Annie Leonard > Story of Cosmetics, story of bottled water, story of electronics.

In Annie Leonard’s video, Story of Cosmetics, she talks about how consumers use a range of different cosmetics each day without knowing what the ingredients of the cosmetics actually are and what effects they have on the human body. Annie Leonard also brings up the fact that it is not only the consumers who are affected by these chemicals, but also the people working in the factories in which the cosmetics are manufactured, the communities around the factories and the environment at both the extraction of these ingredients and the disposal stages of these cosmetics.
Annie Leonard has identified that the system has been corrupted by big companies that are only interested in profit and not the damage they are causing to everything around the world, and the governments are allowing big companies to slip pass only because they help keep the economy going.

In Annie Leonard’s video, Story of Bottled Water, she talks about why consumers are paying so much for bottled water, especially when water from tap is just as safe and tastier to drink and on top of that, there is a great amount of non-renewable resources being used up in the production of bottled water, also many communities affected by the production and disposal of bottled water.
Annie Leonard has also identified that the big companies supplying and manufacturing these products have ‘Manufactured Demand’ by scaring consumers out of drinking tap water, then these big companies mislead and seduce consumers by creating a fantasy that bottled water comes of pristine mountain streams.

In Annie Leonard’s video, Story of electronics, she talks about the term ‘Designed for the dump’ which refers to products that companies have designed specifically to be purchased, used and thrown away within a short period of time. This is common within electronics these days, they are hard to upgrade, easy to break and pointless to repair because a new product with the same function is much cheaper than the repair cost. Big companies are doing this on purpose because they want consumers to keep buying more and more products, while the companies are collecting sales and profits, they are destroying the environment by being irresponsible and turning a blind eye to the disposal stage of their old products.

As designers, we should take the initiative to design in a better way and for a healthier environment and also take control of what happens to the products we design.

Task 4: My Design Career (So many " I's ")

Whenever I am asked the question, “Why do you want to become a designer?” I am never able to answer that question so simply, because I have never really consciously thought about it and it’s not like I woke up one day and said to myself, “I’m going to be a designer”, it was more that I was just living life a little bit at a time and before I knew it, I’m on my way studying to become an industrial designer.
I suppose it’s everything that I’ve ever learnt and experienced in life so far that’s taken me down this path, I remember that as a child I always had a love for drawing and painting, then as I got older it was a love for creating things, then a satisfaction of solving problems and puzzles, then I believe it was a craving for praise of things I had achieved or created. As a child in my family, I also noticed that out of all the kids, I had the wildest imagination when it came to colours, drawings or writing stories. Then as I entered into the high school part of my life, that’s when life became less sheltered, and more knowledge about ‘the real world’ started to be absorbed, how things worked, why they were that particular way, the ability to think ‘outside of the box’ and realising that life isn’t easy. High school was also where I grew an understanding and greater appreciation of the arts.
By now, it was the final years of high school, a handful of friends had already figured out what they wanted to do with their lives, so they left to pursue those plans, while the rest of us stayed around to think about what we wanted to do with our lives. For some, the decision was never really made, only following the culture of family and what they chose, while others chose a path that ensured that they just get through daily obstacles and others choosing to do what they loved.
As for me, I followed what my friends and family were doing, which was going on to university because I felt a cultural need to go to university, but I couldn’t find any courses that were right for me, until one day, when I was having a conversation with my uncle, and he asked me if I had chosen a course yet. I told him that I couldn’t find anything that I really felt interested in, and then I described to him what kind of course I was looking for, and then he suggested that I researched industrial design. Industrial design ended up sounding like it was just the course for me, so that was my choice. After the HSC, I was only able to get into UWS for industrial design, but that didn’t stop me, I soon realized though that the UWS atmosphere made me feel depressed and that I needed an environment change, so I used my feelings as motivation and after a year of working hard, I applied to transfer to UNSW for industrial design, and that’s where I am now.
As for the future, there’s no telling what that’ll be like, I could be a freelancing designer working also as a mechanic or chef, a full time designer working with a big design firm, a teacher of design, a stay at home dad or even still be studying. Only time will tell, all I can hope for is that I make it there.

Design Confusion

It's not late, it's not late... just forgot to post it up. but handed it in to rina on time.