What do you make?

Charlene Lam‘s story-telling at the IDEO Make-A-Thon reunion last week was really entertaining. Her talks allowed me to reminisce and make me think back to my ‘making days’.

Charlene is a creative who works with materials and textiles. Her company Creative Clerkenwell looks to connect creatives in London and will feature at the Clerkenwell Design Week in May. Charlene told a great story of the things she makes. Meet the ‘operation red rabbit‘:’To celebrate the Year of the Rabbit, a warren of red rabbits were made from papier mache and placed around the streets of East London’.

Charlene’s story telling inspired me to question what I make…

When I was about 9 years old my dad bought me a hot glue gun. Accompanied by a scalpel and balsa wood, I used to enjoy making structures and boxes. They weren’t anything in particular but I loved it. My dad enjoyed encouraging my creativity and I loved making things – it was a win-win!

A number of years later, I took the then called ‘CDT’ craft, design, technology A Level
and discovered the wood work and silversmith workshops. I’d find any excuse to turn objects on the lathe or make pieces of jewelry.

Then I went to university and built on all these skills by discovering the soldering iron. It’s amazing what you can create by soldering an electronic circuit board together…! I designed the ‘anti-theft handbag‘, a biometric handbag which only opens when the correct finger is scanned. I thrived on making prototypes and models.

One theme I have carried through all my life is enjoying making birthday cards, wrapping paper out of old paper and making purses or small bags to hold objects. Give me an old piece of card, scrap material or unusual packaging and I can guarantee it will be kept for a rainy day.

When I graduated from my undergraduate degree, however, I moved into London and no longer had the space for much model making or workshop equipment. Life changed too and London had lots to offer and plenty of places to explore. My interests also change slightly. I became very interested in sustainability and reusing objects. It was Victor Papanek’s ‘The Green Imperative‘ that changed my view on ‘life’. I started to view objects and consumerism in a different way and set myself the challenge of not buying new clothes for a year. I found this remarkably easy and I got a real kick out of rediscovering my wardrobe again.

So, this is where my ‘I make….’ story comes in.

I (like to) make old clothes comes to life. Not buying new clothes did nonetheless mean I could continue indulging in my love of buying from charity and vintage clothes shops. There’s something really exciting about knowing that a piece of clothing has a story behind it, is cheaper than its original price and has potentially been saved from landfill. The only problem is that most people are turned off buying second hand because of the smell, it may not fit properly or more often than not, hasn’t been displayed in a way that they can relate to.

Talking of clothing with history, DoTheGreenThing recently created Glove Love ‘an initiative where we take lonely single gloves that have lost their original partners, wash them and then pair them with brand new glove lovers’. The best bit about buying the gloves is the lovely message that comes with them. Each pair of gloves is tagged telling you a story of where they were found. Seriously, it’s worth £5 to just read the story (and to have an odd pair of gloves with a Do The Green Thing label on them).

I don’t often find a garment of clothing fits perfectly but that’s where a pair of scissors, needle and thread and accessories come in handy. I wish I had taken “before and after” photos of some of my creations but instead will have to list them out and hope you can use your imagination.

- The ugly 70s dress that ended mid calf: 15cm off the length gave it a new lease of life.
- The shoulder padded ‘Dynasty’ dress: removing of the shoulder pads and a brooch made it this season.
- The 80s pencil skirt: a tuck in the top made it sit higher and therefore more flattering.
- The black, sleeveless, moth eaten, shapeless dress: stitching up of the holes and a retro belt transformed it.
- The boring tweed jacket: now with red button holes made it this seasons must have.

Sometimes a new belt, change of length, additional stitching or different combination of accessories can transform an outfit. Trust me, it’s very satisfying when people ask where an outfit is from and the answer is ‘part charity shop, part old garment, part hand-me-down’.

