Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Finlay.

And today we're going to be looking at designing products for our future.

For our lesson today, you will need some paper, a pencil, and make sure you're somewhere quiet where you can really concentrate.

You might like to go and sort yourself out now.

Are you ready to start? Let's go then.

So, in today's lesson, we are going to look at what a waste plastics can be.

We're then going to think about and look at how designers are actually designing their way out of this problem, and we're using waste in really innovative ways.

I'm then going to set you a little design challenge to see how well you can embed all that theory from today's lesson.

Let's look at our key words for today.

The first word, "tensile strength".

This is the ability for material to resist being broken when it's pulled.

So, if you think about chains on a swing, as the child sits on the swing and they swing forwards and backwards, those chains have got really good tensile strength, 'cause they don't break.

Or shoelaces on a shoe.

You pull your shoelaces, they're not going to break, hopefully, and that's tensile strength.

Let's look at the next one.

Polyethylene terephthalate or PET which is a lot easier to say.

It's the most common plastic that we use, and it's in a lot of disposable drinks' bottles.

And that's going to be a really important plastic for today's lesson.

And we've got the word "shredded".

Now, you probably understand the word "shredded" from shredding paper and things like that, but this is where plastic is shredded, ready to be reused.

And our final word for today, is "cradle to grave".

It's actually a few words.

Let's look at what it means.

It's following the journey of a product from its very beginning, where it might be grown or it might be extracted, to its end of life, and all the stages between.

Just to mention about PET and HDPE, is that they are the most common plastics.

PET can be found with the number one by it in a triangle, underneath a plastic bottle.

This plastic, polyethylene terephthalate.

Terephthalate, can you say it? Polyethylene, polyethylene, terephthalate, terephthalate.

Brilliant, it's ever so tricky.

Let's just call it PET for now.

Is that really crinkly clear plastic that we saw earlier in the bottles.

And HDPE is often used as its lid.

HDPE is also used in milk bottles.

So, if you've got your plastic milk bottle in your fridge at home, that is made from HDPE.

And the different lids are different colours for the different types of milk, and generally it's done as a cloudy white plastic.

So, PET is the most common.

HDPE is the second most common.

And that can be identified by a little triangle, with the number two on it as well.

So if you look underneath your bottles at home, you'll see all your different plastics have been identified for you.

Now, I've talked for quite a lot and I think it's time for you guys to do some work.

Are you ready? Have you've got your thinking caps on? Good, let's go for it.

Which is the most common plastic in circulation? Is it HDPE, high-density polythene? Is it PET, polyethylene terephthalate? I know, I'm getting very good at saying that now.

Or is it acrylic, or is it polyester? What do you think? I'm going to give you some really quick thinking time, work out which ones you don't think it is.

Ready? Yeah, of course, it's PET, polyethylene terephthalate.

Let's see what's next.

Here's our shredder.

The PET bottles go into the top, and then the grinder spins round the middle pulling in those plastic bottles.

You just saw there, a little bit of "shredded" already happening.

The more you put in the top, the heavier they are, the more they pressurise the grinder moving round that goes through the machine.

And then at the bottom you get the fine PET shreddings.

Now, these are shreddings not pellets, pallets which we need to make our yarn or fibres.

They're going to be chunked up a little bit later but this is the very fine shreddings that come out.

There we are, just putting those back in the top.

Hopefully from that video you understand how the plastics are shredded now and reduced.

And I've done a little picture here to show you which of those plastics are which, and how they look shredded.

So, you can see that HIPS is actually looks more like a pellet than it does a flake once it's been shredded.

And the same with acrylic.

And these are because they are more robust plastics.

They are lessed, squishy.

They are harder plastics.

Whereas the PET, you know how crinkly it is.

And also when it was shredded, it was much thinner sheet.

And the same for the HDPE.

HDPE is really waxy, actually.

What's important when designers investigate and research how to get fabrics and, more importantly, how to create yarns, that will create fabrics, from plastics.

It's important that they're not using lots of energy to do those processes as well.

And that we actually are using these materials in a meaningful way.

I'm going to, now, have a little look at recycling natural and synthetic materials, because we haven't looked at how natural materials can be reused or recycled.

Let's look at natural fibres together.

The main difference between natural and synthetic fibres, when we look at recycling them, is that synthetic fibres, because they originate from crude oil, they will always go back to the strength they had in the beginning.

Whereas, natural fibres don't.

Let's read together the statement on the screen.

Are you ready? Okay.

"For natural fibres like cotton and wool, "the material is shredded, blended and combed.

"It is spun into a yarn that can be woven or knitted "back into cloth." Can we just pause there? So, the process is very similar to how it was when they were first put into yarns.

They are being knitted back into once that yarn has been created.

