consumption and a “low-carbon future”. Amazingly enough, this home produces more energy than it consumes. This is good example to prove the green design.
The second example, I want to introduce the polyfloss factory.This project is a new upcycling process.
The Polyfloss Factory is a micro-manufacturing machine and set of tools, that transform a widely available waste product (polypropylene) into a versatile and usable making material: Polyfloss. Using the principle of Candy-floss machines, they developed a new process transforming polypropylene in a foam-like material, easy to transform afterward.The technology  is not too hight too use. But it is a intelligent way to recycle the plastic and make them to be new form and new function.
According the two example, I consider that I can't keep my thinking at my professional filed. I should think more and do more practice. Sometimes just a little point is a key of big systerm. Like the polyfloss factory project, the designer use the very plain way to make the material better. For my field, I want to combine textile、 information and communication to design something that could help people decrease the waste and gave the object more useful.

what a graphic designer do of green design

Every designer who spends time seriously rethinking the design process from a “green” perspective ------one that considers the wellbeing of the environment---tells a similar a story.The story beings with a vague notion of wastefulness and progresses to a profound moment of awareness when we realize the negative impact our profession has on our water,air,and land. When we share our stories---with our friends,classmates,and colleagues; at school, at work, over coffee---we spread awareness throughout the design profession. That awareness is the seed of change that has led an increasing number of designers to green design process.（from The big book green design)
Simply defined, the practice of green design conserves natural resources, reduce energy consumption, cut solid waste, and minimizes the ecological footprint of a project. Green is a better way of creating. By itself, it cannot solve the environmental issues facing our civilization,but it is an effective first step toward changing habits,behaviors,and the means with which we imagine ourselves and the economy. It is not an exact science, but it grows daily in terms of innovation and opportunity.By the simple act act of choosing,say, a recycled or non-toxic, renewable material, inspire other designers to improve the outcomes and impact of our profession.

Green Design basic theory

Green design is more like sustainable design, envrionmental design or ecological design which is the philosophy of designing physical objects, the built environment, and services to comply with the principles of social, economic,and ecological sustainability.
The intention of sustainable design is to "eliminate negative environmental impact completely through skillful, sensitive design".⁽¹⁾ It is aim to reduce the poluution of the environment.
Sustainable design principles
While the practical application varies among disciplines, some common principles are as follows:

• Low-impact materials: choose non-toxic, sustainably produced or recycled materials which require little energy to process
• Energy efficiency: use manufacturing processes and produce products which require less energy
• Quality and durability: longer-lasting and better-functioning products will have to be replaced less frequently, reducing the impacts of producing replacements
• Design for reuse and recycling: "Products, processes, and systems should be designed for performance in a commercial 'afterlife'."^[2]
• Design Impact Measures for total carbon footprint and life-cycle assessment for any resource used are increasingly required and available. Many are complex, but some give quick and accurate whole-earth estimates of impacts. One measure estimates any spending as consuming an average economic share of global energy use of 8,000 BTU (8,400 kJ) per dollar and producing CO2 at the average rate of 0.57 kg of CO2 per dollar (1995 dollars US) from DOE figures.^[3]
• Sustainable Design Standards and project design guides are also increasingly available and are vigorously being developed by a wide array of private organizations and individuals. There is also a large body of new methods emerging from the rapid development of what has become known as 'sustainability science' promoted by a wide variety of educational and governmental institutions.
• Biomimicry: "redesigning industrial systems on biological lines ... enabling the constant reuse of materials in continuous closed cycles..."^[4]
• Service substitution: shifting the mode of consumption from personal ownership of products to provision of services which provide similar functions, e.g., from a private automobile to a carsharing service. Such a system promotes minimal resource use per unit of consumption (e.g., per trip driven).^[5]
• Renewability: materials should come from nearby (local or bioregional), sustainably managed renewable sources that can be composted when their usefulness has been exhausted.
• Robust eco-design: robust design principles are applied to the design of a pollution sources).

      (All of this principles are from Wikipedia.)

1. McLennan, J. F. (2004), The Philosophy of Sustainable Design
2. Anastas, P. L. and Zimmerman, J. B. (2003). "Through the 12 principles of green engineering". Environmental Science and Technology. March 1. 95-101A.
3. US DOE 20 yr Global Product & Energy Study.
4.  Paul Hawken, Amory B. Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins (1999). Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution. Little, Brown.
5. Ryan, Chris (2006). "Dematerializing Consumption through Service Substitution is a Design Challenge". Journal of Industrial Ecology. 4(1)

5 keywords of GCD

In my opinion, the 5 words are more special for Graphic Design and Communiacation : concept, process,semiotics,narrative and technology.
Concept is very important for every area of design word. What a designer want to express? How to express it? Why it is like this? These three questions are closely link with concept. This is the origainal idea and thinking. Concept is not only the designer's thinking, it is also the audiences' .
As a designer, creative thinking is much important for a concept. Green design,  functionalism. For the contemporary world, make the design more envrionmental friendly.
Process significant part of design work.When you have a good idea or a concept. How to make the idea take shape, critical think about it, find a way to solove it.
Mind map, sketchbook , collect materials,anylize, reseach the releveant inforemation. These are all the relevant tools of the process.
Semiotics is relation betweensigns and the thingsto which they refer. Especially the abstract symbol.
Narrative play as an important role in the graphic design, which is a communication tool of the design work.
Narrative is communication which depends on the ability of storytelling. we also need a script, like a
poem,or a myth. Audiences like an image containing story.
Technology is the request of the contemporary design. We need to broke the boundries of different profession.
Crossover. For instance,graphic designer should have some knoleges about the 3D, or making video.
Collaboration with other partners.