Nicole - Traditional Japanese Packaging & Orange Task

Traditional Japanese Packaging

Traditional Japanese packaging evolved over centuries of practical use and experiments and splits into two sources historically:

1. the utilitarian lineage

• a sort of distilled-down basic folk wisdom that evolved through day to day needs.

• a practical method that arose through using whatever materials were close at hand.

• quite often these solutions were appropriate for storing and transporting while also being simple, free of excess and often beautiful creations.

• the image of the eggs is a perfect example, the eggs need protection, the rice straw is left over from the rice crop and both strong and flexible. The farmer would have just re-used the materials to hand. Unconsciously it also suggests freshness and the warmth of newly-laid eggs. 

Eggs wrapped in rice straw

• another example being rope wrapping for dried fish. This allows a perfect situation ventilation-wise and can preserve the fish for more than 6 months.

• package can also be unwrapped a bit at a time as and when needed

• ‘wisdom that comes from everyday life’

Fish wrapped in rope to preserve

• other kinds of wrapping can include the wrapping of rice dumplings in bamboo leaves, oak leaves for wrapping rice cakes and magnolia leaves for rice balls or bean curd

Mochi (rice cakes) wrapped in bamboo leaves

Containers for Yokan (jam made of sweet beans); made of banmboo leaves.

• simple, effective packaging using naturally occurring materials. Created in a style that is very much in the Japanese tradition of creating beauty from the simplest products of nature.

• here traditional wisdom and the item’s ‘feel’ are all important in these solutions

2. handicraft

• a more concious set of designs that include techniques and refined aesthetic considerations.

• created by formal craftsmen who regarded their job and solutions as more art-based. The packaging itself had meaning as well as it’s contents.

• techniques became more and more sophisticated and packaging became a recognised profession using artisans who worked in long established shops.

• the beginning of packages that were works of art in themselves - often having more charm than their contents.

Kyoto style confectionary packaging

• motivations of these packaging designers was purely personal, the need to perfect their art

• driven by two considerations that were very much tied-in with Japanese traditional values:

1. a philosophy that said everything could and should be made beautiful.
2. a value system that said that everything, large or small, expensive or cheap were of real value.

bamboo holder for these traditional Japanese sweets

set out so that they resemble a bunch of flowers

• Kyoto was the political and cultural centre of Japan for nearly a thousand years. Many of these artisan packaging designs and shops still survived there until well after the 1970’s.

• elegant, refined packaging style known as the ‘Kyoto style’

• today we often think that consumption and not conservation is the aim of life but we can still learn a lot from these examples of a wiser past, more in tune with nature and natural resources

• packaging as art suggests a whole new perspective on what is and what isn’t supposed to be thrown away

• in addition to utilitarian and handicraft packaging, there are some other characteristics of Japanese packaging to also look briefly at:

The natural quality of most of these packages. The majority of materials used are of wood, bamboo, straw and clay and derivatives of these such as paper, cloth and ceramics. All of these exist in abundance in our natural surroundings and have been used since ancient times. The materials here are used in a way that shows their freshness and celebrates their natural textures.

• conflict between people and nature is often at the base of western culture. In Japan though, people have lived as part of nature - hence the use of natural materials in packaging.

• natural materials are often used in packaging in such a way that they simulate some other facet of nature

• another characteristic common to many forms of Japanese natural packaging is the process. Often the wrapping and packaging are seen as sacred ritual.

• this ritual also mirrors Japanese need for cleanliness - turning the wrapping and preparation into an act of purification. This is often also seen in the Japanese as a orderliness and tidiness.

other characteristics of Japanese packaging

• the third characteristic of Japanese packaging is of handwork. Packaging like this would be impossible without the touch of the human hand.

• these packaging styles are uniquely Japanese in design and construction. Even the smallest objects are treated with a reverence and packaged so that they are made beautiful so that whomever receives it will enjoy both the package and it’s contents.

• one of the reasons that this traditional style of packaging has disappeared so much in Japan has been that it is so painstaking and inefficient to make - something that cannot be easily mass produced.

Preserved and dried fish are strung together with straw. A simple and practical solution for transport but also attractive to the eye 

• Hideyuki Oka the book’s author suggests that he feels this situation is an indicator of our slow but sure disconnection with all things natural too. Where as once the Japanese lived in communion with nature, it now uses and abuses it as western culture takes hold.

