Playing with packaging. A collaborative design experience between university and company

Playing with Packaging A Collaborative Design Experience between University and Company

GUIDALI, Laura; FRANZATO, Carlo; SCALETSKY, Celso PPG Design UNISINOS | Porto Alegre, BRASIL

3rd International Forum of Design as a Process Politecno di Torino | Torino, Italia | November, 2011

ABSTRACT

The education of design has been studied by several researchers. Donald Schön, in the 1980s investigated teaching in architectural design disciplines and managed to advance in the processes of teaching / learning, proposing the theory of reflection-in-action. However, Universities in general are often displaced from social reality for its strong academic tradition. This study starts by the vision of the design driven innovation to reach a reflexion about how the relationship between University and Companies might play a important role in this process. To do so, we present a collaborative process between the UNISINOS Design School and Litocromart, a packaging graphic industry.

Keywords: Innovation,

Collaborative Design, University & Company

GUIDALI, Laura; FRANZATO, Carlo; SCALETSKY, Celso

DESIGN DRIVEN INNOVATION AND ITS PROCESS

Design represents a new way to innovate inside companies. To do so, it is necessary reconsider its position: design must move for operational levels – related to new product development – to strategic levels, related to management of companies.

Operational level

Strategic level

Tactical level


DESIGN DRIVEN INNOVATION AND ITS PROCESS

This innovation process seeks to reconsider the general performance of companies in the market and society. The purpose of this process, usually, is the definition of new scenarios of competitive performance for companies. The ultimate goal is to identify a workable innovation path, allowing a coherent organization development in the future.


BUT HOW COULD THIS WORK IN A UNIVERSITY?


BINO, PLAYING WITH PACKAGING

Litocromart sought Unisinos in 2009 to develop a totally new business, witch would take the company form a B2B business model to a B2C. The company was interested in develop a brand called “BINO” to sell paper toys, witch would be manufactured within the company’s plant. In order to develop this project, Unisinos has been involving students from undergraduate and graduate courses. The project branched out into 4 cycles: undergraduate, internship, graduate, extracurricular workshop.


Unisinos Design School, Porto Alegre - BRAZIL

1st CICLE - UNDERGRADUATE

In the second semester of 2009, Litocromart was the client in the “2nd Design Class” discipline. The discipline used the methodology proposed by Celaschi and Deserti (2007) The goal was to explore the paper toys theme, build some portfolio for the company and develop a brand for this new business. The students were arranged in 6 groups of 3 individuals and developed independently the stages of the design process. The students focused in different target groups and different contexts of use, building very diverse and original scenarios.


“For Build” _ office + play


Aimeé Schneider, Juliana Coracini & Luísa Brocco

“Playing gift” _ card + packaged + present


Douglas Daitx, Fábio Willers & Bruna Luz

“Touch” _ game + story + visual impairments


Natasha Kulczynski, Isabela Boessio & Letícia Rodrigues

“No Doubt Dice” _ restaurants + game


Rodrigo Hartmann, Rafael Jungbluth & Cláudio Alba

“My Iberê” _ museum + souvenir


Nathalia Rückert Martins, Izabel Christina Silva Prola & Maria Celina Canário

“Blumen Lamps” _ nature + decoration


Frances Danckwardt, Laura Goldstein & Paula Loher

1st CICLE - UNDERGRADUATE

As results there were concepts of lamps, toys for children with visual impairments, office objects, souvenirs and games, which shows the range of possible answers in the universe of the researched topic. This set of original concepts offered Litocromart a comprehensive range of possibilities for development, and several ways to innovate their business.


