Responsible, day in, day out

ETHICAL DESIGN Fine ideas, simple and elegant, innovative but feasible at the same time, faithful to a design process that revolves around the ethics of responsibility ... And perhaps for this reason, capable of positively influencing our ways of being consumers/citizens. Suggestions from the show "Responsabilmente" and an invitation to consider the quality, values and contents of a form of packaging that is reinventing its "communicative function" and that promotes change. L.G.

Packaging as a medium capable of responding to the challenges that the system of products now demands and that, by renewing its communicative function, intends improving the quality of our daily actions. And again …prevention, safety and progress: keywords that decline the notion of responsibility of packaging design.
It is from these concepts that projects placed on show at "Responsibilmente”. Packaging: instructions for daily action” have taken shape. The exhibition (conceived and curated by Valeria Bucchetti and Erik Ciravegna, hosted in the Conai Designing the Future area at Ipack Ima, Ed) can be seen as the ideal culmination of a teaching-research work carried out over the years during the Milan Polytechnic Communication Design degree Course.
What many were able to perceive went far beyond the physical space conceded to the items placed on show, primarily a strong sense of concreteness, permeating all the solutions thought up by the students.
Different and new solutions that precisely because applied to "objects" in common use, attain the objective of bringing further quality to our everyday actions: bags designed for reuse in segregated collection that promote a more sustainable behaviour; take-away packs that turn into practical maps that highlight the city's green areas; the concepts of controlled supply chain and food safety placed in great evidence on containers; packaging systems that offer a practical aid in correctly managing a series of food diet regimes… the defence of the weaker categories of users lying at the centre of all proposals.
In other words, "Responsibilmente" has tried to clearly push the communicative functions of packaging just that little bit further, beyond the usual "story" surrounding the product and the brand. It is a language that the Milan Polytechnic Design School has with determination been cultivating for years.

Erasable Eggs It plays with the powers of suggestion and active involvement, inviting the user to wash the egg prior to consuming it. When the images of insects on the shell disappear, the eggs are truly clean..
Rapidissima An easy solution for preventing food toxin infection, reducing the risk of contamination, facilitating the washing of fresh salad in the bag.
Fresco Sicuro The packaging informs on controls for fresh products sold in largescale retail stores in various stages of production. For the benefit of transparent processes and safer choices.
WFP4Breakfast   A project to inform on child malnutrition in developing countries, calling for participation to solve the problem. It compares the calorie content of a food pack to the survival dose in poor countries.
Zero Glutine The pack becomes an instrument for proper and safe behaviour: it informs on the risks relating to forms of gluten contamination when preparing food.
Sei su dieci 6/10 is the total number of people in the world who have no access to rice. The pack documents lack of food access and stimulates awareness.
Think! Pensaci This project encourages a wiser use of natural resources in the home: all you need do is reduce the time your fridge door is open. The message is conveyed by the packaging.
Pap-poo A tool designed for the care of dogs, that becomes a vehicle for civic education for their masters.
Scegliere al canile Graphic experiments on bread packs as a means of everyday communication, drawing attention to the adoption at kennels instead of buying a dog in shop.
Cinque Regole Clear information to influence the purchasing and consumption habits of citizens, engendering more aware shopping and the avoiding of wasteful spending.
How To Dog Irony and hyper information to sensitize dog owners towards a more civic behaviour and respect of public spaces.
Pranzo al Parco Recycled paper bags for lunch "on the go" are turned into maps of the city parks: public green space used as areas for socializing and as a shared opportunity.
Vedi Verde Recycled paper shopping bags become herbaria: giving a name and an image to the city’s plants to the green public awareness and respect for the environment. With the onus on the virtues of correct segregated collection
In the Green The project provides a label with a closure strip for each pack, which acts as a freshness seal as well as information support: the food information is accompanied by indications as to the location of local green urban areas.
Orto in città The project plants "the seeds of sustainability", showing how to build a vegetable garden on the balcony of your home as well as ways of increasing private green areas to improve the liveability of cities and protect and sustain public health.