I worked on a project a couple of years ago which is very relevant to this love of making old clothing come to life. In collaboration with [re]design, we took ‘Chalky Van’, the chip-fat-powered-chalkboard VW van to the Vintage Festival at Goodwood. I facilitated a few engaging sessions with the festival goers around the reuse of clothing. The most insightful was when I placed a nasty old shirt on the van and asked people what they would do to give it a second life. People of all ages came to write or draw their answer on the van.

Some of the best responses that really touched me were:
‘use the buttons as eyes for my puppet’ – girl aged approximately 6 years old.
‘blow my nose on it’ – man aged approximately 50 years old.
‘tie a belt around it and wear it with my tapered chinos’ – girl aged approximately 25 years old
‘make a scarecrow’ man aged approximately 30 years old.

I’m clearly not the only person who sees the value in an old piece of clothing!

Making old clothes come to life is a passion I have. I will never have a fashion label from it, nor will most people ever realise the story behind my wardrobe but it does make me happy knowing that I wear second hand clothing. Keeping spare buttons, boxes of material and never throwing away clothes my infuriate my boyfriend but that’s the designer in me….! Forever curious about what I can get my hands on next and adapt.

‘Grouple’ & The Living Well with Dementia launch

Grouple is a ‘collaborative caring’ tool I have been working on for the last 5 months with a team of designers. Supported by the Design Council in conjuncation with the Department of Health, Grouple is one of five projects aimed to help people live better with dementia.

The Design Council run a series of challenges.  To find out more about this challenges and the others, please visit their website.

Thursday 26th April was the launch event for the projects at the Design Council and what a fantastic event it was! Each project had its own area to display their work and Paul Burstow, Minister Of State for Care Services came along to provide an opening speech.

The room was full of dementia experts, all eager to hear about the projects and understand how design can play a role in helping people live better with dementia.

The Design Council had created a series of displays explaining the role of design and importance it plays in social projects. The key words were ‘human centred’, ‘visual’, ‘iterative’ and ‘collaborative’. These words are essential parts of the design process – the end user must be the main focus at all times, the design needs to be appealing and easy to understand, the design has to evolve from learnings over time and being open to a others ideas and suggestions throughout means your end result is more likely to be a success.

There was something special about the reflection of the word ‘collaborative’ on the floor to reinforce the message!

The Projects
Dementia Dogs have designed a blue print for training ‘career change’ guide dogs to become help for people with dementia, Buddi have designed a prototype wrist band to prevent people with dementia from wandering, Trading Times have designed a service for helping primary carers find appropriate work while caring and Ode have designed a prototype scent timer to encourage people with dementia to enhance their appetite.

The five teams had 3 minutes to stand up and explain what their project was about. It was a great way to gain a concise understanding of the challenges each team decided to face and their outcome.

Project Grouple
Grouple is a caring and sharing tool for families living with dementia.

The aim is to relieve the isolation and stress of the primary carer by sharing care, extending the family network and encouraging others to become involved. Based on a timeline, the family can post events, view other people’s events, spot patterns over time and plan for the future. The idea is to encourage families to discuss dementia to reduce the stigma, support each other through out difficult times and remember the good times.

We have a working prototype which four families are currently testing and we are now looking for more families to test the site to enable us to develop the system into a public beta for the end of the year.

Valuable insights have been appearing from families using the system. Patterns have been forming, communication has been improving and stories of engagement have shown through.

There are 670,000 primary carers in the UK  who all help to save the NHS £8billion! These carers need support and we really believe that our system is a valuable tool to help.

We are currently looking for partners, organisations to collaborative with and people who can help us scale the prototype and get it to market!

There is an explanitory animated video on the Grouple website with a feedback section and a place to leave your details if you’re interested in finding out more or joining us on our journey. You can also help raise awareness by following us on Twitter @GroupleCC

WhyNotAssociates have created a series of films to explain the challenge and projects which can be seen on the dedicated Living Well With Dementia website.

Thank you to everyone that came to the launch and the exhibition.

IDEO London host a story-telling evening

IDEO London hosted a really inspiring reunion for the Make-A-Thon event back in February. The theme of the evening was story-telling and of course, in true IDEO style, there was story-telling and more.

