Transforming The Mundane To The Profound

Dinesh Korjan . Design Educator | Studio Korjan LeNS Conference: Sustainability in Design: Now, Bangalore 2010

Do our daily actions make the world better or worse?

Do we have control over the implications of our actions?

During the Introduction to Design Processes Course, we delved deep into this question while re-designing mundane objects like paper weights and key chains.

Challenged to find a way to transform the world by redesigning a paperweight, Vaishali filled balloons with clay making it a sensual squeezable thingy that one could play with and get de-stressed when it is not keeping papers from flying. Less stressed out people in the world is a better world.

Vaishali JainArch Academy of DesignJaipur

Sakshi made a game out of her trinket jewellery, a cheap rubber ring. She gave it a red heart on which you could rub lipstick to leave lipstick marks while she went around boxing people on their cheeks in jest. Spreading fun and mischief for a happier world!

Sakshi JainArch Academy of DesignJaipur

Madhuri felt there could be a better way to send greeting cards. She investigated associations of plants and flowers with different festivals and created greeting cards to include seeds of different plants encouraging people to grow plants in memory of their loved ones.

Madhuri Speake Arch Academy of DesignJaipur

Anubha felt that in a better world there would be less burning and therefore less pollution. So she used little mirrors to multiply a single candle into many on a birthday cake.

Anubha SharmaArch Academy of DesignJaipur

Srishti felt if you could make your own scented wet towels to keep fresh when you are on the move, there would be more people who felt good about themselves and therefore, naturally, a better world.

Srishti AroraArch Academy of DesignJaipur

Santosh discouraged smoking by making a heart shaped ashtray in wax which melted during use.

Santosh JhaIICD, Jaipur

An eraser collection becomes a game. Old newspapers replace wood in pencils. Erasers start removing stains too. A key case reminds you where it is. A flexible water container in a cap helps you keep your cool. Self cleaning napkins could replace paper napkins at the wash basin. And so on and on........

These conceptual breakthroughs were achieved after a detailed journey in understanding the universe of an object.

The key has been the ability to discover the underlying structure of relationships between the object and its universe.

Making it possible to combine one's own wisdom about life to the functional aspects of the object.

And reach those areas of life where ordinary objects usually do not :)