The Bottlebag

The Little Inventors brief required us to go in to a school and meet children who came up with ideas for us to then go away and try to create. Product design is a bit out of my league, due to the fact that I am a Digital Film Production student, but I’m always up for a challenge and looked forward to see what I could try to achieve or create.

In our first session when meeting the Little Inventors team, we got into groups to collectively come up with a topic for our idea inventions. Our group came up with the topic of ‘Reducing plastic consumption’. Personally, I am strongly against the use of plastic, as I love the sea. My girlfriend owns an apartment in Mallorca which we go to numerous times each year, and it’s sad to see plastic waste washing up on the beautiful beaches. This is why I wanted to design something that can prevent the use of plastic. 

On our visit to the school where I met my little inventor Tacoby, I discussed with him ideas which we could create which involve cutting down the use of plastics. In all honesty Tacoby was quite a hard child to work with, but he came up with the idea of The BottleBag, a bottle with a bag attached to it which helps to save plastics in two ways. Looking back, I think maybe I could’ve tried to develop the idea more with him so that the design which I created at the end wasn’t so simplistic, which is some of the critical feedback that I received at the final exhibition.

Tacoby mentioned that he wanted a parachute on top of the bag and I feel I may have let him down with the final creation. As shown in my blog posts, I did experiment with making a parachute in the form of a bag but it simply didn’t work when testing the parachute and therefore I removed it. One of the Little Inventors team told me that “it doesn’t have to work” and that I should’ve left it on there. Maybe I should’ve communicated better with them to know that, and would’ve kept it on otherwise as it did look visually cool.

Reflecting back on this project I think I should’ve collaborated better with other students who study different things to me. I study film, but if I asked an Art student or Product Design student for advice for how to make The BottleBag better then I would’ve created a better design. My design was simplistic, and lacked creativity in my opinion. When I looked at my peers designs I think they probably put in a lot more effort than what I did, which makes me feel disappointed in a sense as I know that I could of done better. I did however use the aid of my girlfriend who is a great artist, and she helped me to draw the design that I wanted on the bottle, and made a stencil for me when I sprayed the paint on the bottle (which we ended up not using).

A lot of trial and error went in to the making of the BottleBag. I quickly found out that spray painting on to the bottle probably wasn’t the best of ideas. I ended up using a sharpie to draw on the design, but in the long term the sharpie would end up dissolving off the bottle. Maybe finding something longer-lasting would’v been something I could’ve done better.

When it came to the exhibition day I bought in a load of papers which I planned on sticking on to the A2 board, but it looked so unprofessional, and didn’t realise that we could print of using an A2 scanner - something I definitely should’ve asked for help with. I did however amend the poster by attaching two A3’s next to each other and it looked a whole lot better. The feedback I received for The BottleBag was mostly decent. I think people appreciated the simplicity of the BottleBag, and more importantly understood why it was created (to prevent the usage of plastics). In my opinion, sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. From a film maker’s perspective, the film ‘Green Book’ was about a black man and a white man going on a road trip in the Southern States of America. A simple idea, which won an Oscar for Best Picture. The BottleBag saves plastic usage, a simple idea made simply. By saying this I am in no way saying that my creation is the best at all as I know that my classmates made some exceptional designs, and I know that I could have dramatically improved my creation.

My assessors did say though that if I were to make it again I could get more creative and try to make a bottle which actually transforms into a bag, which Tacoby stated that he wanted The BottleBag to do. I could've also created some sort of film that demonstrated how the BottleBag works, as that field of creative art is more up my street. Perhaps a short stock motion film showing the creation of The BottleBag, or even showing the parachute in action. I took this feedback and advice on board, and I think they understood that this creation process was a bit out of my league due to the fact that I study film and not product design, but I know that I could’ve challenged myself even more to make this design even better. 

Overall I was content with the product which I made, but I know that with a bit more work and imagination I could’ve made it much better. I have enjoyed the challenge which the Little Inventors team set for us and I really like the concept and vision of the company. It encourages everyone to be creative and I love that very much.

Exhibition day! 

I took in my the BottleBag and stuck everything onto my A2 board. Unfortunately, the poster looked pretty whack and unprofessional to be honest. It was all black and white with no colour, and with everything stuck on using sellotape it just looked awful. Fortunately I had time to quickly remake the poster. To to this I printed out two A3 pieces of paper with the same information on them: why the BottleBag was created and how it works. I then put them on the A2 board which looked so much better.

