Hallmark Cards Tour

Who is Hallmark?
Hallmark is a popular greeting card manufacturer with factory operations based in Kansas (In Leavenworth and Lawrence). They create cards for all occasions, so in turn they target all demographics of consumer. They produce 3-5 million cards and envelopes a week from this one factory! The company was started in 1910 by Joyce Hall in Nebraska.

In terms of materials, they work in inks and papers, but they also use flitter (glitter), different types of foils, flock (feels like bumblebee fur, definitely IS NOT, and shouldn't be inhaled), Virko (thermographic powdered nylon printed in plastic), and iridescence. The dyes they use are Magnesium dyes or Brass dyes. Magnesium dyes are less expensive than brass, and don't last as long, so they are only used on orders of less than 25,000. All of their materials are outsourced and brought in, but their paper comes from sustainable forests, and they recycle as much of their materials and scraps as possible. The cards are even printed at another place and then brought in, because this factory specializes in the "effects" for the paper. They use a die cutting method to cut all of their cards, with specialized, custom die cutting sheets. Their finishes range from foil, embossing, silk screening, and repoussé, just to name a few, and they are added to the cards with pressure and ultra-thin adhesive. They can also add multiple effects to the same cards in various orders.

Honestly, I love greeting cards, I am in the habit of keeping every card I receive, and I think the industry is still very much alive. My grandfather worked at a Hallmark factory when he came over to America with my grandmother and their sons, and it was wonderful today to get to see the inner-workings of a place where he spent so much of his time. He worked their for 45 years as an engineer. Unlike the cups created by Berry plastics, I can see the social value of something like a greeting card. I know that might sound a little janky to some, but hear this--to give a greeting card to someone is an act of care, to throw away a cup after 5 minutes of use 2-5 times a week per person in the entire United States is careless.

-Randa

Berry Plastics Field Trip

Who is Berry Plastics? They are a plastic company that focuses primarily on food-ware, usually cups. They work for large and small restaurants producing these highly-disposable products in today's society. Berry Plastics has 75 plants worldwide, and is the largest consumer of polyethylene in North America, if not the world.

The have 3 methods of production; injection molding, thermoplastic, and dry printing. To form their plastic (which is outsourced or recycled from the waste of a previous product), in thermoplastics they have a lid line, which is a sheet of plastic that gets heated and molded simultaneously several times into lid-sheets. They add details each time it's molded. There was 65 million pounds of material in the thermoform sector consumed just this year. With injection molding, they melt plastic pellets and push them into molds under high amounts of pressure. They have a "Hot Runner" system which heats up the plastic to 500 degrees fahrenheit. At the end of each line of products, there is a precision cutter that cuts on a preset path. In the printing section, they use inks that cure instantly under UV lights, and they cure 100-500 cups a minute on just one machine. They use the PMS color system, with color heads on each machine to hold ink.

1.5-2 million cups are produced per line a day, with 10 million cups being sent out of the factory as a whole per day. Thats a massive amount of production for a massive amount of consumption... This entire operation (especially the numerical figures) are major causes of concern for me about our consumer culture. To live in a world where this is socially acceptable, or even socially celebrated is sickening. Where does all that waste go? People don't think about those types of things here in America. However, our waste has devastating impacts on the other countries of the world, especially the poor ones.

-Randa  

El Dorado Inc. Field Trip

El Dorado Inc. is a 17 year old design company in KC that started in 1997. They started out as a triple threat, being an art gallery, design studio, and fabricator in equal parts, but now they are primarily a design studio. Their love of system-based furniture lead them to the existing buildings in KC, and they started out renovating buildings in the crossroads. Their primary clients are small entrepreneurs, makers, artists, and start up businesses.

Their shop is pretty outdated in terms of equipment, holding a scroll saw, drill press and a couple other tools, but they outsource most of their production currently, and they are really a design firm, so it's not a big issue.

Their primary materials include tube steel as the main focus, with stainless steel and sheet metal as secondary materials.

