+ The Kegstand

To wrap up our unit on leisure and entertainment, we tapped into a demographic group that devotes much of its time to activities in this category - college students. This demographic splits its time between classroom attendance and social events, and who doesn’t think of a keg party when they think of the college experience? We'd like to present to you our latest concept, the Kegstand.



As we began defining our concept we discussed sustainability, realizing the keg lifecycle is optimal - rent, return, refill - then rent again. So we went into the field and looked for other opportunities to improve the keg experience. We discovered that the three key areas in need of our help were transportation, maintenance, and entertainment.

Transporting a keg is sub-optimal. The weight and shape often require two strong individuals to move the keg to its party location. We added handles and wheels to our concept so that the Kegstand can easily transport a keg from the store to your backyard.



Second, we evaluated the required maintenance while using a keg. 10 out of 10 college students prefer cold beer; so submerging the keg in ice is essential. Here's where it can get tricky: Users have the daunting task of lifting the 15.5 gallons of beer into an aluminum trashcan, usually in front of some snickering friends and/or attractive women. Because the host house sacrifices their trashcan, trash becomes unmanageable, piling up around the house to be cleaned up the following day. (How did this cup get in the shower?) Also, our ethnography informed us that the tap’s nozzle should never touch the ice. Consuming small amounts of melted ice mixed with keg foam and spilled beer is not preferred.



To address these issues, we broke the keg cozy down into two parts. Users now only lift the keg about a foot onto the base, then slide the top half over the top and buckle it down. Dump in the ice and you're ready to go. When you're finished, a plug allows for easy drainage of melted ice. Built in hooks let the hosts hang a garbage bag to do their best managing all the empties.

Our ethnography informed us that the tap’s nozzle should never touch the ice. We added a cap display so you no longer have to ask, “What kind of beer did they get?” Then we added a cup dispenser and serving tray so you don't have to jockey for position waiting to fill up.

Finally, we wanted to make the keg the center of the party instead of that guy. We added a cap display so you no longer have to ask, “What kind of beer did they get?” Then we added a cup dispenser and serving tray so you don't have to jockey for position waiting to fill up.



The Kegstand would cost more than stealing your neighbor’s trashcan, but we found that most rent a bucket or trashcan when renting their keg. So we present this concept as an appealing upgrade to the current retail landscape.

If you are a keg connoisseur or passionate about innovation in this category, please contact us - we would love to share more with you on a confidential basis.

Cheers!

+ Understanding Leisure with Christopher C. Deam

To learn more about how we define leisure and entertainment, we spoke with architect and designer Christopher C. Deam. With projects ranging from residential architecture to furniture to Airstream trailers, we knew he would have a strong perspective on the subject. Thanks to Chris for taking the time to speak with us.

Please tell us a little about your background and some of the projects you've worked on.

I am trained as an architect, and I studied quite extensively in Italy. I took that knowledge and started applying it to a variety of scales all the way from furniture design to urban design. I've done everything from starting my own furniture company to interiors for Airstream to advanced concept design for Herman Miller, Target, and Kenworth. I'm just finishing a floating home in Sausalito. I've also got a prefab home in development as well as one on the market. If you could characterize my studio, I guess you could say it's a nondenominational design studio in that I like projects that are innovative but also sort of quirky. Those types of projects gravitate towards me.

How do you define leisure and entertainment? Do you think our society's idea of leisure has changed over time?

Whenever I hear that word leisure I always think of the leisure suit that my mom forced me to wear when I was twelve years old, so I dislike that word. If I had to define it, I'd say that it's unprogrammed time, but in some manner you're active involved. It's not just laying on the floor, there's some component of being engaged, but in an unstructured way. The odd thing to me is that nowadays we have to schedule our unscheduled time. It's getting to be a pressurized way of life, it's creeping into this idea of leisure. For example, you can't just go for a run anymore, you have to better your time on your run. So there's a real striving for optimization.

I think leisure and entertainment are distinctly different. Entertainment is a much more passive experience – like listening to music or watching television. The exchange is typically one way. That's changing a little now with the internet, but in general I think of entertainment as one directional.

I think leisure and entertainment are distinctly different. Entertainment is a much more passive experience – like listening to music or watching television.

Compared with other parts of the world, do you think we have difficulty finding leisure and being entertained? What can we as designers do to help?

We as Americans have a hard time letting things happen, or not happen for that matter. We want every moment scheduled and optimized, and I think it's easier in Europe to be leisurely. In that urban landscape, it can be a feast for the senses just to sit and wait for the bus. Here, people pop on their headphones and tune it all out. I think as designers the best thing we can do is to give some space away from those hyper designed and programmed landscapes to allow more organic development and experience to happen. You could argue that it's a purely cultural difference, but I think the physical environment affects us. With the way our culture is car-based, people are more isolated and not as used to being social.