The feedback I received was decent. I think people appreciated the simplicity of the BottleBag, and more importantly understood why it was created. In my opinion, sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. The BottleBag saves plastic usage, simple. My assessors did say though that if I were to make it again I could get more creative and try to make a bottle which actually transforms into a bag. I took this feedback on board, and I think they understood that this creation process was a bit out of my league due to the fact that I study film and not product design. However, I could've created some sort of film that demonstrated how the BottleBag works, as that field of creative art is more up my street. 

Overall I was content with the product which I made, but I know that with a bit more work and imagination I could've made it much better. I have enjoyed the challenge which Little Inventors set for us, and like the concept. It encourages creativity and I love that.

3 days until the exhibition! I have finalised the bottle. I have attached the bottle to the bag using velcro, and have drawn up a nice design on the bottle. The design is lots of fishes all over the bottle which resembles all of the sea creatures which are dying due to humans dumping tonnes of plastics into the ocean every day. I drew this design on using a sharpie pen, which is better than paint in many ways due to it not rubbing off very easy and you cant feel the texture on the bottle when you pick it up, unlike the paint which was horrible and sticky.

I have also created my poster which will be stuck onto an A2 board. On this poster I have explained what the BottleBag is and why we created it. I have also sketched a small storyboard to show how the BottleBag works. 

Looking forward to the exhibition on Monday!

Today I bought the new bottle. Another £3.  I have opted to not spray paint the bottle again, due to two reasons. One: The paint chips off too easily making the bottle look tacky and broken. Two: When the paint dries, when you pick up the bottle it feels very sticky and isn't nice to pick up. I'm currently thinking of a new design which I can put on the bottle, without the use of spray paint.

I have experimented with making the attachable bag parachute on top of the bottle which Tacoby said would be good to add. To do this, I have attached two pieces of velcro either side at the top of the bottle below the lid, and have put velcro on the bag handles to attach to the bottle. This will make the bag form into a parachute when air goes into it. 

I experimented by dropping the bottle (with bag parachute) from the top of my bedroom window onto the patio below. The bag did open into a parachute shape, however, it didn't act as a parachute and the bottle fell straight down onto the patio. I think due to the weight of the bottle it would be near impossible to create a small parachute which would work with this creation. I have taken the parachute off the bag, and will now just be the BottleBag.

Making the product. To start off I take the price tags and other stickers off the bottle. I scrub the sticky bits off using a scrub and hot water until the bottle is fully clean. I then attach the stencil onto the bottle and spray the whale shapes onto it. I wait for the paint to dry and take the stencil off. Unfortunately its doesn’t look good at all. I try to amend the design by washing off the paint in certain areas but it still looks pretty naff. I decide to paint the whole bottle blue instead to try to amend the design. When it dries it doesn’t look too bad, but I soon realise that the whole spray paint thing was a bad idea. Not only does it look rubbish, but it feels horrible when you pick it up as the paint sticks to your hand. It is now also very hard to attach the Velcro’s on. I will have to buy a new bottle and start again.

My girlfriend who is an artist has drawn out a stencil for the design which will be spray painted on to the bottle. We decided that whales spray painted in blue would be a nice design on the bottle.

I buy all the things I needed from my local town. Luckily they had all the things I needed in Wilkinson. I bought a 800ml bottle which is made from durable, impact-resistant materials (£3.00). Reusable carrier bag (£2.00). Blue spray paint (£4.00). Velcro Straps (£2.00).

I make a list of materials and things I will need to buy. A strong reusable bottle, good quality carrier bag, attachable Velcro straps and blue paint. I plan to attach the carrier bag to the bottle using the velcro strap, with the bag being able to fold into a small capsule which will be attached to the bottle. I will use the blue spray paint to make a nice design on the bottle. Still undecided on what the design will be.

I draw up and note down ideas of how I can make this bottle, including materials needed and other things that I will need. The bottle will need to be of decent quality and the bag will be a strong bag.

We went into the school in Erith. I was paired up with a child called Tacoby who was 8 years old. It was very hard to keep his attention for more than 2 minutes. He insisted that we built a time machine but I told him that time machines don’t prevent the use of plastic consumption.. I suggested the idea of making some sort of reusable bottle, in which he suggested that we make a bottle that has a reusable bag also attached to it, with an additional parachute on top.

We made posters to take in to the school revolving around the topic of ‘Reducing plastic consumption’, to show the kids why plastic is so bad and also on these posters was ways of reducing the amount of plastic we use.

First lecture. We got into groups to collectively come up with a topic for our idea inventions. Our group came up with the topic of ‘Reducing plastic consumption’.