Media Lab Blogs

Ensimmäinen Europeana-työpaja järjestettiin Viikin normaalikoulun lukiolaisten kanssa 11.5.2012. Työpaja järjestettiin osana lukiolaisten historian ja yhteiskuntaopin kurssia ja opiskelijat tekivät ryhmissä Pinterestillä kokoelmia käyttäen Europeana-portaalin sisältöjä yhdessä muiden internetistä löytyvien sisältöjen kanssa.

I was part of the team designing the sonic experience inside the Angry Birds Shop in Särkänniemi Adventure Park. Enjoy!!!

Text by Arindra
20 April 2012

Mission objectives: designing a package that will provide a young urban smart-phone consumer with an unforgettable experience, that will represent Nokia’s values and brand.
After a short brainstorming session and a meeting with Nokia’s representative, three concepts were chosen and will be developed for this project. We decided to have two packages that would have a specific function once the package is open and the phone removed and one concept were the value of the package comes from its aesthetics and graphics and the user is free to decide what use he/she wants to give to the box.

One concept is technologically inspired: a charging dock for the phone, thus turning the package into an extra accessory for the phone, a more “vintage/back to basics” package, where the box would turn into a pinhole camera after the phone is removed and the phone is tight to the package functionality (measures light or serves as a red light for developing the photographs) and besides the traditional smart-phone accessories, the kit would include photography paper and liquids so that the customer can take his/her own pictures, thus the package will also have a note of comedy as the customer would be purchasing a premium phone with a very capable picture but can also have fun and go back to photography basic with the package.

Last but not least, we decided that maybe it is a good idea to offer to the customer the possibility of deciding what to do with the package, so the third and final concept where the package is a beautiful box, with excellent graphics that can be turned into a storing box of any kind: jewelry, phone accessories, etc.

These three concepts were chosen, as we wanted to have different experiences tight to the package. As Nokia is a technological company, we naturally thought that it was a good idea to develop also a technological and reusable package, thus the dock/charging station was born, however we also thought that associating the package with a technological concept was not very innovative as phone makers want to turn their packages into speakers or something related with technology, and so we wanted to come up with something fun, entertaining, relatively easy to do and so the concept of the pinhole camera was born, after discussing these two options, we also thought that sometimes people want to keep a box for the sake of its beauty and so we decided to have the simple and beautiful package that people might want to keep just for the sake of keeping it.

We believe our three concepts represent Nokia from different perspectives: technology, modernity, inventiveness, beauty, aesthetics, functionality, heritage and all these concepts are connected through the thread of sustainability, provided by the selected material: UPM grada.

Short introductory background by teachers
Text: Tarja Toikka & Markus Joutsela

The Pack-Age 2012 course is a new interdisciplinary studying experience both for teachers and students. The students were selected based on their motivation letters and competences. They work in six interdisciplinary teams on design projects received from companies. The teams produce future concepts and packaging prototypes based on company briefs. Six teachers from four different schools provide a viewpoint to packaging design and related issues while tutoring the team work. Also visiting experts and packaging specialists are part of the program. The course covers themes like: packaging as communication, packaging engineering, materials and systems, sustainable product design, user-centered package design, packaging constructions and graphics, branding, marketing and consumer lifestyles.

This Master’s level course takes place in Aalto Media Factory from 15 March to 16 May 2012 in Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture.

These pages are our window to the collaborative process. Students provide their insights of this exiting process in following pages. Comments are more than welcome 

PACK-AGE 1st Activities
Text by Team Verman

Here are some of the activities by the PACK-AGE course members during the first weeks of work: We have the same goal and work together to reach it! Oskari Salmi, visiting expert had a workshop of team dynamics and teamwork. In the very easy way of testing and learning this, is to do practical exercises in the group. Improvisation as a technique gave us a good start to teamwork. It is important to TRUST each other, believe that they will guide you even if you are unsure or lost. It is also important to understand and LISTEN each other. So instead of underestimating others ideas, try to develop them further with ”yes and”-attitude. The team works much harder and better which reflect straight to the result.

PD6 Product design in six hours – An idea generation and evaluation tool
During the PD6 workshop, each team had a very strict time for creating a concept product and prototype, in this case a picnic package with some specific characteristics.  As we needed to solve the task in a very short time we should respond effectively taking advantage of the backgrounds and expertise of each of the members of the team. During the process all teams managed to organize the work in order to bring valuable results. This helps to understand team roles in an active way, and discover the workflow for generating ideas as well as decision making inside the team. The results of all the teams at the end of the workshop, showed the potential of making a strictly task in a limited time, joining the abilities of all the team members. All the work can be resumed in: Focus on the problem, not on the process.