Heliotropic Billboard

The concept of this billboard is to following the movement and temperature of the sun. This was inspired by the sunflower which displays a process called floral heliotropism.
Heliotropic flowers track the sun's motion across the sky from East to West. During the night, the flowers may assume a random orientation, while at dawn they turn again towards the East where the sun rises. The motion is performed by motor cells in a flexible segment just below the flower, called a pulvinus. The motor cells are specialized in pumping potassium ions into nearby tissues, changing their turgor pressure. The segment flexes because the motor cells at the shadow side elongate due to a turgor rise. Heliotropism is a response to blue light. Some solar tracking plants are not purely heliotropic: in those plants the change of orientation is an innate circadian motion triggered by light, which continues for one or more periods if the light cycle is interrupted.

The billboard will be made up of panels that begin by being flat in the east and as the sun rises as does the temperature the flaps will begin to lift. By the end of the day and as the sun has gone down the flaps will be flat once again and will display another image. The billboard will reset itself much like the sunflowers do at night. The billboard will be completely solar powered.

Above is an example of what the billboard would look like in the east or flat.

As the sun rises the panels lift revealing another image.

Zebra Camouflaged Annual Reports

To humans, a zebra's stripes stick out like a sore thumb, so it's hard to imagine that the stripes act as camouflage. Zoologists believe stripes offer zebras protection from predators in a couple of different ways.

The first is as simple pattern-camouflage, much like the type the military uses in its fatigue design­. The wavy lines of a zebra blend in with the wavy lines of the tall grass around it. It doesn't matter that the zebra's stripes are black and white and the lines of the grass are yellow, brown or green, because the zebra's main predator, the lion, is colorblind. The pattern of the camouflage is much more important than its color, when hiding from these predators. If a zebra is standing still in matching surroundings, a lion may overlook it completely.

This benefit may help an individual zebra in some situations, but the more significant means of protection has to do with zebra herds. Zebras usually travel in large groups, in which they stay very close to one another. Even with their camouflage pattern, it's highly unlikely a large gathering of zebras would be able to escape a lion's notice, but their stripes help them use this large size to their advantage. When all the zebras keep together as a big group, the patte­rn of each zebra's stripes blends in with the stripes of the zebras around it. This is confusing to the lion, who sees a large, moving, striped mass instead of many individual zebras.


Having said all that. How boring can annual reports and confidential documents be? I thought about camouflaging annual reports and confidential documentation much like a zebra. Using a black and white print of a zebra pattern and splitting the information between two transparencies. The documentation looks very confusing and doesn't make much sense until you lay the transparencies over the top of the zebra pattern.

Above is the plain zebra pattern.

Above you can see the transparencies with the writing.

Above is the completed document and it is now legible.

One Critique

Nature settles for "good enough," not "optimum," design. Results are all driven by natural selection and what is immediately sufficient for survival, not what's the best design. But even so, after 3.8 billion years of refinement, the existing designs at least provide seeds for even better ideas, ideas we wouldn't have thought of without nature's inspiration.

“Nine Laws of Nature”

With my many trips to the library I came across a book which has been super helpful with all things regarding Biomimicry. I came across something that made me realise nature also offers some good insights into reinterpreting the processess and organizational structures that are found within the graphic design profession. Here’s what she (Janine Benyus) calls the “Nine Laws of Nature”:


Nature runs on sunlight.

Nature uses only energy it needs.
Nature fits form to function.
Nature recycles everything.
Nature rewards cooperation.
Nature banks on diversity.
Nature demands local expertise.
Nature curbs excess from within.
Nature taps the power of limits.

Think about some of the evolving traits of great organizations. They’re efficient and well-designed, close to and insightful about their markets, and increasingly are energizing and transparent, attentive to ethical and social values, diverse points of view and teamwork. What are some of the practices and processes graphic designers would like to change? and how can we look to nature to solve them?

Source: Biomimicry - Innovation Inspired by Nature - by Janine Benyus

Looking at Nature as Model, Measure, or Mentor

If we want to consciously emulate nature's genius, we need to look at nature differently.  In biomimicry, we look at nature as model, measure, and mentor.  

Nature as model: Biomimicry is a new science that studies nature’s models and then emulates these forms, process, systems, and strategies to solve human problems – sustainably.  The Biomimicry Guild and its collaborators have developed a practical design tool, called the Biomimicry Design Spiral, for using nature as model.

