Project Overview:
- Phone case, Biodegradable 3D Printed housing with 4 paper-seed inserts
- Team project
- 4-6 Months
- 2014
Seed is a biodegradeable phone case with paper-seed inserts. The goal of this case is to reduce the stress associated with throwing away expensive phone cases, while also reducing plastic waste.
Each Seed case would come with 1 phone case and 4 paper-seed inserts. Each paper-seed insert was embedded with different flower and herb/spice seeds. When the user is tired of the phone case or wants a different colored insert, they can plant the item and have new life grown from it.
Students typically go through multiple phone cases, but are more worried about the environment. When they need to replace their phone case, they feel stress over the idea of contributing to waste, while needing protection for their phone.
How can we design an accessory for a mobile device that would help improve a college student’s life and reduce?
The project was started by researching what needs the average college student has in their daily lives.
It was discovered that the best accessory would have been one that involved the cell phone. From this point, our research found that students who see and grow plants on a daily basis are less likely to be depressed, have lower stress levels, and have less anxiety. Students are also more environmentally conscious so they are more willing to contribute and help the environment.
The biodegradable, seed embedded phone case would give life to something that user typically doesn't think about after they’re done using it. When the user doesn't want the case anymore, they can plant the case in a pot and it will grow different plants. It was decided that we would sell a biodegradable phone case made out of PLA (Polylactic Acid). It would have a wooden back panel to add an extra layer of protection for the phone. With the phone case, we would provide four colored paper seed inserts to give the user more customization of their phone case. In each paper insert, there was a different kind of seed, which was either flower, vegetable, or an herb.
After several iterations of both branding and product development, the phone case was named Seed. The team and I wanted the product to have a clear purpose to it and to have that purpose clearly told to the consumer. Seed is a single phone case with four different colored paper seed inserts. The paper inserts could be changed at any point in time, but it was our intention to have the user change and plant the paper insert every season with the final paper insert being planted with the phone case itself. After several iterations of both branding and product development, the phone case was named Seed. The team and I wanted the product to have a clear purpose to it and to have that purpose clearly told to the consumer. Seed is a single phone case with four different colored paper seed inserts. The paper inserts could be changed at any point in time, but it was our intention to have the user change and plant the paper insert every season with the final paper insert being planted with the phone case itself.
The final deliverables for this project are a project poster, a demo video (coming soon), and a project brief that can be used by those who want to continue working on a project to make it a fully functioning product.
Project Brief can be provided upon request.