I got quite a bit out of the business and working advice of our tour guide, he talked about the differences between working for yourself and working for someone else. Working for yourself, for the first 10 years after schooling, you're going to be living a "thrifty" life, and you'll have to sacrifice all of your time and effort for your work. That being said, you shouldn't try to start your own business if you're not in love with your work, because otherwise it won't be worth it.

Also, ALWAYS be on time.

-Randa

Huhtamaki Field Trip!

Huhtamaki manufactures specialty containers for food stuffs such as ice cream and soft drinks, which requires a container that won't allow the contents to escape, etc.

Huhtamaki has $800 million in revenue in North America alone, and has 2,800 employees in 15 facilities on this continent. They gross 2 Billion Euros in net sales annually.

Their materials include paperboard, commodity plastic resins, molded fiber (wood cellulous), metals, and engineered plastics.

Forming: To form these cups and such, they dissolve certain chemicals within the material and form a cup mold.

Cutting: Generally, Huhtamaki uses Dye cutting on all of its products.

Joining: Most of their products are held together by thin layers of polyethiline.

Finishing: The final cups are printed with their exact labels as prescribed by the company (that produces the actual product). Also, a thin clay coating is put on many of their products.

Thanks to Huhtamaki for hosting our class, and May for arranging our field trip.

-Randa Mortensen

Lawrence Paper Co. Field Trip!!!

Lawrence Paper Company does not merely make boxes, they make displays, 2-in-1 shifting containers, and many more unexpected things.

For their materials, they primarily get their paper from paper mills including Green Bay Packaging and several others. Their forming technologies basically start with CAD drawings and renderings, and to prep the material for cutting, they bake it to cure the cornstarch within it. Their cutting technology is sophisticated for shelling out lots of the same cuts in a short period of time. They have 3 rotary dye cutters, and dye cuts which are custom made in-house. They also have two different types of dye cutting; Flat dye cuts and barrel dye cuts. The flat ones are used for more intricate box cuts because they take more time, and barrel dye cuts for simple designs. For joining boxes, they use special glues, as well as make it so the boxes fold in on themselves. For those particular folds, they generally score the lines to make them quick and easier to fold. For finishes, some boxes go out plain brown, while others are printed on with their industrial color printer, ink printed on, laminated over, or perhaps a combination of the formers.

All of their programming is custom-done in-house, and they make their ow ink as well as do their own color matching. Lawrence Paper Co. is one of the leading corrugated companies in the country, and has resided in Lawrence for 120 years. Quite a company, huh! Their factory is so efficient, and they have pretty much perfected the technique of box making, at least on a production scale.

Thank you to Lawrence Paper Co. for the tour!

-Randa Mortensen

Waste = Food

Initially, when I heard the title of this film, it made me think of recycling waste into our food processing industry, and that just kinda freaked me out. But, to back track from my sci-fi-futuristic-utopia-that-isn't-really-a-utopia thoughts, the film was actually about creating products with their whole life span in mind and trying to make it so they don't last beyond the amount of time that we use them. When Nike has more shoes in landfills than on people's feet or in their closets, you better believe we as humans are about to have some BIG problems.

Not all hope is lost though, there is a shift going on now, a shift in thinking. If the materials we use for shoes, clothing, cell phones, upholstery, etc. is designed with a journey in mind encompassing beginning AND end, we can solve this problem. It may take decades, in fact, it will take at least a couple, but if large companies such as Nike take the initiative, the example will be set, and the shift inevitable.

-Randa Mortensen

Materials and Design Chapter 3: Design & Designing Reflection

The intro of this chapter goes over the technical terms for various areas of design, in order to prevent confusion with the term, but then the chapter goes on to explain that these areas are all still closely interconnected, and we need to understand those relationships. It then goes on to explain the different types of thinking and skills associated with the different types of design, but that is truly irrelevant. Why, do you ask? Because as designers, understanding the relationships between the different facets of design is not enough. We need to learn the skill sets, absorb as much information as possible, and regurgitate it in such a way that it helps whatever design innovation we are working on. Part of being an effective designer is understanding what goes into a design from all sides, understanding each role, and constantly feeding yourself with new information for those roles so you can be as useful as possible in the design process and end product. We must know how to observe in an effective manner, how to conduct R&D, how to make things look good, how to sell our ideas to those who are not educated, etc. The list goes on and on, but the end result is still the same. Designers must be multi tools that are constantly upgrading, rearranging, and getting better.

