Garbage Warrior

Watched the film 'Garbage Warrior' about an American Architect Michael Reynolds. Inspiring story of his dedication to experiment with sustainable housing. Some of the abstract ideas of re-using objects that have already served their purpose really interested me as a designer. As designers, are we being narrow minded in the way we design objects and designs, with the idea that they can only be used for one thing? Once their 'done' that's it, either bin it or break it down to recycle and use again? Reynolds is apposing this idea. Drawing inspiration from his father who would never throw anything away, he uses materials that the general public would only ever see as junk and creates a new purpose for them, by using them in his buildings.

Reynolds uses old tires packed with dirt to hold heat in walls. This process is called ''. What makes it so effective, is obviously not its looks (because lets face it, tires are ugly) but how its sustainability and functionality go so well hand in hand. He is doing what designers do best - use inspiration and logic to solve a problem. Im not saying that I want a house made out of tires, but that's just because of the conventional way of living in which I have been brought up in. He refines his ideas and creates houses that are functional, fully self-sustainable, look good and don't use any 'new' materials. Now that's good design.

This idea of items having more than one life, has been explored a lot in terms of items. However what about graphic design? We have to be careful when 'recycling' other peoples designs. Whats to say that we are not simply using their designs for another purpose? We would have to design something that was original, even though the focus is re-using others work.

Or how about not using the designs of someone else? How about using the left overs of design? Design has a carbon-footprint, just like everything else. Just like using the waste of the drinks industry (bottles, tins etc) could we use the left overs of lets say the print industry. This theme of using the unwanted and of 'happy-mistakes' has been touched on before, Anna Gerber talks about it in 'All Messed Up: Unpredictable Graphics'. See my original post on this.

Perhaps this would be a possible answer to a set of cards for example, that would not use any resources. The challenge would be to make something that was graphically appealing out of the waste of the print industry. This idea is also reminding me retro graphics and vintage and nostalgic styles designers have being using recently. More on this here.