Andrew Mendez Design: April 2013

Weekly Progress Report 1 : Green Gifting

Peer 1 - Richard Pang

Solid concept. Likes the angle of the green thinking, of conserving the power consumption of the laptop. Also the idea of having it being able to be a pencil case, and can be converted into a pen holder, further suggesting the green initiative; as several products are made into one. The materials are minimal and environmentally friendly, while being durable as well.

Peer 2 - I-Min Lu

It's a good idea as everyone has laptops there days, and as a gift it will most likely actually be used be the recipient. Also as laptops get smaller, it gets harder to cool the laptops internally, so something like this is a good compact choice.

Tutor Feedback - Tom Marlay
(Taken from email)

The concept as a laptop ‘cooler’ is good from a sustainability point of view in that it has the knock-on effect of making the laptop more efficient i.e. charging less often, reduced stress on components thus allowing longer lifetime – you should ensure this is conveyed well in the presentation. This aspect helps to cover the point in the brief that talks of helping the receiver (of the gift) to consider the reduction of impacts on the environment.

Aluminium, as you mentioned, is an ideal material to act as a heatsink. Are there other ways you can look to evacuate heat? Airflow? Structure? Surface area? Aluminium is commonly produced in ‘extrusions’, so could this be an area of opportunity to use waste offcuts? Excess stock?

Video Reflection 3 : Who Killed the Electric Car?

For this weeks video reflection, I watched 'Who Killed the Electric Car?" This conveys how the electric car, which is the future of the world; has never came to be. With the environment constantly deteriorating as the world gets larger, with a growing population, it is important as the inhabitants of this world to adopt methods in which keeps the planet alive. In this realisation, the electric car was thought of.

Cars are the main mode of transportation around the world, and in order to make them run, non renewable fuels have to be pumped out of the earth, and when consumed; releases gases into the atmosphere. Therefore, surely there must be another solution to drive people around the world. Even though there is the solution of the electric car, one thing holding it back is money. Unfortunately in our world, environmental sustainability and ecological methods are ignored only for the sake of money and profit.

This is where the electric car suffers. Oil is a major commodity and is worth wealthy amounts of money, with oil companies gaining millions of dollars and profit. With so much power and money we can understand why these oil companies don't want the electric car to emerge. This would mean that oil would be unwanted and therefore drastically fall in price.

As designers, corruption and money is something that can hold us back from creating new things that will actually benefit the world, instead of wanting profit over well being. In this case, designers and all the potential electric car designers have been held back, just so money for oil companies can be sustained. This is especially worse as the topic of environmental sustainability is at the forefront of the worlds problems, behind poverty and hunger.

Furthermore, this trend can be seen in other designs and technologies. In where large companies periodically release new technologies only when it needs to. This was seen previously with the light bulb. Where the emergence of LED lighting was slowed down, as companies would lose money due to the long life the new LED lights have.

Some take home points :

1. Design can suffer at the hand of higher powers, due to corruption and money gaining.
2. Unfortunately, the environment and ecological sustainability is not recognised as a higher priority in comparison to money making.
3. As designers, it is important to keep pushing new and innovative products that help the well being of the Earth and the environment we live in.