-Randa

Electronic Wasteland Reflection

First, I would like to point out that there is also a film called E-Wasteland that was released in 2012 which shows what the actual effects of dumping E-waste on developing nations does. Getting that out of the way, let's talk about 60 minutes.

First of all, this story starts with the general public not being educated about where their waste is going. Those with the best intentions still cause devastating damage to the underprivileged. IGNORANCE IS NO EXCUSE. Although ignorance of illegal behavior... is totally warranted for this particular situation. People probably don't even know that their computers and electronics contain so many hazardous materials. Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, Chromium, Polyvinyl Chlorides. I only know 2 of those are toxic off the top of my head, and I'm trying to be educated.

When you turn your laptop over to a recycling company, chances are that it's going to end up somewhere illegally and those harmful materials are going to hurt someone else. So what are we to do, if those who promise to dispose of things properly are lying? It isn't going to be a quick-fix, that's for sure. Designing things so by the time their lifespan is over, they will degrade quickly and with less harmful emissions seems to be the way to go, but that could take decades, or longer. What are we supposed to do now?

-Create products that truly recycle instead of downcycle.
-Buy refurbished computers and electronics instead of buying a new model every. single. time.
-Repair your electronics whenever possible as opposed to replacing them.

Here is a link to a helpful webpage with other GREAT electronic waste reduction ideas:
http://www.sustainelectronics.illinois.edu/

Enjoy. Or at the very least, educated yourself on this unenjoyable subject.

As always, thank you May for introducing our class to this issue.

-Randa

Dimensional Innovations Field Trip!

Ok, so I didn't actually get to go to Dimensional Innovations, because I wasn't feeling so good that day (unfortunately) but I researched their website and I'M SO BUMMED I MISSED IT. They look so cool. 192 graphic designers, industrial designers, engineers, and basic tech geeks, plus many others, all under one roof! And it's so nifty that they have all their fabrication and design teams in-house so they don't have to outsource for much at all!

They truly are the whole package, they rebrand, design, and fabricate! As well as make advancements in their abilities all the time! I AM SO BUMMED I MISSED THIS. Like, I really don't think you understand the level of bummed...ness.

They've worked for Google, Verizon, Disney, Sprint, NFL, NHL, and so many more, and they've done work ALL OVER THE WORLD. They paint, cut, weld, fabricate materials, etc. and probably have all sorts of complicated machinery to do so, and although I don't know the specifics, I can dream. And guess, guessing is good. They make interactive displays too! Such a design crush on these guys right now.

THEY MAKE RUM BOTTLES THAT LIGHT UP. And have patents for lots of other things. They made the world's largest Hockey Helmet (My dad will be excited about that one!) and a virtual Stanley cup that is also completely accurate.

And it's Real Good. It's all real good. Gosh, their re-branding for Brugal is AHmazing. I am so jealous and sad that I missed this. Oh well, I got to listen to their cool announcer guy. Oh yeah, they have one of those too.

Thanks May.

-Randa

Reflection on the Documentary "Design Thinking"

When I stumbled into the design program my freshman year of college, I didn't know much about design, but as I went through classes, it was evident to me that there was indeed a design process. Thinking about it further, I understood that the steps in this process could be applied to other things, but it never occurred to me that people may not have thought of that yet. That is where the documentary "Design Thinking" comes in, talking about those who are making an effort to educate non-designers on applications for the design process to other scenarios. This documentary also educates the viewers on what design thinking is and how it works, and I love that about it. Making the world a more cohesive place by making people smarter in their work and passion is a great thing.

Prototyping and learning that failure is not the enemy but a means of learning and creating something better is the first thing they talk about. Teaching that failing in order to succeed is better as a journey than succeeding the first time with an idea that isn't as innovative as it could have been is important. Playing it safe is the enemy.

Thinking about the system as a whole and how people immerse themselves in and interact with it is more important than one part of the system.

Understanding construction of a system can bring people that much further in their understanding and knowledge of the world.

Do before you think.

Thank you May, for having us watch this.

-Randa

Materials and Process Chapter 2 Reflection

 What Influences Product Design?

According to the book, the market, technology, investment climate, environment, and industrial design. Let's see... I'm studying one of those things, which means I need to get my butt in gear for the other four! Technologies mixed with scientific research should be a thought on the back burner at all times, because new technologies mean cooler, more efficient and effective designs. The market is also powerful, considering almost 95% of all products fail there. That isn't necessarily because the product was a failure either. Sometimes, it is because the market temperatures weren't right. People weren't receptive to the idea or it wasn't advertised properly to the right margin. Trying to predict how the marketplace will react to a product is crucial, and the more you know, the better equipped you will be to deal with that type of problem. The market is mostly driven by desire, and one of their biggest desires is greater functionality in the products they already have. Using electricity, magnets, and other materials to create useful do-dads, bells, and whistles (but especially ones that make sense for that product) can help here exponentially. Developments in science offer new combinations of, and lighter, stronger materials (THE BASIS FOR EVERYTHING). Finding new ways to utilize them in products can make or break the design. Powering different components that have been developed to be smaller and more efficient, can be addressed merely by doing some extra research. Education about surface technologies will be key in the years to come. Trying to design products with the ecosystem and waste management in mind is also important, although not as much for this generation, but future ones. Thinking of the lifespan of a product, and using materials that will break down organically, without releasing harmful toxins and chemicals is IMPORTANT for our environment. The average life of a product is usually only 10 years, keeping that in mind is key. Extending the life of a product or making the design so it rapidly decomposes after its end is reached with no problem are 2 ways we can address that problem. In the marketplace, making sure the value of a product exceeds the cost is important when thinking of your target audience. Without this, a product will, inevitably, flop. When taking industrial design into consideration, consider the old adage "form follows function". If you live by this, you are an engineer, not a designer. However, if you combine this adage as the core, and design aesthetic features around it that don't compromise the functionality at all, you can successfully design popular, useful things. Giving a product simple, easy-to-use interfaces whilst giving it a customized personality and a brand/identity (if it is part of a brand collection) is also quite important.

-Randa Marie

Materials and Processes Textbook: Chapter 1 Reflection

After reading chapter 1 (because my book finally came in, YAY!) the basic premise seems to be that materials are important to consider when creating a product. That is a No-Duh kind of thought, but realizing that it is more than just the aesthetics of something, that it is also the tactile feel of a product in someone's hands, it's that way that it makes them feel that can add a whole new dimension to a product, which makes people love it even more. Solving design problems simply through switching production material can save lots of work and can also enhance the product, rather than the designer trying to find another way around the original material. Materials help with product functionality and personality, and both are important (although I would say something should work before it looks remarkable in terms of success.) Learning the material, how it works, what it's strength and weaknesses are, and learning how to join it with other materials is as important as knowing who you're designing for and the history of the particular product you're designing. Thinking about the three points listed (the surging maker movement, materials exploration around the world, and branding), there is TONS of external research that needs to be done for each project, and there is a lot of untapped information freely available, so adding that to your design process NOW is important. "Your product is your story, your story is your product" is a fantastic line to live by in design. Building your product and brand from the inside out is the most effective and fulfilling.

And the list from creamy center to outer shell is: Material, Product, Packaging, Identity, Retail, Digital, Service, Systems, Organization, and finally, Brand. The brand is like the pretty bow on top. It's the encasing of the entire package, and recognizing/building off of a solid foundation is the most important thing.

-Randa Marie

#25daysofHalloween is HERE!!!