First up was Brendan Dawes talking about Popa, the iPhone camera button. Such a heart felt journey of a fun idea to create an attachment to turn your iPhone into a cool camera.

Brendan travelled miles, experienced the power of twitter, went through highs and lows but in the end has produced an amazing Kickstarter ‘tech gadget’ as a one man band. I am now, even more than before, inspired to start a crowd funded project…My only complaint is that I want one and have to wait for the next batch @brendandawes

Then we heard from Jeremy Innes-Hopkins who had me engaged when his talk about having the opportunity to design a phone for Nokia demonstrated how a vibrating phone sounds different on different materials.  Inspired by the Nokia 7110 phone in The Matrix movie which activated at the click of a button to an opening facia, Jeremy’s prototype was a playful phone which flipped up 90 degrees when it rung. Unfortunately Nokia snubbed Jeremy’s prototype which was a silly move considering Jeremy’s design was receiving more hits (on his website) than Nokia were with their latest phone launch…! @JeremyIH

Haiyan took us through the incredible story of how she created an online Geigermap which became a phenomom in Japan. She wanted to use the uninspiring, hard to interpret data produced by the government into a visually useful and easy to use, informative map. The power of crowd sourcing proved incredible and although it needs close monitoring at times, shows that a single idea can scale and escalate beyond your initial idea. Haiyan went out to Japan and met people who now rely on her map to understand radiation levels in and around Japan. Heart warming. @Haiyan

Ben Redford intrigued us with his story of Olly and Polly finding love.

Tasked with the job of designing a tangible output for a digital input, Ben told the story of prototyping devices that produce a smell when a tweet is received. Ben showed images of excellent prototypes which consisted of Pringle crisp packets and Magic trees through to ‘at home’ injection mouldings. Demonstrating a working prototype of Polly, the bubble gum spitting robot was priceless! She turns your tweets into sweets. @bredford2

Fergus Doyle told his story while standing on a kite board. Although the story was about him teaching people how to kiteboard, the underlying message was about people’s habits. It resonates well with a previous post I wrote about how we are creatures of habit. You can assume people will do something because everyone else has done it in the past but there will always be one person who acts out of character because of a habit they are use to. In this case, Fergus found himself running fast after a new kite boarder who was used to being on a snow board and bombed off in a different direction! @junkafarian

During the break we had a team challenge to build the tallest tower out of spaghetti, masking tape, string and a marshmallow on top. I heard there was a prize for the most daring tower which we, unfortunately attempted, and failed.

Tom Hulme led his talk in by reinforcing the importance of prototyping, testing, prototyping, making. Apparently MBA students will always agonise over the process and drop the marshallow on the top at the very last minute. Their average height is 20cm. While kindergarten kids will build a bit, test it and build again taking the marshmallow up and up. Their average is 30cm. This TED talk on the subject by Tom Wujec is well worth a watch.

Tom gave us all a piece of paper and tasked us to work out how you could insert an inflatable rubber ring through a small hole to fit around your heart. After a few shout outs, Tom explained how he was playing around in class one day trying to work this problem out. He came up with the answer of creating folds all the way around the ring to reduce the diameter of the ring to the size of the hole it needed to go through. From playing around in class to work out how to solve the challenge, Tom now has his name on a Coronary Heart Disease instrument patent. @thulme

Jude Pullen, the very talented cardboard engineer showed images of a dinosaur model he made as a kid and of his excellent Sponge Bob outfit for his work Christmas Party.

