Social Design: Design Like You Give a Damn!: Up!

Up! Illuminate your face? Now illuminate your space!

For Design Problem 2, Laura and I did a collaborative project on upcycling and the idea of reduce, reuse, and recycle. By focusing on a product that most women have in their homes, we created a series of fairly simple designs to create tea light candle holders using old makeup compacts. We were inspired by the thought that women use and consume so many cosmetic products, whose empty containers are usually later thrown away, left to sit in landfills, further destroying and polluting the planet we live on. Why not reuse them in a cool, fun, aesthetically pleasing way?! Not to mention reducing consumption on new items that you could easily (and enjoyably) design and make on your own, as well as reducing the pollution, etc. created from making the products. We then created a blog for Up!, http://upilluminateyourspace.wordpress.com/, with do-it-yourself instructions, images, and videos to follow to design and create these candle holders! This allows and encourages people to reuse what they already have and reduce further consumption and pollution from purchasing new items. A fun, different, and fairly simple way to make their home more beautiful, our planet cleaner, and their pockets fuller! Sounds like a win-win situation to me! :)