2nd CICLE – UNDERGRADUATE INTERNSHIP

In order to enhance the collaboration between EDU and Litocromart it was decided to create an artifact that showed the results so far. This artifact was initially presented in the form of a book, but it should be produced within the plant of the company (which does not have binding process). It should also, somehow, show their technology and manufacturing processes. This activity was realized by a student on her last year on a internship that developed a toy-book, which summarized the results of the previous step. This idea of developing a toy-book came about spontaneously, given the nature of the subject treated in the “2nd Design Class” discipline.



toy-book Laura Guidali

3rd CICLE – GRADUATE GRAPHIC DESIGN

The third cycle sought to develop a graphic identity for the brand "Bino". To that end, it was conducted a three-day workshop with the class of Graphic Design from EDU, where new ideas were generated in search of a way for the brand Bino, but also for their applications. The results were quite satisfactory and currently the teachers are doing an evaluation of these results along with the company, for its implementation.



g1 _ brand Cristina, Francis, Mariana, Sabrina


g1 _ brand variations Cristina, Francis, Mariana, Sabrina


g1 _ package & bag Cristina, Francis, Mariana, Sabrina


g1 _ poster & sale point Cristina, Francis, Mariana, Sabrina


g2 _ brand Fabiana Medeiros, Bianca Gomes, Júlia Correa, Vanessa Trentin


g3 _ brand Daniel Moura, Denny Chang, Luis Fernando


g3 _ bags Daniel Moura, Denny Chang, Luis Fernando


g4 _ brand Branda Weppo, Fabiana Dias, Gabriela Zambenedetti, Maria Helena de Carvalho


g4 _ package & poster Branda Weppo, Fabiana Dias, Gabriela Zambenedetti, Maria Helena de Carvalho


g4 _ bags & exhibitor Branda Weppo, Fabiana Dias, Gabriela Zambenedetti, Maria Helena de Carvalho


g4 _ brand awerness Branda Weppo, Fabiana Dias, Gabriela Zambenedetti, Maria Helena de Carvalho

4th CICLE – EXTENSION WORKSHOP

At the time of submission of this article, this activity has not yet been executed. It consists of a workshop for University extension that will bring together undergraduate and graduate students towards the development of paper toys for Bino. This workshop will take place once every week over the first three months of the 2012 school year. The main characteristic it will be the development of participants skills through the exchange among the workshop moderators and students, but also among the students themselves.


CLOSING REMARKS

The subdivision into four projectual cycles allows a full investigation of the experience according to the methodology of action research. The results of each cycle offered the experiential basis for the reasoning that gave rise to the next cycle. Thus, it was possible to construct a model that triangulates research, education and market. For a company to collaborate with students, it means to receive fresh and often unpredictable ideas. It is the company, helped by teachers, who should know how interpret these ideas. On the other hand, work with a real company, which operates continuously in the market, means for students to enrich their own academic background, with a direct connection to the professional world.


CLOSING REMARKS

We realized that the insertion of a company in the educational context can be very productive for both sides. It is clear that the collaboration between Universities and Business carried out through educational activities differ from consultancy project aimed at professionals, consultancies and academic-oriented applied research. Through projectual activities, which must first attend the training purpose, these collaborations aimed at stimulating topics interesting, comprehensive and far-reaching, seeking to go beyond the ephemeral and the logic of profit.


REFERENCES BORBA, G; REYES, P; GALISAI, R. Research in Strategic Design: a teaching experience. In: Anais do Congresso Changing the Change, Turim: ICSID, 2008.

CELASCHI, F; DESERTI, A; Design e Innovazione. Milano, Carocci, 2007

LIBERALI, G; Escola de Design Unisinos. In: Design em Ação: A vida e os projetos dos alunos do bacharelado em design. Editora Unisinos, Porto Alegre, 2008

SCALETSKY, C; LUZZARDI, H; A graduação UNISINOS e o Programa de Aprendizagem 2. In: Bino, brincando com a embalagem: seis propostas para o desenvolvimento de uma nova marca de brinquedos em papel. Editora Unisinos, Porto Alegre, 2011

DE MORAES, D; Metaprojeto. São Paulo, Blücher, 2010

FRANZATO, C. O Processo de Inovação Dirigida pelo Design: um Modelo Teórico. REDIGE, 2(1): pp. 50-62. 2011

KOLB, D. Experiential learning. New York, Prentice-Hall, 1984 GUIDALI, Laura; FRANZATO, Carlo; SCALETSKY, Celso

Playing with packaging. A collaborative design experience between university and company

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