The day started with a drive to Deeside, near Liverpool.

The Head office is an impressive building, and the people who work at Iceland true to brand are friendly, a great start, I was feeling a little nervous and questioning why I was invited, this has been labelled imposter syndrome in academic circles, Joanne Elsdon was with me, this added purpose to my visit, and its always good to have a champion.

During a conference, held to open the Coveris innovation centre in Leeds, of which I was invited by The retail institute, Leeds Beckett University.

I was exposed to the idea of ‘What’s the end game?’ This headline and lecture given by the retail institute at the event had a profound change on my design thinking and added the structure to my Iceland presentation.

I became focused on what is sustainability in the UK? and subsequently researched curbside collection, visited waste collection and recycling site HWMartin  and research Veolia and Anaerobic digestion, so that I could design for ‘The End Game’ the end of use of packaging so that the packaging solution as re-use and adds value to the consumer and collection service. What’s the end game helped form my brief and ultimately send the product in the direction of packaging to be used as biofuel. This research linked to a project in 2018 when I looked at the university campus infrastructure and how the lack of bins in the right places has a negative impact on  campus recycling

Because of this insight and the awareness of Iceland’s pledge to go plastic free and the implications of this when considering the convenience food trays, I took the risk of pitching the edible SEAsoning of which they were expecting and Mushroom paper convenience food trays an extra concept designed just for them. Because of the interest in the tray during and after the pitch delivered to Phil Huggett, head of Iceland packaging  I took the research further which formed the ideation for my final year project. An oven-ready convenience food tray which is designed to be re-used as biofuel.

My design thinking – Solution ??

I included this in my Iceland side as it was there to visually represent my design thinking and to explain that my product is designed to solve global solutions.

This slide was included to prompt feedforward solution design thinking.

All my products and packaging aim to fit within the current infrastructure and look towards the future of what next.

This way of thinking is borrowed from my days in business when looking towards future innovation was imperative for business success.

Working together is imperative for sustainable success. Through mentoring with Sanjay Patel of the packaging Collective, and the Retail institute with Olga Munro, this ideology of working together is becoming reality in business. I have witnessed the power of companies working together many times, most recently at the Coveris open day, and at a networking north meeting

I like designing materials for packaging design because of the issues caused and therefore the huge opportunities for change.

In this presentation, I pitched the idea that a packaging material can have global benefits in line with the UN sustainability goals: poverty, Hungar, Equality, and so on. Also that the material directly benefits human health. The product material also left no trace directly linking with Iceland’s packaging values and purpose.

 

Designing for the best and worst case scenario, not to encourage littering, but designing for what if.

A slide to show SEAsoning edible material – I left a print out with Phill Hugget, so this slide was left as a read later.

A slide to show SEAsoning grow mushrooms material – I left a print out with Phill Hugget, so this slide was left as a reade later

Outlining the UN development goals – these goals helped form the brief for SEAsoning edible material.

A reminder of how keeping products simple can yield powerful results

I took physical samples to the Meeting. This was an opportunity to use them and see them in action.

I learnt loads from this day.

Subsequently, my knowledge of the industry has improved and with it my confidence in line with presenting to smaller audiences.

If you have any questions please get in touch.

Jay