The Point

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Omop.

Some of you know one of my favourite books is Cradle to Cradle. Bill McDonough and Michael Braungart, the authors, have a brilliant way of explaining what I see as the design approach to the way of seeing the world that Daniel Quinn presents in the Ishmael books. That is to say, it's all about asking if our decisions are contributing the to health of the (societal & biological) community we depend on, or whether it undermines that health. The cradle-to-cradle concept of design they discuss is essentially looking at how we make things, physical things - high-rises, airplanes, hamburger packaging - through a framework of asking, How does this give back to its community in the process of making it, in its use, and in its disposal/transformation once we're done with it?

One of the issues they talk about in constructing as it's conventionally done today is that we mix substances that could otherwise be recovered and reused usefully. A shoe with leather parts that can literally become food for other organisms within our ecosystem has become a shoe with those parts mixed in with plastics that could be broken down into something new, with rubber and toxic additives, so that none of those components can be separated usefully once the shoe has is worn out. To appropriate a word coined by Jane Jacobs, they become monstrous hybrids. Well, theDieline.com does a blog with a couple daily reviews of excellent packaging design, and one of the submissions posted by the people at Sustainable is Good is this great example of a package that takes this into consideration: Method's "Omop" mop set.

TheDieline.com writes:
Made specifically for Method from a combination of paper and bamboo the new brown packaging has an attractive unfinished quality to it - totally unique next to other products packaged in clear clamshells with bright labeling.

The packaging has a minimal quality to it that alone provides it a creative advantage - you want to look at the packaging, touch it and find out what is in it.

The packaging is both compostable and recyclable (mixed paper) and its creation has an interesting story behind it.

The idea for the new design came out of a "Design Safari" a regular creative departure held internally among Method staff. At the safaris staff members share examples of packaging or creative design they like and discuss it with their colleagues.

The new Omop starter kit packaging is compartmentalized. Everything has its own place in a logical easy to open format (unlike many clamshells).

So there you go. Something brilliant to start your day (or end it) with.

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posted by Christopher at 1:38 a.m.

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