Project details
My role
Speculative Design Fiction, Industrial Design, Packaging, unboxing
Speculative Design Fiction, Industrial Design, Packaging, unboxing
Context
College studio project
Time period
Sept 7th to 30th 2021
Mentored by
Faculty, Paul Anthony
College studio project
Time period
Sept 7th to 30th 2021
Mentored by
Faculty, Paul Anthony
This is what Kirana stores look like today..
What would they have about 100 years from now?
Imagine the narrative of that time period and make products for Kirana stores
Design Brief to work on
1. Come up with speculative fiction for a specific futuristic time period
2. Within that narrative design products for what will be sold in the Kirana stores of that time period.
3. Design Packaging that's relevant to your world
4. Unbox it
The Speculative Fiction
Over the years, plants have started to control the planet.. All this started due to some humans growing intolerant of human greed, destruction of nature, inaction during climate change. They united and helped plants grow smarter. But with minor efforts from their end, they saw succulents and other desk plants slowly developing intelligence; They started to understand human language, coding, learning and developing their own AI;
Fast forward to 2070, there is a struggle from the human side to try and gain back some control of the Earth. Whenever humans start to engage in practices that harm nature (production of plastic, releasing toxic gases etc.,) exotic plants start popping up around that area and stop the progress in these activities. However not all plants are smart in this world, there are still some traditional plants. These plants are helped by the smart plants and slowly educated. Also, young plants are not capable of understanding everything that happens around them and need help. There are some weapons that humans have successfully developed to attack plants, but not without repercussions.
Fast forward to 2070, there is a struggle from the human side to try and gain back some control of the Earth. Whenever humans start to engage in practices that harm nature (production of plastic, releasing toxic gases etc.,) exotic plants start popping up around that area and stop the progress in these activities. However not all plants are smart in this world, there are still some traditional plants. These plants are helped by the smart plants and slowly educated. Also, young plants are not capable of understanding everything that happens around them and need help. There are some weapons that humans have successfully developed to attack plants, but not without repercussions.
Kit bashing method for Kirana Products 2070
Putting multiple kits together and coming up with something altogether new as a product.
Planteen Communicator | Young plants (teens) often have difficulty communicating with humans. This device helps them communicate. Can understand any language you speak. Adult plants can communicate in certain human languages directly as well
Both plant and human Friendly. Fully biodegradable by plants.
PlantApproved Lic. no. 345
PlantApproved Lic. no. 345
Light Burst | Releases light that blinds plants, overfeeding them and making them lose consciousness for few minutes. This model with GPS, can find its owner after the attack and can be reused.
Only human friendly. Plants have approved of this since Human-Plant organization accepts that there are some very vicious plants that do require some human intervention. Also after about 10 uses, is fully degradable!
PlantApproved Lic. no. 56701
PlantApproved Lic. no. 56701
Plant Protector | Counter-weapon to light burst. Plant takes on this defence weapon and attaches the circular parts 'hooks' across its body and keeps the silver sand ready. Whenever it sense hostility, the silver sand opens up grounded on the hooks and the plant is safe from any light burst attacks
These products help the narrative come alive. It makes us want to think of more scenarios, and wonder how those can be achieved.
Plant-teen communicator helps young plants talk to humans. By the time they mature, they pick up on human language and gain skills to be able to interpret a human through their vibes and actions.
Plant-teen communicator helps young plants talk to humans. By the time they mature, they pick up on human language and gain skills to be able to interpret a human through their vibes and actions.
Design Packaging for these products
The planteen communicator is useful for smart teen plants to communicate with humans.
Packaging has plant code. If the plant touches it, sounds emitted help the plant understand what the product is for. Packaging also explains to humans what this tool is for, in english
Packaging has plant code. If the plant touches it, sounds emitted help the plant understand what the product is for. Packaging also explains to humans what this tool is for, in english
The back packaging tells us this will cost 300XP for plants and humans. It also clarifies how this is a sustainable product!
Light burst was particularly fun to package since I first tried to stick cut up chart pieces on each side. This looked particularly hilarious, so I decided to not go ahead with that.
I restarted packaging after getting another cardboard box, where I use continuous chart paper. This time, it turned out a lot better. I removed that cardboard box after, since just the chart formed the structure for the box.
Compared to the other two packaging, here I had a lot of space so I had to plan out and prioritize information. This space gave me the opportunity to look at packaging of cereals, milk, rice and understand how they were designed.
I restarted packaging after getting another cardboard box, where I use continuous chart paper. This time, it turned out a lot better. I removed that cardboard box after, since just the chart formed the structure for the box.
Compared to the other two packaging, here I had a lot of space so I had to plan out and prioritize information. This space gave me the opportunity to look at packaging of cereals, milk, rice and understand how they were designed.
Plant protector packaging was done with simple material. Of course in this world, this material is created with sustainable packaging. Don't confuse yourself with the term 'plastic'.
This ain't it!
This ain't it!
Packaging design here helps us keep this equitable with plant touch possib1le. Since this is intended for plants
Packaging helped the narrative feel more real! Especially writing information and thinking of how these materials are likely to exist at that time frame! Would handwritten packaging be a thing in a reverse trend? Of course, handwritten here because of time constraint rather than as part of the narrative. Nevertheless, it is interesting!
Do watch the unboxing to see how a future participant would look a this!
Do watch the unboxing to see how a future participant would look a this!
Unboxing these packages
Light burst unboxing.
Come join the fun!
Come join the fun!
Planteen communicator and plant protector unboxing
Reflection and next steps
1. Showing the narrative in a movie format, would help in visualizing this
2. Adding more details to the narrative about how plants form communities ( Basing this segment on how all trees and plants even today, can communicate with each other via mycorrhizal networks)
3. Detailing out how plants use technology in 2070 and what their exact stance on it, at that point is
4. Creating more products inside the 2070 world, Kirana or otherwise
5. Detailing out Plant jobs and human jobs of that point
2. Adding more details to the narrative about how plants form communities ( Basing this segment on how all trees and plants even today, can communicate with each other via mycorrhizal networks)
3. Detailing out how plants use technology in 2070 and what their exact stance on it, at that point is
4. Creating more products inside the 2070 world, Kirana or otherwise
5. Detailing out Plant jobs and human jobs of that point
