Branding for a Furniture Line

Branding for a Furniture Line Made From Recycled Plastics

The design plan would familiarize the audience with the new product line of furniture made from recyclable plastics and has the aim of promoting a more environmentally responsible behavior from the part of both manufacturers as well as consumers. The necessity for this new approach to making furniture is given by the rapidly decaying status of the planet, combined with the major negative role plastics materials play in this process.

The reason as to why this topic was chosen refers to the growing concern over matters of pollution and the exploitation of the earth's natural resources. The development of a furniture product line made from recyclable plastics would reduce resource consumption and pollution, taking as such one step forward in the battle to save the earth. Plastic materials are a primary threat upon the well-being of the natural environment due to their negative impact. Some sources even indicate that plastic wastes are more dangerous than global warming and base their argument on that plastics pollution destroys the natural ecosystems (Coursey, 2007). It is then necessary to come up with solutions that do not dump the plastic materials and residues into the environment, but which transform and reuse them in an efficient manner, such as the creation of pieces of furniture.

3. Goals

The primary goal of the endeavor is to familiarize both consumers and producers with the real threat of plastic pollution. Once this is achieved, the hope is to transform the dumping of plastics materials and waste into the environment into a process of collection and re-usage of the residues. This will reduce the levels of pollution; will better protect the natural ecosystems and will also introduce economic agents and individual consumers to more responsible behaviors relative to our planet. In other words, the primordial objective of the venture is to take one step forward in the creation of a safe environment and a planet that will be able to support life in the centuries to come.

4. Initial Research

In order to develop a most relevant design for the new line of furniture from recyclable plastics, it is crucial to research the theoretical and practical advances that have been made in the filed. Despite the impressive amount of works in plastics pollution, the task could prove rather challenging as the topic is a relatively new one, and the number of resources is fairly limited. However, some of the resources that will be used include the following:

William J. Thompson, Kim Sorvig and Craig D. Farnsworth's Sustainable Landscape Construction: A Guide to Green Building Outdoors

Bettina Von Stamm's Managing Innovation, Design and Creativity

Paul Greenhalgh's the Persistence of Craft: The Applied Arts Today

Another source of information for conducting the research will be comprised of the corporate websites of the organizations already engaged in manufacturing furniture from recyclable plastics, such as Marmax Products Limited or Barco Products.

5. Audience

The main audience for the new product line is composed from individual and corporate customers who are looking to purchase new pieces of furniture. The common characteristics of the audience are given by the needs which could be satisfied through the purchase of furniture made from recyclable plastics. In this line of thoughts, the audience is portrayed by a general desire to reduce plastics pollution and better protect the environment. More specifically, it is characterized by a desire to invest limited amounts of time and money in upkeeping the furniture (painting, cleaning or maintenance) and in being able to use it regardless of season - the furniture from recyclable plastics offers these benefits (Website of Barco Products, 2008).

6. Realization

The areas of research include general pollution, plastics pollution and its effects, recyclable plastics and the adherent furniture, as well as interactive design. Additionally, the research questions refer to the following: