Hilina Bayew: Final Project Brainstorming (Ali, Hamad, Hilina)

 

Our group consists of myself, Ali and Hamad. We took a while to 

carefully think through the prompt in order to come up with a product that is both timeless and made from plastic. Our aim was to not only create a product but in the process to teach our grandchildren and further generations an everlasting lesson.

Our group managed to come up with a few ideas:

• The first of which being a sort of parchment scroll that has a small prayer at the top which is aimed at protecting the family. Following this prayer the initials of the different family members will be written on the bottom. We would also provide a tool that would allow our grandchildren to inscribe their initials onto this scroll before passing it onto their children. This would therefore, serve as a family heirloom of sorts where generations would not only receive the object with a prayer to protect them but would also be able to add onto the product which provides an incentive to keep the product rather than throwing it away. Furthermore, this product would also help a language eg. Amharic from dying out.
  • The ends of the scrolls could potentially be made from wood, as for the rest of the parchment scroll we intend on attending the lab sessions in the coming days in order to figure out the best methods to use. 

• Our second concept is a hybrid of two well known innovations: piggy banks and self tying balloons. The piggy bank would serve the purpose of collecting money ( in all its forms ) since we cant assume that it would remain in the same form as it is nowadays. The piggy bank would have recycled pouches that can withstand a certain weight, and eventually drops and ties itself, making a tiny money pouch. Although knowledge, wisdom, and culture are all important concepts to pass down, they can only take you so far in life. Generational wealth provides a kickstart to any direction one would like to pursue. 

• Our third concept is more conventional and aims to serve more of a practical purpose. The first thing that comes to mind when thinking of items that can be passed down from generation to generation is moments of celebration. We came up with the idea of creating a custom bottle opener that is strictly used in moments of celebration. Customers that purchase this bottle opener will have free reign to customize the bottle opener from the material to the color to engraving initials or family names. The catch with this bottle opener is that it will be created solely from precious recycled materials.

The next few days:

• In the coming days we aim to become more familiar with the different tools we can make use of within the lab.
• By Tuesday/Wednesday we aim to have the necessary tools and components of our chosen product together in order to assemble it
• We will then dedicate Wednesday Afternoon to finalizing our presentation