Here are the first three faces in my series, #25daysofHalloween

Mystique of the X Men:

#25daysofHalloween has a new face tutorial! Mystique is in the building! Check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-p8HzJEWLI&feature=youtu.be

Darth Maul of Star Wars, Phantom Menace:

And Kratos, of the video game God of War:

Inspirations: Duracell light

Flashlight Resources and Research

As we delve into our next ID1 project, the first step is to do copious amounts of research for what you're designing for. Here's what I found:

-The Current Prospective Market:
http://www.keenboy.com/news.php?id=249

-What real user's opinions of flashlights are:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?264096-What-do-you-mostly-use-your-flashlight-for

-Flashlight FAQs:
http://www.eveready.com/faqs/lighting-products/Pages/faq.aspx

-And a Mintel report about battery use currently in the US.

Because research is important!

-RM

A. Zahner Field Trip!!!

A. Zahner is a metal fabricator in KC that has been there for 116 years. They work in all metals, but not with composits, and they use various types of machinery. They fabricate structures for anyone who happens to need their services, but usually for businesses, museums, and occasionally the government. They are know internationally for their metalwork, and have created structures all over the world. Some of the jobs they have worked on include the 9/11 memorial, various Frank Gehry buildings, the Cooper Union in New York, and the Peterson Automotive Museum in Miami, FL.

Their machines include a Press Punch (which is patented by them) to cut holes and shapes into metal, a water jet which provides 3000 psi and can cut through 6 inch steel, shears, a bridge mill, routers/cutters, and various others. A lot of R&D happens at the KC facility, but we were told there is also a facility in Dallas, Texas, which is mostly for production. Also, in Texas, they have a bead blaster to use on surfaces of metals that uses glass beads. Generally, we were told they try to stay away from paints when it comes to surfacing their metals, but sometimes its required. When they work with clients, the jobs they take on can take from months to years, depending on the design process and the client's needs.

Thanks to A. Zahner for allowing our class to view their facility, and to May for setting up the field trip!

-RM

Sketches of Frank Gehry Reflection

"Is starting hard? You know it is."-Frank Gehry

Frank Gehry is an architect and an artist who fabricates impossibly organic buildings out of stereotypically industrial materials. He has designed many buildings as well as houses for buyers of all sorts, including museums, private buyers, businesses, and companies. He designed the Vitra Furniture Museum as well as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Frank goes through a very particular design process, and he works in glass and metals. He is part of the process 100%, and usually his designs require thinking around the parameters of the materials.

Frsnk Gehry seems to be such a character. He said something along the lines of his building design looking so stupid it worked. When asked about it, he replied something like 'yeah, stupid', but in a more positive tone than the word usually commands. His approach to buildings is so out of the box, I can hardly follow it, but his question, "So how do you make a building human?" is a great question to apply to anything you're designing. If a product becomes humanistic, it becomes relatable, and thus the people who are using it understand and appreciate it more.

-RM

Matthias Pliessnig

Matthias Pliessnig is a designer who seems to have stumbled upon his design calling by accident while experimenting with steam bending. He now creates uniquely structured wood furniture, boats, and wall panels for hospitals, universities, private buyers, and businesses of all sorts, in America as well as overseas. He only uses air dried White Oak for what he does, and just air drying the wood can take 2-3 years. He steam bends the wood initially, after getting his design direction for a Rhinoceros modeling program, and holds it together with over 2000 clamps. Once the wood is out of the steamer, Matthias only has about 30 seconds to get it in place for hard bends, 45 seconds for medium, and 1 minute for slight. Afterwards, for about 2 minutes he can make slight adjustments, but even that is risky, and after that time, the wood is set. He also uses a jigsaw and laser cutter for any cross sections he has to create to support the structure. Epoxy, glue, wire, copper rivets, and scarf joints are all used to join benches together, depending on what the client wants or what the design demands. Finally, the structure is sanded, both inside and out, to add a nice finish.

It takes approximately 2000 hours of man power on average per bench, and the average cost is $44,000.

Imagine that!

Here are some pictures to feed your imagination:

-RM

Star Signs Field Trip!

Materials and Processes took our 2nd field trip of the semester to none other than Star Signs!

They are custom sign makers who do work all over KC (Arrowhead Stadium, P & L District), as well as Kansas in general. They work on environmental signage, wayfinding, graphics, and identification signage. Generally their signs are made out of aluminum (as opposed to steel) because of the lightness and durability of the material, as well as its flexibility in combination with other materials. They make signs for universities (LSU), companies, and businesses.

