More Designs

I have been working on developing more designs to work with second uses. The second use I had for my first prototype was a dart board but this could only be used once as holds would develop. the ideas i have been playing with are to involve the incorporation on food and beer. Having a condiment in the pack leads me to producing a condiment holder/carrier.

   
To explain my design it is a 6 sided prism shape that will hold two bottles at the back and the condiment at the front.
The second used would be to turn it in to a condiment holder by cutting along midway at he front and then once two side back panels and punched out mats are separated it will fold over at the backto become the handle and two halves as the trays.

I have then made this into a prototype:

This was a scaled down version and found that the tabs were put in the wrong place and could make the base drop with the weight of the bottles. This would be a nice second used but needs some reworking for strength of the basses.

Further Reference material for alternative packaging and

While looking for more packing design examples for drink gift boxes, I have found some that have been driven by the need/want to replace the material used to package the bottle as it maybe bulky for need of protecting the product but is not friendly.

A new cardboard wine shipper from sustainable UK packaging company Knopak. This is a sturdy cardboard package for wine bottles that keeps it secure and protected by the firm supports.
It can be stored flat, assembled easily uses not tape or glue and is not bulky.
http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/a20090514.html

This just shows how useful cardboard is and how many people are basing their ideas off of this material that is easily recyclable.

Visit to Wales Centre of Alternative Technology

At CAT there was some interesting work and ideas of alternative building design that I found quite appealing, and effective for its purpose of reducing it carbon foot print on the energy needed to produce the materials used and the result of how efficiently they work.
These are good ideas themselves and maybe effective in the long run, but as said in one of the talks, even if we became efficient enough to reduce our carbon emissions to even 0 it would take about 50 years for it to take effect on the globe.
This would be very difficult to achieve with our kind of infrastructure and economy based on consumerism, it would then cripple most businesses. 

Recycling reason

This was on the back of the cereal box I used to make my prototype.

Less packaging waste ideas

These show some cleverly thought out second uses for the packaging of a product.

http://dornob.com/shipping-eco-friendly-products-in-multifunctional-packages/?ref=search
The idea here is the shirt is sent in this package and with buying more clothes you will need/want more hangers and the packaging that the shirt came in conveniently can be constructed from the direction on the packaging into a hanger.
This shows that the idea was considered about in mind of the item that was contained in the package.

The lite2go utilises the main body of the packaging as part of the product with a small recyclable strip of cardboard left over. This shows real creative and feasibility of the product become part of the packaging for some items.
http://www.hippyshopper.com/2007/07/lite2go_by_knoe.html


This example is more about reduced to fit packaging and other tidy elements inside the packaging to hold information.

http://lovelypackage.com/incase/
A tidy and individualised to the company box that has a compartment for documentation that is supplied such as a receipt.  The over lapping lid held by the string/elastic seems strong.  It is also nice to see that the box fix the product in size so there is no excess amount of packaging needed to be filled with paper, bubble plastic etc to stop the item moving around. 

Further development, nets, and prototype

Here I have developed some more ideas on my first design of using slots, by evolving the shape more so, that could work into a second use of a decorative stand by its self. It kind of combines my third ideas second use of a condiment holder.

This is a net for my second design worked out with tabs and slots so no need for glue. I have also gone on to develop a scaled down prototype of my design from a cereal box.

On making the prototype for this design, I think I need to improve the top sections closing and handle system as these kept being pulled up when used.
I will work on further designs to improve this and later this week get the cardboard material I want to use for my design so I can make a full scale prototype and test it properly with the size and weight of the bottles.

Deconstructing Packaging

After the tasks of working with nets,  I thought about dismantling other packaging boxes to have a look at their nets.
Most used glue in some form of little amount to attach the sides together, but I managing to find a couple of examples that were completely glue-less, and these are the ideas that I will take forward into my own design of the Wye Valley Brewery packaging.

The Wii Balance board box had glue to attach the sides together. But here I'm looking at the fold over that holds the plastic handle in place.

The bottom of the box has an overlapping interlock that hold quite firmly with weight in the box, which I find is a good design without using glue.

Looking at the draws that are inside the Wii console box which organises the parts into their own tidy compartments. The draw itself is made as a thick boarder. The compartments inside are made from a cleverly folded net that is held in place by the boarders of the draw.

This box is much like the wine carrier, which uses glue to hold parts of the overlapping base parts when the box is flattened.

A 3DS box, cleverly designed with no glue. Folds and small slots to hold sides in place. I will try to incorporate this element into the design of my box for stable holding. It gives a layer of strength to the sides of the box.