Field Guide to Disposable Creatures
You've probably wondered what happens when a designer hoards every piece of plastic they own and stockpiles it all in their hallway for five weeks...
Every day, I walked through the piles of plastic packaging. I saw the consequences of my habits. I thought about the responsibilities of a plastic producer, graphic designer, and consumer. Plastic waste is typically hauled away and hidden from Americans, and we don't end up seeing the full impact of our consumer habits. I also documented my five-week experiment on social media. It helped with accountability and attracted some interest from a few friends.
After conducting my five-week experiment, The Field Guide to Disposable Creatures came to be. It was a book I designed for my Design Studio I class to help identify the most common kinds of plastic litter that exist out in the "wild." I imagined the Field Guide as a way for people to experience the volume of plastic waste in an accessible, presentable, playful, and nonjudgmental way.
A lot of the plastic packaging from my hallway experiment came in handy. I used them to create the Field Guide's front cover and "product" images for the plastic bag section. I designed selected spreads of the Field Guide for my end-of-semester presentation and used Illustrator and Photoshop to create my mock-ups.
MFA in Design, 2020
Collaborators
Instructor: Gray Garmon
Skills
Plastic Packaging Hoarder, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Social Media, Product Photography, Photo Editing
