"food and the future of it" newer projects older projects other about blog links

The Peasley Society This was a group project with Roberto Christen, and Chao Wang while at the Umea Institute of Design for the Interactive Institute's SWITCH! project. We were asked to produce design interventions to help people think about their energy use. Our final solution was in the invention of a fictional society named after its founder, Jamie Peasley. Peasley's energy awareness products aren't functional and many of them were failures, but it was our hope that people remember the fiction. Below is a movie that we made to help describe The Peasley Society. Much of the graphic design in this is by Roberto, and the soundtrack is composed by myself. Wind Pencils are pencils that are actually physically attached to windmills from around the world. They are left there for a period of time, then harvested and sold. When people use them they think about green energy. These were one of Peasley's later and more successful launches, thanks in part to a lot of celebrity endorsements. Like aged cheese, wine, or scotch, wind pencils get better with time. Unlike Wind Pencils, Sputnik Plasticware was not a successful launch for The Peasley Society thanks to their awkward design, and difficulty in eating with them. The antennae on the ends were meant to be broken off in electrical sockets, rendering the sockets useless and plugged up. The hole on the spoon was meant to house a clove of garlic, so every bite you ate could have a little bit more flavor, this ended up being the inspiration for my flavor spoon. The Green Flash was a moderate success for TPS. It was meant to be the last incandescent bulb that a person would buy. Inside of the bulb, there was a second filiment that would burn a brilliant green for a short period of time after the main filiment burned out. This green flash would be a signal people would remember as their last time using an incandescent bulb. Apart from the Peasley product launches, there was a pdf made which highlighted the process of The Peasley Society. This manifesto can be found here. Peasley realized early on that endorsements from celebrities go a long way for any new movement or product. Alec Baldwin was one of his biggest supporters. I designed a logo for Alec and his brothers above. Below is a chain letter sent to try and get people to think about their energy use. Some screen captures of the books that Peasley wrote. "Outer Space, Inner Brain" and "Participatory Sociology". Special thanks to my teammates on this project, everybody worked hard and in the end it turned out to be one of the best times I've ever had working with a team for an open project like this.

© All projects copyright 2010 Matt Brown