Furniture seems to play a part in creating places for leisure. How does our designed environment help us find that state of mind?

Right now, I see a lot of design based around creating cocoon-like places or furniture. In theory, it creates your own peaceful space so that people can have relaxing experiences. That may be fine in an office landscape where we sometimes need to be able to concentrate. For me, those designs are further isolating us and keeping us from being able to deal with our surroundings or form relationships with the people around us. When you view leisure as a thing apart from others, people become less practiced at being social. There's a real skill to being a good conversationalist and being able to relax around people. The trend says that isolation is the solution, but I don't think it is. When I am designing and thinking about leisure, I try to leave holes in the design, leave it semi-incomplete, so that people can feel more engaged to it and complete it themselves.

With your help, Airstream has experienced a nice renaissance over the past few years. Why do you think they're becoming popular again?

I think there are a couple things at play. First, I think they're resurgent because the Airstream trailer embodies the timeless ideas of mobility and independence. Those are really great American ideals. We're a mobile country and independent thinkers and Airstream is the
perfect vehicle to embody that. Suddenly with the advent of wireless technology, we're redefining the idea of what mobility and independence are. Now, you can live anywhere or be anywhere and still be connected. I also think that they're resurgent because people understand that it's authentic: hand built, made of real materials. In America right now there's a real hunger for authenticity.

People understand that it [Airstream] is authentic: hand built, made of real materials. In America right now there's a real hunger for authenticity.

What are the challenges you've experienced when designing spaces to help people relax and enjoy themselves?

I think the biggest challenge is knowing when to stop designing. You can program spaces to death and overdesign things so people feel trapped. I want people to feel free. I think that's the trouble with design right now in general. We're almost becoming addicted to it – more, more, more. Frankly, I don't want my toothbrush to be in the MoMa. I just need it to do the job, because otherwise it's taking up a lot of mental headspace. It's important to know when to stop and to let people have their own experiences with spaces instead of being controlled by the designer's experience of things.

Can a brand still have good recognition if designers relinquish control and let consumers have more individual experiences?

I think so. Certain stores like Harley Davidson and Apple really create a certain vibe. While you're in one of those places you get into the fantasy world of that brand. The problem was that is it's so complete, such a total experience. When you take home your new computer or your new leather vest, out of that context of the store, it can feel empty. By hyper controlling those environments, you actually create a more difficult time for people to contextualize the products in a greater way. Everyone falls in love with their iPhone, and they are great, but sometimes you realize it's just a phone.

To see Christopher Deam's work, visit his site.
Dwell has a nice video on Deam and his work for Airstream here.

+ What's your recreational footprint?

Fun & CO2!
Our new open office plan works! Because we got rid of our cubicle dividers, I got into a conversation with my co-worker about the carbon footprint of food. He pointed me towards the Carbon Trust where I found the publication "The carbon emissions generated in all that we consume". I wasn't expecting to get involved in anything for our current Greener Grass topic, but I stumbled onto an unexpected revelation: Recreation and Leisure activity (in the UK) has the single largest carbon footprint of any consumer use category- beyond even heating, commuting, etc.

Amazing! This includes all the upstream emissions related to producing the boats, bikes, cars, shoes, and everything else we end up using to have fun, plus burning the fuel expended to get to where we play.

This information got me thinking; my significant other and I are headed to a cycling tour in Oregon. I did some checking and found that my favorite outdoor store, REI, neutralizes some or all of their adventure vacation impact using the BEF Green Tag Program. Another similar program is run by TerraPass. As a concession both to having a vacation and mitigating it's impact, I offset part of the flight using the Green Tags. It's a start.

+ Apsara Solar Umbrella

In determining opportunities in Leisure and Entertainment, we checked the latest US Census report. To our surprise, the category exists and lists 50 activities by frequency of adult participation. Among the highest ranked activities are social ones, usually involving food.

We challenged ourselves to develop a product with the broadest market opportunity by considering the top 5 categories listed, and creating a single ecologically friendly product concept with applications in each category. The categories (ranked highest to lowest) are: Dining out, Entertaining Friends or Relatives at Home, Reading Books, Barbecuing, and Going to the Beach.



To increase the challenge, we wanted to identify a product for sale in commercial and consumer markets.

With sketchpad in hand, we went to Apsara restaurant in Cincinnati and headed to the patio for tempura, ebi soro and a custard desert. It was a sunny, breezy day and a perfect environment for contemplating lofty ideas of leisure and entertainment. Thoughts went to beaches and patios, sun and shade, eating and drinking, and …reading.