Nature as measure: Biomimicry uses an ecological standard to judge the sustainability of our innovations.  After 3.8 billion years of evolution, nature has learned what works and what lasts.  Nature as measure is captured in Life's Principles and is embedded in the evaluate step of the Biomimicry Design Spiral.

Nature as mentor: Biomimicry is a new way of viewing and valuing nature.  It introduces an era based not on what we can extract from the natural world, but what we can learn from it.

Re-Designing: Part Two

In this part I tackled the Nando's packaging project. I applied the design spiral once again and asked the question again What do I want the design to do?


Fit together in a structurally sound way
Save space
Create a pattern
Open up interestingly


By using asknature.org once again and from previous research I had done on Biomimicry I started with the structure.


Structure


Beehives and cells serves as a hexagonal structure


The beehive's internal structure is a densely-packed matrix of hexagonal cells made of beeswax, called a honeycomb. The bees use the cells to store food (honey and pollen), and to house the "brood" (eggs, larvae, and pupae).


Whether we look into beehives, man-made devices, living tissues or even atoms we can find surprising examples of a characteristic hexagonal pattern. We call it hexagonal close packing and it is in fact most effective to pack the largest number of objects in a minimum space.

Using the beehive as inspiration this is what I have produced.

Results:

The images below are examples of the flat designs of the packaging. You will notice that I didn't change much of the design style because I thought that it was successful in that respect. The only thing that I did do was update it somewhat and tidy up the end result.

Pop Your Cherry

Have Him Anyday Not Just Sunday

Split That Banana

Below is an image of a scaled down version of the package mocked-up. The hexagons fit perfectly together. If these packages were produced and packed up for distribution they would be able to fit a large amount of objects together in a minimum amount of space.

Morphotex Structural Coloured Fibers

Colored fibers and fabric without chemical dyes

While scouring the great wide web for resources I came across a company as well as an artist that are working with structural coloured fibers. 


Product or Process


Morpho butterflies remain a vibrant blue throughout their lives, without ever needing a coat of paint to spruce up a dull finish. The scales on their wings are made of many layers of proteins that refract light in different ways, and the color we see often is due entirely to the play of light and structure rather than the presence of pigments. Teijin Fibers Limited of Japan produces Morphotex® fibers. No dyes or pigments are used. Rather, color is created based on the varying thickness and structure of the fibers. Energy consumption and industrial waste are reduced because no dye process must be used.

Below: An example of the reflective fabric

Above: A close up of the butterflies wing.

The artist Signe Rand Ebbesen has started incorporating hand woven paper yarn and the morphotex fibers into his artwork to create unusual results with textiles.

You can clearly see the reflective quality of the textile. What I want to find out is if this technology can be applied to the fibers of paper. To create the same effect. Thus utilising the reflective quality in the paper to hide text or imagery and it is only revealed once positioned towards the sun. I will be getting in contact with a biologist to find out if it might be possible.

...Sheena...

Re-Designing: Part One

In the previous post I spoke about some of the ideas I had started to think about with regards to Biomimicry in Graphic Design. I decided to focus on the project titled peep. I went back to the Design Spiral and asked myself the question: What do I want the design to do?


I want it to...


Glow in the dark
Camouflage itself
Be discreet but pretty
Reflect light
Automated
Hidden in plain sight


With the following things in mind I started to research these verbs on www.asknature.org which is a brilliant resource of all things Biomimetic. The two things that stood out for me was camouflage and hidden in plain sight.


Camouflage

Stripes serve as long-distance camouflage: lionfish

The stripes on a lionfish serve as camouflage by breaking up the outline of the fish when viewed from afar.

This form of camouflage got me thinking about how I can apply this technique to a business card or any form of corporate stationery.

Results:

The images below are examples of a business card front and back using the vanishing lines camouflage.

The image below is what the business card looks like without the lines placed on top of it.

This particular vanishing lines camouflage can be used in analog animation. Which requires the person the shift a transparent black lined sheet over an image made up of arbitrary lines to create an animation that moves or stays in the same place. Below are some examples of the analog animation using the concept of vanishing lines in a lion fish to animate a piece of paper. I have animated the key hole from the previous corporate identity as well as the logo and an image of some strippers. The business card may very well look like something completely random until the sheet is placed over the image and the animation comes to life. This is best demonstrated by the key hole animation.

