Designing Across Disciplines: A Graduate Project in Packaging Re–Design

DS 62: Proceedings of E&PDE 2010, the 12th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education - When Design Education and Design Research meet ..., Trondheim, Norway, 02.-03.09.2010

Year: 2010
Editor: Boks W; Ion, W; McMahon, C and Parkinson B
Author: Lilly, Blaine; Williams, Callida; Gill , Carolina
Section: SYNERGIES BETWEEN PRODUCT AND ENGINEERING DESIGN
Page(s): 286-291

Abstract

Packaging design is inherently multi–disciplinary due to the conflicting constraints imposed by users at every step of the product design and manufacturing process. As such, it provides us with an ideal case for trying out cross–disciplinary projects in design education. Here we describe a project that looks at the problems posed by packaging of toys throughout the product life cycle, from inception to the end of product life. While the genesis of this project was in engineering, incorporating ideas and techniques from industrial design enabled us to re–think the function of the product package at every stage, and thus arrive at more creative solutions.

Keywords: Consumer packaging, dematerialisation, cross–disciplinary design