But this is the problem with natural fibres, okay? I'm going to read it to you, "But the end result is lower quality "than the original material." Because the fibres which go into making that yarn are shorter now.

And the fabric doesn't have such fine texture to it.

So, it might be that recycled natural fibres are actually used for maybe different purposes because of these things.

That's not a bad thing, but we have to consider that as designers.

Now, the synthetic fabrics, their life doesn't really change very much.

They're shredded, and granulated, and formed back into plastic pellets as we've seen.

And then, there's a few processes that happen.

Then, they're melted, extruded and spun into yarns ready to be used again.

The big point from this is that the properties slightly change in the natural fibres, how they behave once they've been recycled, but the synthetic fabric, the polyester, maintains all its fantastic properties.

And this is why, predominantly, we want to recycle our synthetic fibres because, obviously, a lot of the natural fibres eventually will biodegrade as well.

This issue made by Parley Adidas.

I would like you to have a look at the shoe and think about why the designers chose to use recycled polyester.

Pause the video now.

Okay.

So, let's have a look at this together.

Well, firstly, it's been photographed on some netting, which just emphasises the different types of plastic that we can use.

And we're going to think about some of the properties that synthetic fabrics have, and also, polyester has.

So, it has the ability to stretch.

Now, if I'm wearing those running shoes, 'cause I always want to think about the product when I'm thinking about answering questions like this, I'm going to pull those shoes on.

I'm going to want the bottom of that sole to flex when I am running as well.

So, the ability to stretch without breaking is a fantastic thing.

I'll come back to that in a minute.

Polyester is incredibly strong.

It won't wear and it is really robust.

And it has high tensile strength.

Now, where did we see that word before? Can you remember? Yeah, that's right.

We saw it in our key words, but can you remember what tensile strength was? The ability to resist its tensile strength, the ability to resist something breaking if it's pulled apart.

Do you remember, I said to you about shoe laces? That's 'cause I knew this image was coming later on in the lesson.

So, not only the actual shoe needs to have tensile strength but the laces.

Think about where the stresses are going to perform.

This is such a fantastic opportunity to recycle bottles and other plastic waste that otherwise would go to landfill.

But there's another fantastic product that's also produced using plastic bottles.

Let's look at it together now.

Okay, so, fleece, fantastic.

I want you to pause the video and think about the properties of fleece.

Okay.

Let's look at it together.

Maybe you cheated and didn't pause the video.

Let's have a look.

It's very lightweight.

And I think that I'm going to be wearing.

I don't want it to add and create weight for me.

And especially if this was for a child, for example, having a product that's lightweight is really important.

It's much easier to care for than wool.

It doesn't shrink like wool does.

It can be tumble dried.

It's happy with heat.

If it gets wet, it dries really quickly and it allows great freedom of movement for the user.

So, it's not restricting when they wear it.

It will stretch and flex which we know synthetic fibres do really well.

Time for the design challenge.

My favourite bit.

Okay.

I have given you four scenarios.

Now, normally, I would talk about each of them but I think we're just going to fly through them and you can make up your own minds.

Okay.

So, first one, running for pleasure.

Got a nice little picture there of some people running on a bridge.

I want to say it's Brooklyn Bridge, actually, but I'm not quite sure.

Maybe some of somebody might be able to tell me.

So, think about if somebody's running for pleasure that they're going to be socialising maybe.

What sort of situation would they find themselves in? Okay, second one.

The second one I have given you is "commuting and travelling".

And I've got people getting onto trains, hustle and bustle happening there.

Think about some of the design problems that might be occurring.

Okay.

Amazing.

Right, next one "in the home".

Very chilled-out room here.

Unfortunately, not my house.

Doesn't look that tidy, actually.

But think about maybe your home.

Think about some of the design problems you might have in the home that you could fix.

So, there we are, "in the home".

And the next one, "in all weathers".

So, having a little think there, that lady looks really cold.

Lots of snow.

Think about some of the design problems that she might have or you might have when you have to walk to school maybe, or be outside at playtime.

So, these are the four design situations that I'm giving you to design from.

Okay.

User-centered design.

The most important thing in this task is that you're thinking about the person who is using the product you're designing in one of those four situations.

Okay.

Grab that pen and pencil.

You ready to go? Paper and pencil, sorry.

You're ready to go? Right.

First thing I'm going to do is I'm going to think about our problem first.

We're not going to do this in a massive way.

We're going to do this in a really quick way.

Top left corner.

Draw yourself a little circle.

Couple of little arrows.

If you want to pause this video at any stages we're going through, absolutely fine.

You just might want to scribble along and that's good.

It's good to work at speed sometimes because your brain doesn't stop you tryna do things perfectly.

And designing isn't perfect.

It's messy.

Okay.

Design situation.

So, I'm thinking about running for pleasure.