I have never seen cardboard used so creatively. His love for cardboard engineering was shown off when he passed around small structures he had made which demonstrated how perfect curves and unusual shapes can be created. He was inspired by the website ‘sketch a day‘ and decided to create a set of YouTube videos which shows others how to make these structures themselves. Thanks for sharing your skill with others, Jude. @Jude_Pullen

Last but not least was Charlene, the new Yorker who came to London knowing only that she wanted to do something creative. When Charlene heard the term ‘designer maker’ she felt she had found her destined job title. Then faced with the question of ‘what do you make?’ Charlene had to question herself but luckily did not give up on her love to create things. She took us through a wonderful story of playful, creative and unusual objects which she had made and will promote making at the Clerkenwell Design Week this May. Check out the lovely imagery of her making – the po-tatoe is well worth a look. @CClerkenwell

Charlene really got me thinking about what I make. My first reaction was ‘I used to make lots of things’. That was when I had space, a loyal glue gun, soldering iron and spare time. But the more I think, the more I realise I do make things, they just use different skills and are focused around different things these days. The next blog post will focus on Louise and making!  Thanks for the inspiration, Charlene, it is so valuable to question yourself from time to time.

My take-aways from the evening were -

• Persevere: if you have an idea, a dream, a passion, you can make it happen. Be prepared for ups and downs and an interesting journey. Be playful, make things, sketch ideas and talk to people.  You’ll learn more than you thought from all of your experiences.

• Look around you: what do you need to make your idea happen? I bet if you take a step back and reflect on what you’re trying to achieve that the answer will appear. A ‘normal’ journey is unheard of when you hear stories of success.

• Question yourself: is what you’ve set out to achieve what you want or is that simply your starting point? Why can’t you do something different? Terminology can be twisted to suit anything.

• Think ‘now’ then multiple that: remember that an idea may start off small but the power of the Internet and social networking can scale it within minutes. Be ready…

• Ask yourself who’s in your team?: you may begin on a journey with only a few people in mind but if the idea is good, your ‘team’ of stakeholders and end users will grow. Make sure you acknowledge them and take them on the journey will you.

When’s the next event?

Feeding 5000 in Trafalgar Square

They say there is no such thing as a free lunch but the Feeding 5K event in Trafalgar Square on 18th November got pretty close!

The very inspiring ‘Feed bellies, not bins’ banner created the perfect backdrop for the event.

The event was organised by Tristram Stuart, (the author of the acclaimed book ‘Waste‘) to raise awareness and to promote the activities of the partner charities; FareShare, Love Food Hate Waste, Recycle for London, Friends of the Earth, FoodCycle and School Food Matters – using only ingredients that otherwise would have been wasted, the aim was to provide a free lunch for over 5000 people.

Having seen plenty of posts about the event on Twitter, I had to go down to see what it was all about. It also helped that it was a beautiful, sunny afternoon which made it a lovely way to spend a lunch time.

Trafalgar Square was buzzing. There were large stages where cooking demonstrations were taking place, there were boxes of vegetables being given out, there were animals to stroke and there was food to eat and drinks to enjoy. The food was delicious and the demonstrations very entertaining and informative.

It was good to see a wide variety of food being cooked – soup, vegetable curry and pigs cheek were the few things I saw (and had the option to try). Although I’m a vegetarian it was good to see people being encouraged to cook pigs cheek to be a delicious food instead of it being discarded which is so often the case.

People need educating about food waste. The fact that an estimated 20 million tonnes of food wasted in Britain from the plough to the plate shows that we still do not understand the issue or do not know how to deal with it.

Supermarkets will not always accept fruit and vegetables unless they are perfectly formed, sell by dates are used which makes people throw food away before it’s actually too old to eat and people still buy more food than they need. Not only are there starving people in the world but the environment is being harmed by the CO2 emissions created when it is disposed of. There were boxes of ‘wonky’ carrots being given away, people making apple juice from excess apples and vegetable curry from a whole variety of delicious vegetables.

My favourite part of the event was not only seeing many of The People’s Kitchen volunteers helping out but also a family who were walking around eating raw vegetables; the mother had a fennel in her mouth, one kid had a red pepper in her mouth and the other kid had a carrot in his mouth. That’s the attitude, I just wish I had captured the moment on camera!

I left the event with a very full stomach and a pocket full of chillies….

Grouple – the collaborative caring & sharing tool for families living with dementia

The following video was used to describe the idea which was submitted for the Design Council’s Living Well With Dementia challenge.