 Below: The black and white grid

Above: The unrecognisable image that needs to be animated

Above: The animated key hole

The following examples are where I have applied the camouflage line technique in a more obvious way.

Below: The logo animated by shifting the grid over it.

Above: Various stripper poses being animated.

Above: An image of what it looks like beneath the grid.

I think the current experimentation is heading in a good direction now I need to find another way of doing a similar thing but still using biomimetics. I also still want the business card to fold up or disguise itself in a way that mimics nature.

...Sheena...

Re-Thinking

So to start with the whole process of applying Biomimetics to Graphic Design I have picked two of the projects I did well in in my 2nd Year. The first being peep and the second being my Gold Pack Packaging Awards entry for Nando's Desserts.


peep:


Peep was a corporate identity for lack of a better word for an escort/stripper. She wanted her corporate stationery to be discreet, which meant that the elements had to look normal in the day and reveal the relevant confidential information at night or when exposed to something. I decided to go with a die-cut flap and glow in the dark ink as well as various cryptic symbols. The overall design I think was successful however I want to see if by mimicking nature I can make the design and overall product better.

Re-Thinking peep:

The main question I want to ask for all of my re-designs is What Do I Want The Design To Do? rather than How Do I Want It To Look?

What I Want:

glow in the dark

camouflaged

discreet/pretty

reflect light

hidden in plain sight

folded up

What Nature Offers:

Reflecting Light:

Nanofibers produce colour: Blue Penguin

Beta-keratin nanofibers on feather tips of blue penguin produce non-iridescent color by coherent scattering of light. Research is being done into products that could be colored by structures that scatter light. This could mean that paper would be produced that scattered light and created the same reflective properties as the Blue Penguins feathers.

Body surfaces reflect light to create colors: jewel beetles

The body surfaces of jewel beetles and other beetles create colors by reflecting lights at different wavelengths. Structural colours have already been created that mimic the beetles body surface which have been applied to clothing, vehicles, paints.

Nando's Desserts:

Was a packaging project that required us to create a range of dessert packaging for Nando's. I decided to create a range of naughty desserts that each opened a particular way and the actual packaging was displayed in a unique way.

Re-Thinking Nando's Desserts:

The main question I want to ask for all of my re-designs is What Do I Want The Design To Do? rather than How Do I Want It To Look?

What I Want:

fit together in a structurally sound way

save space

create a pattern

open interestingly

What Nature Offers:

Saving Space/Creating Patterns/Packaging Materials

Fibonacci sequence optimizes packing: sunflowers

The seed heads of sunflowers optimize the packing of seeds by arranging them in spirals of Fibonacci numbers. If I could create a Fibonacci sequence to the packaging of my dessert I may possibly eliminate wastage both in the manufacturing and transportation of the packaging.

Leaves of the sacred lotus are self-cleaning thanks to nanoscale bumps.

Lotus plants (Nelumbo nucifera) stay dirt-free, an obvious advantage for an aquatic plant living in typically muddy habitats, and they do so without using detergent or expending energy. The plant's cuticle, like that of other plants, is made up of soluble lipids embedded in a polyester matrix – wax – but the degree of its water repellency is extreme (superhydrophobic). By mimicking the lotus plant manufacturers are creating fabrics and packaging material that is waterproof and dirt-proof.

Biomimetic Design Spiral

Identify

Develop a Design Brief of the human need:

• Develop a Design Brief with specifics about the problem to be resolved
• Break down the Design Brief to identify the core of the problems and the design specifications 
• Identify the function you want your design to accomplish:  What do you want your design to do? (not “what do you want to design?”).  Continue to ask why until you get to the bottom of the problem. 
• Define the specifics of the problem: 
  • Target Market:  who is involved with the problem and who will be involved with the solution? 
  • Location: where is the problem, where will the solution be applied?

Interpret
Biologize the question; ask the Design Brief from Nature's perspective:

• Translate the design function into functions carried out in nature.  Ask “How does Nature do this function?”  “How does Nature NOT do this function?”
• Reframe questions with additional key words. 
• Define the Habitat/Location 
  • Climate conditions 
  • Nutrient conditions 
  • Social conditions
  • Temporal conditions

Discover
Look for the champions in nature who answer/resolve your challenges

• Find the best Natural Models to answer your questions.
• Consider Literal and Metaphorical
• Find champion adapters by asking “whose survival depends on this?”
• Find organisms that are most challenged by the problem you are trying to solve, but are unfazed by it.
• Look to the extremes of the habitat
• Turn the problem inside out and on its head
• Open discussions with Biologists and specialists in the field

Abstract
Find the repeating patterns and processes within nature that achieve success

• Create taxonomy of life’s strategies
• Select the champions with the most relevant strategies to your particular design challenge.
• Abstract from this list the repeating successes and principles that achieve this success.

