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)