The fantastic news is that the idea was chosen for funding so that a working prototype can be developed over the next few months.

We (a team of 5 multi-disciplinary designers) are now busy researching and developing the idea to fine tune it and make sure we have captured all the elements to make it a successful tool.

If you are caring for someone with dementia or have comments on the concept, please feel free to give as much feedback as you would like. I’ll be posting updates as the project develops….

Caring for someone with dementia – a novice’s insights

I’ve recently been carrying out research into dementia – the huge, overwhelming topic that most people tend to steer away from because it’s so vast and not particularly fun! It is however incredibly interesting and important that more people become aware and understand the disease (yes, it’s a disease, not a condition); these shocking statistics are taken from the Alzheimer’s Society website:

• There are currently about 750,000 people in the UK with a form of dementia
• There are over 16,000 people under 65 with dementia in the UK
• One in 14 people over 65 years of age and one in six people over 80 years of age has a form of dementia

The point of the research was to be able to enter the Design Council ‘Living Well With Dementia’ challenge – something I did with a team of multidisciplinary designers to help make caring for someone with dementia a more manageable and collaborative experience.

The best way I could gain a deeper understanding of what it can be like to care for someone with dementia was to speak to as many people as possible, do as much desk research as I could, visit care homes, remember visits to my great grandmother as a child and read, read, read.

It was recommended I read the book ‘Keeper – a book about memory, identity, isolation, wordsworth and cake’ by Andrea Gillies. It was sad in parts. Really sad. But fun and enlightening in others. Gillies writes about a lady who cares for her mother in law (and father in law) who is suffering with dementia. They move to a Scottish village with the view to running a bed and breakfast in the country side while caring for her husband’s parents (and running her family). The lady struggles, gets frustrated, feels isolated, tries different tactics, looks for help and questions her actions a great deal. I highly recommend anyone to read the book – it’s incredibly well written. The book is very insightful and helps someone, like me, who hasn’t cared for someone with dementia to start to understand what a challenging and personal experience it is.

The following points are what I have learnt about living with dementia over the last three months. I am nowhere near an expert but have learnt a great deal.

Living with dementia is about:

• understanding the patient
• being prepared for changeability and feeling like a stranger
• living with guilt, longevity and unpredictability

When someone is diagnosed with dementia, they may have the ‘classic’ signs of losing their memory and getting confused but it is clear that every patient is different. It can also take months if not years to get a straight diagnosis. It is also a disease that develops over a long period (anything from 2 years to 25 years) and while some people are able to look after themselves for a number of years, others require help early on. This makes planning for the future very difficult. If someone appears to be able to cope alone, planning for the future is a tough subject for a carer to bring up with the patient. It is essential that bank accounts, housing etc are thought about for when the patient begins to forget the essential elements to everyday life. Keeping a journal is recommended to remind the patient (and carer) of events and key dates in the future and finding ways to jog the memory to remember comforting scenarios is often beneficial.

Carers have noticed sufferers have changes in mood; aggression leading on from frustration and anger towards the carer when the patient is confused as to who they are. It is very sad to hear stories of carers being seen as intruders and often being accused of stealing from the patient. People diagnosed as having dementia have good and bad days. The people living around the patient need to be aware of these and not take the mood swings personally even if this is easier said than done! Keeper describes situations where the patient is very affectionate to her grandson one minute and then accuses him of being a nasty little boy the next.

People with dementia often have moments of clarity which can help them deal with a situation or confuse them even more. What should a carer believe or put down to the disease? I have read many accounts where a carer isn’t sure how to deal with a situation. They do not understand how the patient is feeling and in turn feel guilty that they do not understand the disease better. There are plenty of sources of information online, forums to join and organisations set up to help people living with dementia but it is very much a personal journey that a carer and patient go through. Dementia can leave a carer feeling very isolated.

