The Process Workshop: See Green!

OK, so apologies for my recent online absence, I’m afraid my GDF project got the better of me…

Anyway, I know it was WEEKS ago, but I realized I never actually published my post on the Process workshop, so here it is…:

I found the Process Workshop really inspiring and useful for generating original, interesting ideas and releasing creative potential. In our Green AM group we were exploring concepts for a TV Advert for a Media company, which communicated the message of ‘Being Greener’ to people who have just moved to the UK. My particular group were considering the platform of the TV advert and how to re-imagine the format to better engage with the audience. Our dominant ideas about TV adverts included:

• On TV
• Short
• Viewer is passive
• Usually coercing viewer into parting with their money
• Between programmes
• Celebrity endorsement
• Clear Message
• Branding

As part of our concept challenge stage we generated many ideas that looked at taking the advert out of the TV and into the viewer’s living room, or making the viewer the subject of the advert.


To step-stone this to a design for the real world we began considering engaging the viewer using 3D, thereby making the viewer an active participant in the advert. This developed into an idea of giving viewers Green-tinted glasses which would allow them to see a hidden message in the advert, perhaps a code to get a discount on or a free product, (a step-stone idea from challenging the ‘coercing the viewer to part with their money’ concept) and also encouraging the viewer to start seeing the world from a green perspective. In the session, Darren raised the question of whether it would be possible to produce a lot of disposable green glasses that would adhere to the message of being greener. I used this as a starting point to look into how viable the green-tinted glasses campaign would be…

I started with a little follow-up research into how possible a hidden message in a TV advert would be…

In terms of the hidden message and the reveal, it seems relatively simple using a ‘red reveal’ method, that is, using coloured plastic filters to unscramble messages printed [or broadcast] in colour. These filters are usually orange or red but it is also possible to have blue reveal or green reveal. When the filter is placed over the message panel or “red reveal” glasses are worn you can clearly see the message from the jumbled pattern that makes up the artwork.


So, it seems a hidden message in a TV advert is doable…In terms of the plastic for the green film for the ‘lenses’ of the green glasses, an article in the metro caught my eye regarding a plastic coat made from potatoes, which contained seeds, so once the coat was finished with it could be planted and would decompose and germinate a new plant.

This got me thinking about bioplastics and biodegradable plastics, and so I did a little research into plastics made from corn and potato starch which usually degrade in water. I discovered that the reason bioplastics and biodegradable plastics are not commonly used at present is because they are more expensive that petroleum based plastics. So perhaps, at present, bioplastics would not be viable…? But then I set about thinking where else you could save costs, and started looking at the paper/card that would make the frames of the glasses…

My first stop for ideas regarding card/paper sources that would have a minimal impact on the environment and perhaps save money was sustainable design agency Thomas Matthews (see post below ‘One Tremendous Beginning’).

One of the ways Thomas Matthews keep to their aim of sustainable design is by using waste ‘make-ready sheets’ (Make-ready is the paper that a printer puts through their printing press while they adjust it – i.e. ‘make-it- ready’ for printing a job. They run the same sheets through again and again, then eventually recycle them - TM asked the printer to save a few days’ worth rather than recycle them. Their publication could then be printed on the reverse (plain) side, using vegetable based inks that are kinder to the environment…

Of course it requires further research, but perhaps the costs saved in purchasing paper/card for the glasses/flyers would offset the slightly higher cost of the bioplastics…

On the back of these ideas I came up with an idea for a flyer made from waste ‘make-ready’ sheets that incorporated a press-out green ‘spy-glass’ (which would halve the amount of plastic needed for two-lens glasses) the lens of which would be made of a biodegadeable bioplastic. The flyer would publicize the TV advert and the free-gift/discount on the plain side and would also feature a bold ‘slogan’ message over the existing printed side, such as ‘See Green’. The TV advert itself would use a ‘Green Reveal’ to show some simple way of getting a discount/free product, and the glasses could also incorporate a pocket for a seed, encouraging the glasses to be buried which would encourage the plastic and paper to degrade, simultaneously germinating a new plant.

Obviously the concept requires further development and research into just how financially viable bioplastics would be, but as an initial concept relatively successful in achieving the aims of communicating the message of ‘being greener’ for a Media Company, and making the viewer an active participant in the TV advert...