Product Ritual Circles (Speculative Design + Graphic Design)
How might consumers perform rituals that express gratitude for, and provide a holistic understanding of the products they consume and where they came from?
In this project researchers developed a visual and sensorial experience focusing on the intersections of ritual, gratitude, recognition. The researchers played around with the idea of alchemy, removal of bad spirits, and a mishmash of other more-or-less spiritual rituals. The results were product healing circles, in which you place a product to recognize and be grateful all that went into making the object. Each symbol and area represents a specific part of the object’s past, including materials, locations, transportation, labor, and so on. The circles can be handmade, printed out, or even printed directly on the product, packaging, receipts, or shipping materials.
The completed ritual circle represents the history of a product and the main components that went into its creation.
The circles were designed as a system. Each spot on the circle represents a different part of the artifacts history. Symbols can be created or taken from a library to fill in the various spots.
The ritual circles can be filled out on a computer or printed out blank and filled out by hand.
Hand-drawn circles represent extra time and care put into the gratitude of each artifact.
Circles may also be printed directly on the artifact as a way to continually remember the origins.
Circles can be printed on things like receipts as an easy way to fill them out.
Overall this project helped me to work on graphic design and speculative design thinking, as well as researching the origins of objects themselves.