Orange Task

Our task for the session was to create our own packaging for two oranges - inspired by the Japanese packaging we had been discussing.  Below is a photograph of mine and Gareth's creation.  We were pretty pleased with it!  It worked well and looked attractive too as we had used both the Japanese utilitarian and handicraft ideas creating decorative plaited rope and also trying the wrapping of the rope.  It could also be added to as required and once the oranges had been removed they could easily be replaced - very 'green'!

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Nicole - Green Furniture Design

A green furniture manufacturer

I hadn't realised that the majority of furniture available is petroleum based.  However, this company demonstrate that it is possible to manufacture furniture that not only has health benefits to allergy sufferers but is also made from sustainable products.  The furniture will allegedly last much longer too.

FSC sustainable hard woods

Wool - taken from sheep who graze on pesticide free land

Natural Latex - extracted from rain forest trees and is biodegradable

Organic Cotton - Grown without harmful insecticides or pesticides on soil that is turned

Jute Webbing - which is natural, biodegradable and recyclable

and they use biodegradable cleaning products

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Nicole - Sustainable Packaging - Clever Little Bag

Puma's Clever Little Bag
Boxes are everywhere we look, we live in them, our food is in them and we even drive in them.  They have been around longer than the wheel.  However, shoe boxes are now accountable for millions of tons of waste.  Puma decided to research this area in order to produce a sustainable alternative to the shoe box that would reduce their environmental impact on the world.

They spent 21 months working on materials and fabrication methods to reduce material and shipping costs.  Their initial 2000 ideas resulted in over 40 packaging prototypes concluding with an idea which they named the 'Clever Little Bag'.

On production of the Clever Little Bag they calculated that their carbon emissions related to manufacturing and packaging design would be reduced by approximately 10,000 tons of CO2 equivalent.

The Clever Little Bag saves 8500 tons of paper as it now uses 65% less cardboard than a standard shoe box.   It also uses 20 million less mega joules of electricity, 1 million litres less of water, 1 million litres less of fuel oil, 500,000 litres less of diesel oil and 275 tons less of plastic.  There is also no laminated printing and no tissue paper used.  The bag is non-woven which means less work and waste in production.

Puma can still transport and store the Clever Little Bag whilst continuing to satisfy consumer needs as the customer can now transport their shoes home without the need for any further packaging.  They can then re-cycle the cardboard and re-use the branded bag at a later date for storage or shopping etc.

The name Clever Little Bag attracts attention and therefore highlights the efforts Puma have made in the area of sustainable packaging.  The result of all their research and design is a product that is much more sustainable than its predecessor and unique to Puma.  They have broken the mould of the traditional shoe box and hopefully set a precedent for other companies both within and out of the industry to aspire to.

Manifesto points covered: 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 11, 12, 14.

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Nicole - The Green Manifesto

14 points of the Green Manifesto

1. Design to satisfy real needs as opposed to transient, fashionable or market-driven needs.

2. Design to minimise the ecological footprint of the product/material/service product, i.e. reduce resource consumption, including energy and water.

3. Design to harness solar income (sun, wind, water or sea power) rather than use non renewable nature capital such as fossil fuels.

4. Design to enable the separation of components of the product/material or service product at the end of life in order to encourage recycling or reuse of materials and/or components.

5. Design to exclude the use of substances toxic or hazardous to human and other forms of life at all stages of the product/material/service product's lifecycle.

6. Design to engender maximum benefits to the intended audience and to educate the client and the user and thereby create a more equable future.

7. Design to use locally available materials and resources wherever possible (thinking globally but acting locally).

8. Design to exclude innovation lethargy by re-examining original assumptions behind existing concepts and products/materials/service products.

9. Design to dematerialise products into services wherever feasible.

10. Design to maximise a product/material/service product's benefits to communities.

11. Design to encourage modularity in design to permit sequential purchases, as needs require and funds permit, to facilitate repair/reuse and to improve functionality.

12. Design to foster debate and challenge the status quo surrounding existing products/materials/ service products.

13. Publish eco-pluralistic designs in the public domain for everyone's benefit, especially those designs that commerce will not manufacture.

14. Design to create more sustainable products/materials/service products for a more sustainable future.

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Nicole - The World's oil crisis

Another eye opening video about the world's oil resources.  It is a haunting sight to see oil fields, once flowing, now dry and desolate - and all within just eighty years in some areas.


It seems that an alternative to oil is required in the immediate future if the whole world isn't going to be at war with each other over this exhaustible resource.   Not only this but as oil becomes more and more scarce the price increases which will affect the price of almost everything we buy.  