Now, quite often I don't find running pleasurable but it's something I do actually enjoy if I get the time.

So, the first thing I've got to think about is who my person might be, where might they run, how organised do they need to be? Is there other cool stuff they need with them? So, I'm going to use myself as a user.

Now, this isn't always a great thing to do if we're designing, but that's what I'm going to go with.

So, I'm going to think about when I go for a run, what I need to get organised, where I like to go, so, local parks, maybe catch up with some friends.

So, I'm going to put all of that down on my little map of thoughts down here.

And I'm also going to start to think about the types of things I need from a product.

So, here's my little situation written out.

I've put about who I am, where I run.

Quite a lot of the time I'm on my own when I'm running.

And sometimes it can be dark, I suppose, or I'll just run locally outside, or maybe go to a park if there's one close by I can go to and enjoy.

I'm thinking about cool things, or maybe at night time I could do something reflective.

I'm thinking about those materials.

So, polyester I can use 'cause it can be nice and strong.

But if I use fleece, which we know can be recycled, that's going to help me keep warm as well.

So, I've put that down there for organisation.

If I'm running and I think it's going to get dark, I need some kind of high biz.

I need to think about the clothing I'm wearing if I'm running.

Sometimes I like to listen to music, I might need my headphones on.

All of those things I'm going to put down.

And you might have chosen one or the other briefs and that's, whatever situations, that's fine.

But the same kind of thing.

I'm looking for you to come up with some of those ideas.

Pause the video now and really fill that up.

I don't want you just to fly through this.

So, give yourselves four, five minutes, see how much you can get on there.

Okay.

Time for my favourite bit, speedy sketching.

Now, I am going to give you a top tip for sketching.

Don't edit your work, don't use rubbers and things because if you're actually sketching, it's not all going to be the same style.

It's not all going to be amazing.

But if you rub out all the stuff that isn't so good, you miss the journey to what is fantastic.

I always like to say that sketching is like being sick.

Wait for it.

Let me explain why before you get concerned.

When you're sick, you cannot control it.

You know it's coming.

And it isn't like in a neat little rooted squared box.

It might be up the walls, down the stairs.

It's not going to be one colour.

There might be bits of carrot in there, broccoli.

There might be different shapes and sizes, and it's that convulsive that you can't stop.

And that's how your design needs to be.

Doesn't matter what you're designing, go for it.

Don't stop.

Don't let that brain stop you drawing things.

If you struggle to draw, don't worry about it because the more you do it, the more you practise, the better you are going to get.

Different shapes, different sizes, add in different colours, think really crazy.

You know, you don't have to always design things that you know you can make.

And that's why I've written down speedy sketches 'cause I want you to be really quick.

Okay.

I'm going to show you some of my sketching.

Again, really quick, I haven't edited this, I haven't spent ages on it.

So, the top one, I've got a reflective armband.

Okay, I know that's sort of done but I'm going to sew little electric lights into it.

And I'm using that polyester 'cause it's going to give me some stretch, so I can get it on and off the body.

If I had this to model and play with, I think I would probably consider having it so that it could go in different places.

So, maybe not just around the wrist.

'Cause if you think, if I'm running, again, thinking about the user, my arms might be in front of me, and really, I need them to be-- I might need the reflectiveness at the back.

So, I might need to have them up on my arms here.

So, they might have to be able to stretch up and down.

And also, maybe I want them on my legs as well.

I've got a hat, now-- Okay.

It's a beanie hat, but interchangeable parts.

So, the bottom bit all comes off.

I've got a charger in the back.

I can listen to music without having to have headphones on.

Maybe I could move in that product on.

Maybe I could have it say that it's different fabrics.

So, maybe cooler for the summer, more insulating, warmer for the winter.

And then my shoe at the bottom, which I totally love.

So, the whole idea with this is the whole sole can be replaced.

So, what we're tryna do is not waste parts of the product, a little pocket for money, very important.

You could have soles that were maybe for running in the snow, some for the beach or trainers for different bits and pieces, really stretchy laces, reflectiveness on the laces as well.

So, anyway, there's only just my three, I guess, but I'm sure you guys have got loads more.

And what I really like about what I've given you as an example for this is that I'm not saying, "design a jumper," or, "design this piece of clothing." It could be interiors.

It might be that you want to take the home brief and you might want to design something for the home, a piece of interior for the home.

So, on this page where you've got your mind map, I also want to see those cool sketches as well.

And little notes to go on there too.

Okay.

Good luck.

Well done today.

We've done a lot of theory, but hopefully you've got some of that lovely theory into your sketches at the end.

And I'm really impressed by the amount of listening you've done today because there's some really fantastic work that I know you guys would have produced.

And keep coming up with those great ideas and I'll see you next lesson.