The more I learn about dementia, the more I keep relating it to babies and toddlers – expect in reverse years. A baby needs full time care and support from feeding to sleeping and a toddler understands some things but still needs full time care. A patient with dementia will go from understanding most things to needing help brushing their teeth towards the end of the illness. This can be a painful experience for people close to the patient which is where a carer who is not related to the patient often finds caring easier. Non-related carers are able to treat the patient as they are and not get emotionally involved. They don’t feel the need to justify actions or reason with situations.

I have heard a number of accounts where families have tried to keep the patient in their own home for as long as possible. Moving a dementia patient into a care home is a good decision to make sure they are looked after properly but can be very disorienting for the patient. Unsettling the patient is not only hard for them but hard for the family to witness. The patient is more likely to remember past stories from their earlier life than recent stories and because of that, keeping the patient in their familiar surroundings can help trigger the memory. Research is currently being done into creating environments that trigger a time in their lives that was most influential to them. The aim is to give the patients a sense of place.

To sum up my learning’s:

• it is obvious that no one patient is the same
• families find it incredibly hard to care for a loved one and see their health deteriorate (especially as there is no cure),
• planning for the future is essential but difficult to do successfully and
• carers find it hard to make time for themselves when the disease is in its later stages.

• When no one patient is the same it’s hard to know what to expect.
• When caring for a loved one becomes hard the carer is prone to stress.
• When planning for the future is difficult, the carer needs a simple way to make this possible.
• When a carer is finding it hard to make time for themselves they can feel very isolated or guilty.

The good news is that the National Dementia Strategy has been developed to provide a framework to deliver quality improvements, provide advice, planning and guidance. And the Design Council and Department of Health ‘Living Well with Dementia’ challenge is a fantastic example of encouraging designers to be creative in helping to improve the situation.

Sustainable business models: Green Growth Business Boot Camp

I was invited to take part in a panel at Kingston University for their Green Growth, Business BootCamp. The aim of the sessions is to address the increasing need to develop environmentally more friendly products and services and help enterprises & entrepreneurs make the most of the opportunities created by increasing consumer demand, resource costs, and regulatory controls in the eco-field.

The second event in the series was looking at sustainable business models and innovation; What business models are available, and how can they be introduced? What are the elements of a business model?

The panel session included myself talking about Ecoinomy – the behaviour change company who motivate employees to use less energy in the workplace, GoCarShare – helping people car share by hiring out the spare seats in their car and Makers – connecting designers, manufacturers and retailers with the very best UK manufacturers.

All three companies have strong values, focus on a sustainable business model and have society and the environment in mind.

• I discussed how Ecoinomy have had to approach different stakeholders in different ways to explain the value of the system and about the importance of using the correct language to engage with people. The business model relies on direct cost savings being made; the system produces opportunities to reduce energy consumption, opportunities to motivate employees and ways to change general office behaviour – we call this a win-win-win system – the environment gains by CO2 emissions being reduced, the economy gains by people being efficient and using less and society gains by employees forming community groups to save money for a local cause of their choice.

• goCarShare encourages people to think about sharing car journeys to help reduce the number of empty seats on the road (and in turn reduce the amount of CO2 and pollution) and help share costs. Drummond Gilbert (founder of goCarShare) opened by saying that he learnt there are 38 million empty car seats in Britain everyday and he wanted to do something about it. Based on a Collaborative Consumption model which uses swapping, sharing, bartering, trading and renting to create business, goCarShare rents car seats on journeys. The environment gains because there are potentially less cars on the road which means reduced emissions, the economy gains because the driver gets help with petrol costs and society gains because….well, I car shared once with Craigs List in California and had a great experience. Whether it’s a case of having help stay awake, potentially sharing the driving or just enjoying the company, car sharing is a great way to change attitudes to the way we use our cars. goCarShare had a lucky break last summer when they partnered with UK music festivals to encourage festival goers to share the driving to the events. The Secret Garden Party even taxed people who had empty seats in the their cars!

