Last week we looked at images from May's trip to Mongolia with the Mongolian Nomads. It was interesting to see the different life style these people had and the way they lived. May showed us images of the process of building a home there, which is a process that only takes a few hours.

Last Thursday, Materials and Processes took a trip to Berry Plastics in Lawrence. There are 80 different facilities around the world, and they consist of 4 different divisions, which are engineered materials, flexible packaging, rigid close top, and rigid open top.  Some of the products they produce include injection-molded plastic packaging, thermoformed products, and flexible films and packaging. These include drink cups, for companies like Starbucks. Their customers range from fast food chains to grocery stores.   Berry Plastics use processes such as injection molding, thermoform, dry offset printing, and in-mold labeling for their products.  Although they are very expensive, they are extremely hard to destroy, but almost all of Berry Plastic products are recyclable. They also recycle with in the factory, with their waist from cutting out pieces. The materials Berry Plastics use include polypropylene and polyethylene. These materials start out as resin, which is a raw form of plastic. Overall this trip was very eye opening to see how many products are made every second with how fast their machines go and the fact that they are running 24/7.

Materials and Processes recently toured El Dorado Inc. in Kansas City MO, an architecture and Industrial Design firm. Our tour guide was Josh Shelton, who has been in the company since 1999. El Dorado Inc. has grown the past few years and now has 23 employees. They design for big companies as well as small residence. Throughout the tour Josh gave us advise about being in the working world, and he mentioned that it's ok to say no to projects because you don't want to waste your time doing something you don't enjoy. But never burn a bridge! The design world is a closer knit then you think. When designing El Dorado loves prototypes, but sometimes it is too time consuming or costly, but given the chance they will always take it. Their office is a wide open studio with no separate offices, all of  their furniture was custom made by themselves (it was beautiful). They also have a small work shop down own the bottom floor. At the end of the tour Josh scolded us on work ethic, his overall idea was that you get out of school what you put into it. If you don't try, it will show in your work. So we need to put some fire up our ass and work harder is how i interpreted it. Lastly he mentioned networking, which is extremely important in this field. He told us now is the perfect time to begin, that we should try to become friends with people in the companies, stop in, ask them what they are doing, and things like that.

Today in Materials and Processes we watched a documentary called, Manufactured Landscape directed by Jennifer Baichwal about the Canadian photographer Ed Burtynksy. This Film was composed of the adventures Burtynsky took to capture his photos. Burtynsky does landscape photography, but not just any typical landscape, he does landscape that has been altered by human activity. Such as factories,mining location,  e-waste, debris, etc. It's amazing how waist, destruction, and trash can still look so beautiful. When looking at them one experiences all kinds of emotions, guilt, confusion, helplessness, anger, joy, which is the whole point, he wants the viewer to decide how they feel on their own. These are problems that run deep. At this point it is safe to say we are doing something wrong with design. What is the point in designing for products thats final destination is the waist land?

clock ideation

   Mardi Gras made in China was an eye opening film that shows the contrast between the users of Mardi Gras beads and the labor behind making these beads. The contrast is like night and day. The users are happy and drunk, while the laborers are serious and working hard for 10 cents an hour.
   The laborers actually live the same place they work, it is 15 people to a room with bunk beds. Men and Woman are not aloud in the opposite sex dormitories. There are punishments for disobeying the rules, such as a month of no pay. The food is all made in cafeterias. There are children as young as 15 working in the factories. They can only leave on Sundays. They have a certain quota everyday and if they do not reach it they do not get paid a full days wage.
 

Final Clock