90% of the time, Star Signs works in aluminum, but coupled with that, they use polycarbon, acrylics, photopolymer, and vinyl, among other things. They order metals from "Phoenix Metals in KC, and use CNC routers and a giant jump shear (kind  of jealous of their equipment, actually) to cut everything. They join things with fasteners of various kinds and welding. The final stage is printing the sign or attaching 3-D letters, and adding veneer. The sign is then sent off to clients.

Thanks so much to star signs for letting us tour their facility, it was quite the experience.

-RM

Field Trip to the Reuter Organ Company!

The Reuter Organ Company has been headquartered in Lawrence since 1919, and they are the one of four remaining organ companies in North America who make every component of an organ themselves. They create custom pipe organs for Churches, Colleges, Universities, Concert Halls, and the occasional private residence.

Many different types of materials are used in the pipe organs the Reuter Organ Company creates, including copper, zinc, lead, tin, sheep skin, goat skin, kangaroo skin, various types of wood, plastic, and cow bone. The copper and zinc are used on large pipes (over 4ft. tall), and a lead/tin alloy is used on the smaller ones, with 50% of both components. The wood is used to create air reservoirs, as well as the varying types of skin. However, only sheep skin is used when creating the valves that open and close the pipes. Wood, plastic, and cow bone are used to create the keys that make up the console box, no ivory is used to create keys anymore.

To form the pipes, the company has its own casting technology. They heat up the metal, then our it down a trough into a contraption that allows them to lay it out in perfect sheets, then allow it to cool. They also use slip rolls to create the pipes shape, and weld or solder the pieces together. All the wood working is either done with a saw, or with a CNC router for the complicated/large designs. As for finishing the pipes off, they will either polish them, paint them with automotive grade paint, or create "flaming copper pipes" by getting sheets of copper and taking a blow torch to them for a "flaming" effect.

One organ created by these guys can cost anywhere from $500,000 to $2 million and is quite a process. The design process itself can take anywhere from 3 months to 3 years, and the construction process can take between 12 weeks to 6 months. Since their opening, they've created 2,200 organs from scratch, and restored just as many. To give a rough picture of how much work they do over that time period, I will tell you that there are 61 individual pipes in a set, but an average organ could be made up of 50 sets. The largest playing pipe organ has 30,000 pipes on it, although Reuter Organ Company can't take the credit for that one. They can, however, take credit for many organs all over the country, and a few overseas as well. No other instrument can go as low or as high as the organ, and it was the original synthesizer, so Reuter Organ Company does its best to serve the King of Instruments.

Our guide was also nice enough to play some organ music for us, it went something like this:

What a fantasmal trip! I quite enjoyed seeing the processes of such an interesting company up close for myself. Fairly educational, and I know I shall remember it a lot better than I would have merely reading about it. Thank You May! And thank you to the wonderful people a Reuter Organ Company for having us as well.

-RM  

Show and Tell Round 1

For our Materials and Processes class, we were asked to pick an object and investigate the materials used to make it and the technology used to form it. I chose my Tungsten Carbide ring coated in 18 K Gold with Freshwater Pearl Inlay, and here is what I found out about it.

The ring could not be made with a base of Tungsten alone, because Tungsten on its own is too fragile. The base, therefore, is a Tungsten Carbide alloy which is ground up into powder using a pulverizer, and then compression molded (high pressure molding) into the shape of the ring. This mold is fired at that point in a 6000 degree, oxygen free furnace.

This ring base is dipped in gold after cooling, and the gold is bonded to the base using electrical currents and hand polished with a diamond compound for "shine".

A laser cutter cuts out the shape for the inlay in the ring, as well as the shape of the inlay itself, and the freshwater pearl pieces are attached using adhesive.

If engraving is requested (it's on a customer need basis in some cases), a laser engraver is used.

Cloud9Tungsten is the designer and producer of my particular ring.

Enjoy! 

-RM