Why
Growing up in a small town where recycling wasn’t an option, waste or what we like to call junk is often a burden due to the rural area. Most families had to take their household trash to the Waste Management facility themselves because the roads were too small for garbage trucks to fit. Now imagine an area where you can see never-ending green grass and trees that are scattered from valley to valley. So thick of vegetation that you could get lost in it, you would think that not another living soul lives in this green forest where the only thing that divides the green is the creek’s glistening in the valley. The sad truth is flood season would destroy the illusion. When the creeks would flood, you would see heavy objects like refrigerators floating down past my house, and after the flood, the creek banks looked like a plastic war zone. After months of high water, the plastic would wash away and bring the illusion back to our small community. When I was little, I often imagined where all that plastic traveled.
Statment
The production of plastic materials has grown at an alarming rate since the 1960s when scientists started finding large swaths of plastic in the ocean. Taking steps to reduce the number of new plastics entering the waste stream should be a leading priority for Earth’s inhabitants. One of the most impactful steps would be to change the culture around how plastics are consumed altogether. Exploring different design solutions that both inform and encourage individual consumers to change their habits can have an outsized impact on the issue of plastic waste. With this in mind, I developed a company that produces and consults on products that will help people reduce plastic waste. That brings an uplifting approach to help others reduce plastic one particle at a time.
Branding Guidelines
The Ripples symbolizes how one small action can create significant results, especially when it comes to social issues dealing with plastic waste. I wanted the logo to represent the company’s overall meaning and how small actions make a difference.
Website
Ripple's website keeps a vibrant tone to help viewers stay positive when dealing with plastic waste. The website shows that the main focus is to design, consult, and inform others how to help with plastic waste reduction.
Landing Page
The infographic explores a single person’s plastic waste of commonly used plastic in pounds by showing month, year, decade, and a lifetime to show how plastic waste accumulates with a single person.
About Video
Particle Factor App
Particle Factor helps you turn tinny the habits of reducing plastic by achieving top scores on the team and community leader-board. The more plastic you reduce, the higher your PFN score will be every 2000 points earns you a badge and a discount on top products to help cut your plastic waste down. Every app downloaded, we contribute to The Great Bubble Barrier to help clean the ocean.
This watch add-on will help you track your daily plastic reduction on the go. You can track how much you have reduced within the week. The Watch Complication can be synced to the Particle Factor app and the bottle to help achieve a top score on the leader board. It also connects to Geo-location to give you reminders on when to take reusable items with you.
Bottle
The bottle is multi-functional; it’s not only a water bottle that counts the amount of water you drink, but it also connects to the Particle Factor app to help track the plastic you reduce. This bottle is sold at Sage zero-waste store.
Instagram
Ripples Instagram helps get the word out about the companies story and what they do with GIfs, Videos, and designs. This particular Gif talks about how 70% of the people using our products reduce plastic waste in the ocean. You can help reduce the plastic to fish ratio one plastic particle at a time.
Capstone Book
This book comprises all the research, analysis, and design work done throughout the last year of the MVCD capstone project.
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Conclusion
Overall, the design concepts were to help uplift and encourage others to reduce plastic waste. I wanted the users to have engagement and options on how they would start reducing plastic waste. I wanted to show the facts without discerning the viewers away from the plastic waste problem. The design solutions need to show flexibility and slowly change the user’s habits with micro-actions. Designing for the everyday person ready to take a small action to reduce plastic waste will significantly impact reducing plastic in our land and ocean.