• Chris Pett of Makers discussed how important it is to make the designer the heart of any manufacturing process to add value to the end result. Keen so use local materials and a sustainable supply chain, Makers turn sketches and prototypes into real products making sure that the product has not travelled miles to the end user but made the product where the end user is – while making sure their products are tested to international standards. The right supply chain and pricing is as important as the look and function: Makers’ design service is focused on producing commercially viable designs ready for manufacture. Our design clients can also use the Makers production service to produce the finished product.

After the panel discussion we answered questions from the audience. This is what I took away and hope everyone will remember when developing their sustainable businesses:

Do you believe in what you do? It is essential to believe 100% in what you are trying to achieve. The ‘green’ and ‘eco’ world can be a tough place to succeed in if you want to quickly prove that you are sustainable. You must persevere, be articulate and not let people put doubts in your mind.

How are you adding value for the end user? You need to remember that although you believe in your business, service or product, you still need to think about why the end user will use it. Whether you are changing behaviours in the workplace, offering a sustainable supply chain or helping provide cheap car journeys, you need be clear what makes you different to your competition.

How do you explain what you do? Not everyone will understand the language you use to describe your business. You probably talk to like-minded people most of the time but there will always be people who either don’t want to understand or who are unfamiliar with eco focussed business. Think about changing the language you use to target the person you are talking to if you want to engage with them.

How many times have you written your business plan? It’s important to have a business plan that you are happy with but it’s also important to not be afraid to veer away from it. If an opportunity comes along to collaborate with others, partner with another business or change your model, then do it if it feels right. With the changing economy and people becoming more environmentally conscious, it is sometimes worth being ready to change your business if it will help you reach your end goal quicker.

Who did you last speak to about your business? Networking is essential. You never know who you might meet who could help you and your business. Not only at networking events or conferences but everyday! A small link may lead you to a large connection which could open doors and even raise your profile considerably.

The Green Growth events is a great series for entrepreneurs wanting to be exposed to ways to succeed in business. Next week the session is looking at marketing. I hope everyone that attended the series is able to go away and set up one of the next successful eco-businesses.

100s of bicycles take over the streets of London

Ever wondered what Critical Mass is or why the streets of central London are distrupted on the last Friday of each month? Check out the video I edited together, filmed straight from the handle bars of my Brompton!

Some people take part to reclaim the streets, others take part to protest against cars on the roads. Whatever your reason, there’s nothing like cycling along with hundreds of other cyclists on a warm, September evening!

Using the sun to charge a mobile phone

I’m not sure if I was more excited to have a beautiful sunny weekend in London because of the opportunity to be outside or because it meant I could test out the Freeloader, solar charger I was lent!? Made by Solar Technology International, the charger looks very cool – small, sleek with brushed aluminium finish which I, as a designer find appealing. It is also very easy to use; you pull sides apart and push the solar panels into the sides of the main body, place it in the sunshine and watch the flashing display show that the charger is charging.

The website makes the device look like a gadget everyone should have but does it work? After excitedly putting a message on Twitter saying I was going to test the charger out for the weekend, I received a number of negative reactions all implying the device didn’t work. Not wanting to believe that solar power charging isn’t effective, I set myself the challenge of charging my iPhone 4 (purely using solar energy) over the weekend and this is what I discovered!

The device is very convenient to carry around (it weighs hardly anything which is a real plus point) so I took the charger out for brunch and left it on the table to charge, took it to the park and left it in the bright sunlight and finally left it for another hour on my balcony in direct access to plenty of sunlight.

I realised that after a day of charging (probably about 4 hours on and off) I only had 2 bars of power displaying on the charger screen. Slightly disappointed, I decided to try charging my phone anyway and I literally managed about 15minutes of charging before the solar charger ran out of charge!

I realised I should probably read the user manual and look at the specification to see if I was doing something wrong. Surely for the cost of £32 and for the wide range of electronic products it charges, the device must be worth having and I must be doing something wrong.

