//Project: Personal Products (Self Directed)
//Product: Concoct Furniture
//Stage: 4th Year (2008/09)

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In modern society we discard our products as soon as they are broken without a second thought or ounce of remorse. This is one of the big contributing factors to overflowing landfill and the general decreasing state of our planet.

However, everyone has at least one product that they would never throw away, would fix if it broke and would shed a tear if it were lost. This may be a wedding ring, a heirloom passed down the generations or a scarf knitted by a family member. The one thing that this item will have is an emotional link with the user. This is where my design comes in.

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The Concoct Chair is a piece of furniture that is dependent on the user. It is sold without any legs or uprights, just a seat and a backrest. The user must then source components to make the design complete.

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This design is a new type of flatpack, there are no complex step-by-step instructions that must be followed to the letter but only an indication of what the final product should be. The time spent 'building' your own product should be fun not a chore. Concoct puts the fun into flatpack

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It is this time spent creating or nurturing something that endears us to it. This can be applied to something as intangible as a friendship or as tangible as a painting. The user must nurture the product and make it complete, they must add parts of themselves, pieces they source personally. This is how they form an attachment to the product, each leg will hold a memory.

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The furniture also conveys the message of 'reuse, don't recycle'. Any broken furniture that has been relegated to the shed or loft can now be part of a working product again. It will also teach the user some basic construction knowledge and hopefully encourage them to repair broken furniture and endear them to design other than that 'designed for the shelf'. This would be a very healthy outlook to have especially with the economy in the state that it is right now.