The USA uses 25% of the worlds oil and it therefore seems ridiculous that the Americans still enjoy relatively low fuel prices, prices need to be increased in order to make customers aware of this precious resource they are consuming.


If a suitable alternative isn't found quick enough our lives will change significantly.  Flights will only be affordable to the super rich.  Our children's children will not experience travel in foreign countries or possibly even in cars, and our cost of living could escalate leaving more people than ever before in poverty.


Blimey - scary times ahead!

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Nicole - Global warming’s effect on the world’s water supply

Global warming’s effect on the world’s water supply

Following the viewing of Al Gores presentation – An Inconvenient Truth my eyes have been well and truly opened and from the points he mentioned I became particularly concerned with possibly one of the most serious consequences of global warming – the change in the world’s water supply.  

If scientists’ models of global warming and climate change is correct, we can expect to see melting of the polar ice caps. Whether they are totally decimated or minimally reduced, the sea levels will definitely change.  Over the past century they have risen six to ten inches and are still rising. So far, this increase hasn’t affected any country’s water supply in any significant way but just a few more inches could possibly make a difference between an adequate water supply, water rationing or even a severe shortage of drinkable water.

As the sea levels rise, the fresh water sources such as rivers and streams that run into it will be absorbed by the salt water. Upstream, where the water is fresh, supplies will have been cut short by the encroaching ocean and as the earth’s surface temperature rises, reservoirs will evaporate more quickly and reserves will begin to be inadequate.

The increase of wildfires over the past five decades will also begin to have a devastating effect on the water supply. Hillsides and valleys absorb rain allowing the water to travel in to the natural freshwater supplies. As fires leave the lands bare and desolate, rain will rush down the hillsides towards the flat lands, causing flooding, ruining crops and affecting the habitat. Much of the fresh water will end up in the ocean, rendering it useless for consumption.

Research by scientists Tim Barnett, Jennifer Adam and Dennis Lettenmaier of the University of Washington, shows that human-produced greenhouse gases, and the resulting warmer climates they produce, will have a significant influence on ice and snow-dependent regions that will result in costly disruptions to water supply and resource management systems.  They argue that their predictions and observations "portend important issues for the water resources of a substantial fraction of the world's population."   According to the scientists, the forces driving these changes described as "greenhouse physics", show that in a warming climate more water will fall in the form of rain rather than snow, filling reservoirs to capacity earlier than normal. Additionally, a warming climate will result in snow melting earlier in the year than in previous decades, disrupting the traditional timing of water available from snow runoff streams. Together, they say, these changes mean less snow accumulation in the winter and earlier snow-derived water runoff in the spring, challenging the capacities of existing water reservoirs. According to Barnett, water shortages will occur in areas where reservoir capacity cannot hold the annual cycle of rain/snow.

Barnett and other scientists with the Accelerated Climate Prediction Initiative

extended their study to regions that heavily depend on glacier-derived water for their main dry season water supply and warn that in glacier dependent regions "once the glaciers have melted in a warmer world, there will be no replacement for the water they now provide."   For example Glacier-covered areas in Peru have experienced a 25 percent reduction in the past three decades, and the authors suggest that "at current rates some of the glaciers may disappear in a few decades, if not sooner."

A study by scientists from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, published in the journal Nature: Geoscience, concludes that, globally, mountain glaciers and ice caps are projected to lose 15-27% of their volume by 2100, although the extent of the damage varies widely. The analysis suggests glaciers in the Alps and New Zealand will shrink by more than 70% but shrinkage is predicted to reach about 10% in Greenland and high-mountain Asia.  The researchers argue this will result in "substantial impacts" on regional water availability, as well as a rise in sea levels of 8.7-16.1cm by 2100.  This broadly confirms the range projected by the UN's climate change body, the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC).

However total sea level rise could be considerably higher due to the effects of melting Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets – which make up more than 99% of the water on Earth bound up in glacier ice – and thermal expansion in the ocean.

The information I have read has certainly made me think.  It seems hard to disbelieve the evidence when it has been collected and analysed by so many professionals.  My thinking is that something is definitely affecting global warming and if this evidence is the most sound to date then we should perhaps act on it until somebody proves otherwise.  The reduction of CO2 emissions cannot do any harm to our world.  However, we do need to make far more people across all ages aware of the situation to ensure that we do our best to preserve our world.