Product categories quickly gravitated to furniture; lounge chairs, tables and umbrellas …for eating or reading …for individuals or companions …for day or night. Then “voila”- an umbrella for day and night. It blocks light during the day and emits it at night. This new umbrella serves one person reading or dining alone, or a group socializing at home or dining out. And now for the best part – solar energy is gathered by the fabric upper surface during the day, while blocking sunlight; is stored in the umbrella fabric layers until needed; and is used to power the luminescent fabric under surface during the night.



The Apsara Solar Umbrella is a familiar looking teak frame umbrella with flowing cotton fabric that pleases the senses. The Apsara has a “catch-and-release” fabric that absorbs light from above during the day and disperses it below during the night. Totally self-contained, the umbrella can be taken anywhere and used anytime. It can be stuck in the sand on a beach or placed in a café table on the patio at home.



Technology can be utilized to make the solar umbrella a reality. The Flexible solar panels are available here. Development is underway to make it even more flexible through photovoltaic materials.



Flexible batteries are available and research is underway to make even more flexible batteries, reported by Science Daily and the BBC.
Also, Enfucel has a commercially available flexible battery. The concern with current technology is the battery’s life cycle and recycling aspects.



Flat panel LED light pipes are currently available from various sources including optomarket.
These products can produce the type of light envisioned, but do not offer the flexibility. Flexible light pipe materials are available here and can be woven into fabric.



Bringing the 3 components together to provide a truly flexible “catch-and-release” fabric is the final step in making the Apsara Solar Umbrella a reality. The Apsara Solar Umbrella offers an alternative to current nighttime illumination. It targets all who enjoy the outdoors, and its technology offers a substitute to existing energy sources.

+ Census

As an early step in determining opportunities in Leisure and Entertainment, I checked the latest US Census report. To my surprise, the category exists and lists 50 activities by frequency of adult participation. They range from Adult Education courses to Zoo attendance. Among the highest ranked activities are several that are somewhat similar. In descending order they are Dining Out, Entertaining Friends or Relatives at Home, Reading Books, Barbequing and Going to the Beach – all but one are social activities, usually involving food.

+ Gaming Addiction?

More and more online gaming is becoming very popular. From games like Madden where people compete in a sometimes friendly game of football, up to the more intense online gaming and sometimes a new social world MMORPG's. I am a gamer myself, not so much the Online genre but games wide open such as the Grand Theft Auto series, And yes GTA4 is awesome, but this blog isn't about my likes. I have many friends that play MMORPG's, and it consumes their lives. I remember when my brother came home with Final fantasy 11, which is a MMORPG, and on the back of the box, much like on cigarette box's there was a warning telling you not to let the game affect relationships with family, friends, and work. These games are not only affecting social lives but they are affecting health as well. In Asia, MMORPG's are even more popular, than in the US, believe it or not, and there are reports of gamers DYING from playing too long with little sleep.
Is there some way to bring the online gameing fasination away from the computer? Many of us think that because it's a video game we're playing it is fun and relaxing, but should we start worrying? Here is a site that shows signs that someone you know might be addicted to gaming. It also has other interesting article on the genre of MMORPG's

+ Leisure & The Workplace

Back before the dot-bomb, businesses added foosball tables, Playstations, and exercise rooms to help increase productivity and improve company culture. While this isn't as popular as it was ten years ago, there is still a push to get the most out of our office space.

They're a couple years old, but Steelcase created some great ideas for collaborative and shared office furniture. I'm inspired to learn more about how leisure fits into the workplace and how our environment can help shape that.

Check out the Time magazine article on Steelcase's work here.

+ NFL Draft

In our study of Leisure and Entertainment I’ll be focusing on professional football as a form of entertainment and leisure for fans.



In about 24 hours, the 2008 NFL Draft will commence. Fans will follow their favorite college player’s fate, and/or their hometown team’s future.

NFL fans have zero input into draft decisions (for obvious reasons) but we don’t mind, arguing about draft picks is a form of leisure and entertainment all in itself.

Sports writers and broadcasters conduct mock drafts every year, and fans follow it as intently as they do the real draft.

An interesting spin I found to the draft is the involvement of the fantasy football world. NFL.com itself brings this idea to the table.

“What if general managers and head coaches made their first-round selections based on how it would affect fantasy football?”
Click here to read the full article and draft report from NFL.com.

If this idea were to ever really happen, it would turn a leisurely form of entertainment into a full-time job for some fans – and I don’t think we would mind!