Emulate
Develop ideas and solutions based on the natural models

• Develop concepts and ideas that apply the lessons from your Natural teachers.
• Look into applying these lessons as deep as possible in your designs:
  • Mimicking Form:
    • Find out details of the morphology
    • Understand scale effects
    • Consider influencing factors on the effectiveness of the form for the organism
    • Consider ways in which you might deepen the conversation to also mimic process and/or ecosystem
  • Mimicking Function:
    • find out details of the biological process
    • Understand scale effects
    • Consider influencing factors on the effectiveness of the process for the organism
    • Consider ways in which you might deepen the conversation to also mimic the ecosystem
  • Mimicking Ecosystem:
    • Find out details of the biological process
    • Understand scale effects
    • Consider influencing factors on the effectiveness of the process for the organism

Evaluate
How do your ideas compare to Life’s Principles, the successful principles of nature?

• Evaluate your design solution against Life’s Principles
• Develop appropriate questions from Life’s Principles and continue to question your solution
• Identify further ways to improve your design and develop new questions to explore.  Questions may now be about the refinement of the concept:
  • Packaging, Manufacture, Marketing, Transport
  • New Products - additions, refinement
  • etc...

Identify
Develop and refine design briefs based on lessons learned from evaluation of Life's Principles
Nature works with small feedback loops, constantly learning, adapting and evolving. We can also benefit from this thinking, evolving our designs in repeated steps of observation and development, unearthing new lessons and applying these constantly throughout our own design exploration.


• design spiral can be found at http://www.biomimicryinstitute.org/

My Project

I am currently in the process of finishing my 5th year in my honours degree in Graphic Design at Greenside Design Center in sunny Johannesburg, South Africa. My current Major project is focussed around Biomimicry in Graphic Design, particularly focussing on the way in which animals and nature communicate and how these processes may be implemented into my practice. I will be re-designing projects from my college career as well as projects from the industry which I feel could benefit from an injection of Biomimetic Inspiration.

My motivation for doing this project started with the fact that I was bored with the way that I conceptualised my projects. As well as with the process I followed when starting out on a project.

I looked to biomimicry for inspiration, in doing so the project has blossomed (excuse the pun) into something so much more than just an escape from boredom. I hope that by entering into the world of biomimetics I may improve my design practice as well as influence others to do the same.

...Sheena...

What is Biomimicry?

Biomimicry [is] innovation inspired by nature. In a society accustomed to dominating or "improving" nature, this respectful imitation is a radically new approach, a revolution really. Unlike the Industrial Revolution, the Biomimicry Revolution introduces an era based not on what we can extract from nature, but on what we canlearn from her. ...
"Doing it nature's way" has the potential to change the way we grow food, make materials, harness energy, heal ourselves, store information, and conduct business.


In a biomemitic world, we would manufacture the way plants and animals do, using sun and simple compounds to produce totally biodegradable fibers, ceramics, plastics, and chemicals. Our farms, modeled on prairies, would be self-fertilizing and pest-resistant. To find new drugs or crops, we would consult animals and insects that have used plants for millions of years to keep themselves healthy and nourished. Even computing would take its cue from nature, with software that "evolves" solutions, and hardware that uses the lock-and-key paradigm to compute by touch.

In each case, nature would provide the models: solar cells copies from leaves, steely fibers woven spider-style, shatterproof ceramics drawn from mother-of-pearl, cancer cures compliments of chimpanzees, perennial grains inspired by tallgrass, computers that signal like cells, and a closed-loop economy that takes its lessons from redwoods, coral reefs, and oak-hickory forests.


The biomimics are discovering what works in the natural world, and more important, what lasts. After 3.8 billion years of research and development, failures are fossils, and what surrounds us is the secret to survival. The more our world looks and functions like this natural world, the more likely we are to be accepted on this home that is ours, but not ours alone."
—Janine M. Benyus, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature (2002, Harper Perennial)