I downloaded the specifications from the pdf booklet:

Electrical Characteristics / Performance
1. Solar Panel (mono/multi crystalline): 5.5V 150mA
2. Rechargeable Lithium Battery:
3.7V 1200mAh 3. USB charging cable: 5V 500mA
4. DC Output: 5.5V+/– 0.5% 500mA
5. Time required to deliver power from Freeloader Classic: 30 minutes to 2 hours
6. Time required to charge the FreeLoader Classic internal battery using the USB charge cable: 3 to 4 hours
7. Time required to charge the FreeLoader Classic internal battery in sunny conditions using the solar panels: 5 to 10 hours
Note – light quality plays a key role in determining the speed of charge. Cloudy days or the Freeloader Classic being positioned behind a glass window will all increase the time needed to charge its battery.

It’s clear that I needed to charge the Freeloader for between 5-10 hours (when in the UK do you ever get 5-10 hours of bright sunlight?) which is rather annoying. If you thenread on to the FAQ this is written:

If Freeloader Classic is connected to a device that has a near full battery (if for example you were testing Freeloader Classic from new), Freeloader Classic would, potentially, not deliver power because if the battery in the device has more or equal power than the Freeloader Classic, Freeloader Classic will not be able to deliver power. Wait until the device to be charged is 50% to 60% full

and

After 1 day in full sun (9am to 6pm) the Freeloader Classic hub will be pretty much fully charged. When connected to your device it will deliver power for 30minutes to 2hours depending on the device.

I feel that 30 minutes – 2 hours is a large time frame and I wonder if 2 hours would really charge my iPhone to full power anyway? Check out Justin Horn’s charging time test of the iPhone.

As much as I LOVE the idea of using the sun to power my telephone, I do wonder if I could successful use the Freeloader to charge my phone on a regular basis. I do also have to question the actual energy used to manufacter the Freeloader in the first place. Does anyone know what the carbon footprint of the device is?

Considering devices like the iPhone (the Freeloader is suggested for use with iPads, Blackberrys and iPods) use very little energy to be charged, I think I will stick to my iPhone charger as the cable and plug are small, light weight, come with the phone and using that bit of kit it only takes just over an hour to charge my phone from the mains supply.

Sorry but the Freeloader is going back to where it came from. If, however you have a different experience, I’d love to hear from you!

I’m not saying I won’t ever try and make my own one though! The instructables ‘MightyMintyBoosh‘ looks amazing!

Peckham is a real community

When I tell people I live in Peckham, I am often faced with the question ‘why?’  Known for being the home of ‘Trotters Independent Traders’ from the tv show Only Fools and Horses and the place where Damilola Taylor was murdered, I can understand the question but it’s clear whoever asks hasn’t visited!

It’s a very creative neighbourhood with Camberwell College of Art and Goldsmith College close by, the South London Gallery and numerous art projects – Frank’s cafe, the pop-up Campari bar on the NCP carpark is a great example of the creative projects happening in the neighbourhood.

Peckham was hit by the sad events of the London Riots – shops were vandalised and a shop and bus were set on fire.

Photo from The Guardian website

The riots were heartbreaking, sad and scary but over the last couple of days an even stronger sense of community has emerged. Peckham clearly has such a strong sense of togetherness that people have turned the Poundland boarded up window into a place to stick post-it notes of their feelings.

I went down to have a look to see what messages people were putting up. It had drawn a crowd of people reading what the community had to say and it has turned into a real piece of artwork. Peckham felt colourful, full of life and meaningful. The following messages really stuck out:

‘Peckham is home’
‘I love Peckham. I hate rioters’
‘Need discipline’
‘Community, don’t do it’
‘Crime doesn’t pay’
‘Burger King will reopen and you are barred’

These messages are important, not only for people to get their feelings across to others but to strengthen the community, make the rioters realise that the critical mass of poeple is made up of people wanting to live in a pleasant place, that if we empower people to make a difference we can live in happiness. The riot clean up was amazing, I wish I could taken part to help clean up after the riots – I would say I’ll be there next time but my hope is that this community won’t allow this to happen again.

Message being written on post-riot board, Peckham