More Than Skin-Deep

Ever look at an item in a store that had "sustainable packaging"? Did it make you want to buy it? Or was the packaging too plain or flimsy? This article at The Living Principles by, Sustainable Brands, shows us just how beautiful sustainable can be.

This article really got me thinking about how products are packaged as well as the sustainability movement. The article made a strong point in the beginning by asking "What keeps you coming back to the same brand?". Most people had to stop and think and unless if they were Eco-conscience, sustainability was not a key factor. I never really thought about something like that before, especially since sustainability is not always at the forefront of my mind when it comes to products (A habit I am still trying to work on). I usually will come back to a product if it has worked for me in the past. But now that I think about it, a lot of these products also have bright, colorful, or bold packaging, which is what drew my attention to them in the first place. Many sustainable packaging products tend to be very earthy and bland, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but it makes it less noticeable. Some Eco-friendly brands have taken on this challenge and have created sustainable packaging that is elegant and beautiful. For instance, one brand that they mentioned and that I use a lot is Method. As pictured above, their newest line of soaps include a minimalist and elegant packaging that uses plastic bottles that have washed up on the beach. (To read more about it go here.)The packaging itself is just the tip of the iceberg though, as mentioned in the article, their story goes beyond stylish sustainable packaging and goes deeper with Eco-friendly and biodegradable products that have a smaller impact on the environment. With many brands looking to go Eco-friendly with their products, its easy to say that sustainability will be the name of game.

Project 3: Creative Brief

Today is the presentation of our class's project 3, which is a creative brief. A creative brief is basically a proposal of a project, in this case we were to do a mock-up proposal of a project of something that either needed change, or something that would be a call to action, in the city of San Francisco.

I chose to do a creative brief on smartphone theft prevention and safety, mainly due to the frequent postings in the news about how progressively violent these thefts are becoming and that San Francisco has the highest rate of smartphone theft in the country. In the past 6 months, over 400 thefts were reported with a majority of the victims being young women. Women tend to be targets of thieves due to the fact that, they tend to be more likely to be distracted by their phones or more likely to have it in plain view. Women are also physically weaker than men and tend to be less able to fight back. Appearances have a lot to do with too, the more well off a person looks, the more likely they are to become a target. This has mainly to do with thieves acknowledging that those individuals are more likely to be able to afford a new phone.

In my creative brief, I decided to make a call to action or make the public more aware by creating advertisements that would not only be posted on muni, but would also be broadcasted on the local news channel. Each of these would be targeted towards women, but not be exclusively for women. These advertisements would give its audience information by directing them towards a website that has helpful tips and information that would give individuals the information they need to protect themselves.