final essay proposal

PROPOSAL.
A product category that designers can help in.
Designers role in product end use cycle.
Examples of where it is done
Justify Designers input.

In my essay I propose to look at the designer’s role in product end- use cycles. How are the designers designing for this phase, what is the ‘designers’ input’ and how does it help us.
Specifically looking at the area of Recycling and plastic bottles. Using products to justify the designers input and investigating examples of where this is done and not done.
Can a designer impact the world using technology, knowledge and awareness to make the end phase of the bottles life crucial to our society?

Consumption is the using up of goods and services by consumer purchasing or in the production of other goods. This process interests me and I feel it’s a growing issue and a publicized topic in today’s society, which affects everybody on a global level. Do designers just keep up with consumer demand, quality not quantity? Or is their input justified?

How has the merging of Industrial designers and digital designers impacted they way of design and has it opened up new approaches and ideas concerning consumption I want to justify the usefulness and importance of designers, and their impact on product cycles.
I want to investigate recycling where did it start, where did it change, how do we use new materials? How can we benefit from them?

Another focus for my essay could be the word design which comes from Latin, De + Signare meaning to make sense of, to distinguish, to make significant, to designate a relation to other things, owners, users or gods. The idea of design is to make sense of, design should make sense? We all have an individual sense of deign.
Does the way we design and consume products make sense? Does the designer make sense in today’s environment? What are they doing to help?

From an argument position I could be for a change in the way we consume products, for the development in technology and how it has changed the way we live and changed the role of the designer. Or against the way we consume, against the amount of waste, looking at how much it has changed and how today’s lifestyle has caused it to become an important issue in today’s society which affects the designer.

Investigating the process of Reduce Reuse Recycle, and how designers’ can focus on the products end of life phase. What happens to it? What is a beneficial and productive use for it? Other products are batteries, computers, iPods, specifically water bottles. Do these just stop, is there another use for them, is there a way we can use them.

By looking at these issues, it will further my original thesis, justify and specify the role of the designer, understand their input in end of product use phase and in today’s environment and how this is applied to products we use. People should be aware of this important topic and as consumers we should understand what the designers are doing and what we can do.