Graphic Design
Flexible Food Wrap: Gone are the days when a portion of chips came served up in half a tabloid newspaper; now London-based packaging designers Pethick and Money are set to further revolutionise the shape of fast-food packaging. Recently designer Josh Riley has been downing not just chips but burgers and chicken nuggets. all in the name of researching a new eco-friendly style of fast food wrapper — the Flexible Food Wrap. Made of coated paper and card, the FFW cuts down material weight by 40 per cent compared to the cumbersome clamshell burger and chip containers. Taking up less storage space, the FFW is a knatty new approach to food packaging — the chip wrapper can also double up as a napkin. ‘1 can’t quote names, but we are currently talking to all the fast food chains,’ says Riley. ‘The FFW is the packaging for today: it offers possibilities of being made completely of recycled materials.’
Product Design
Creative Etiects Instant Camera: ‘lt’s or the aspirational teenager before they get to roller-blades,’ says Paul Priestman of the Creative Effects instant Camera, targeted at four-to-iive-year-oids. Designed for Fisher Price, the world’s biggest toymaker, the camera is a happy snapper for the kiddies. Priestman, of the London- based product design consultancy Priestman Goode,
I ' came up with the idea a few years back. \ -' " ‘Mum and dad take the family camera away from kids, but this is designed to be thrown downstairs and allows children to print out black and white
images.’ Using a chip produced by the Edinburgh company VLSl and including a miniature printer, the camera produces digitised images onto a miniature roll of fax paper. The print-outs can be coloured in or printed with special ‘fun effects’ — a head shot of Mickey Mouse or the words ‘Come To My Party’. ‘This is global development,’ reckons Priestman. ‘Here technology and design completely match. One would not be possible without the other.’
BBC DESIGN AWARDS FEATURE
Cream Live CD covers: The hip Liverpool _ dance venue Cream, out 4" to get a corporate image, hired designer 6 Rob Petrie of the London compan} Dolphin to come up with a stylish solution. Now one of Britain’s biggest and grooviest clubs, Cream’s own CD mixes of dance music have covers that are shortlisted in the graphics section of the Awards. Coming in five bright colours, made of rubber and embossed with the club’s logo. the CD covers have no need of plastic. ‘We wanted to do something special,’ says Petrie. ‘We eventually sourced rubber made in italy used for children’s pencil cases and we picked it because of its texture. it’s really tactile.’ And they smell good. ‘The pink CD cover smells of bubblegum, and it’s good if people keep them on their coffee tables and not just in their CD collections.’ Determinediy not sitting on his design success laurels (the flexy rubber CD covers have already been copied), Petn'e is currently creating graphics for Levi’s new flagship store in London.
Attila Beverage Can Crusher: ‘This will make recycling fun,’ declares Julian Brown of his multi-coloured, all-plastic drinks can crusher. ‘1 would never have wanted an old-style crusher for Christmas, but the beauty of this is it doesn’t feel mechanical. lt’s toy-like, almost Disney without Disney.’ Free- standing and made from the same material as Lego, Brown’s hand- powered Attila Beverage Can Crusher would be a stylish addition to any home. Designed to crush aluminium and steel dn'nks cans into compact nuggets within seconds, it allows for space-saving storage of empties which can later be deposited in banks for recycling. ‘The ltaiian manufacturer Rexite SpA threw down the gauntlet,’ continues Brown, a Bath based designer. ‘Can we make a can crusher that’s an attractive consumer product?’
Named after the barbaric Attila the Hun, Brown believes the conqueror has now come back to lend a hand. ‘He was a bit of a brute, but he’s reincarnated, pitching his might to help humanity threatened by the armies of excess and waste.’
The List 28 Jun-ll Jul 1996 17