Visualising the Piñatex Lifecycle: An information design sprint about the visual communication of product lifecycles

In their recent report, “Beyond Net Zero: A Systemic Approach to Design” the Design Council emphasise the vital role that designers play in building ‘a bridge between technological research and innovation and their application to social practice (p6).’ There are calls from within design education for new approaches that combine traditional design skills and thinking with both sustainability literacy and critical contextual transdisciplinary knowledge.

The ‘live brief’ within Graphic Design has traditionally been a space for commercial work - often in response to competition. We worked with colleagues at the Centre for Circular Design to design ways for students to creatively engage with current research knowledge as part of the curriculum. This presentation is the outcome of a live brief run in Spring 2021 with Prof. Kate Goldsworthy at the Centre for Circular Design and their research partner Annas Annam.

Background
Annas Annam make Piñatex; an innovative natural textile made from waste pineapple leaf fibre. I designed the sprint around the development and proposal of alternative visualisations of the Piñatex lifecycle.

Students used research methods developed within the course to create a week-long project over three studio sessions, beginning with a breifing from the client and the CCD. Students used the methods to translate the different stages of the Piñatex lifecycle into icons, symbols and then into a diagrammatic system..

Outcomes
Students developed individual proposals which were then presented back to the Piñatex. The process exposed students to their first ‘live brief’ within the course.

The process exposed the client to a range of insights into the ways that the company, its products and their product lifecycle had been understood and interpreted by the students, as well as multiple visual alternatives to their own communications.