Colorful Recycled Plastic Turns Manufacturing Mistakes into Dazzling Objects
Would you ever guess these gorgeous design objects are made of recycled plastic shopping bags, and that the free-form drips are a happy accident? As part of Shahar Kagan‘s final project at Holon Institute of Technology in Israel, he explored why manufacturing mistakes sometimes happen in the production process and objects come out looking far different than intended. The result of his exploration is a truly beautiful bunch of home objects that don’t conform to our expectations of shape or form.
Kagan uses recycled plastic that was once plastic shopping bags. He pours the plastic into molds, but not in a mechanical, predictable way – he keeps his creations unique by shying away from set-in-stone methods. Instead, the industrial designer lets the materials take on odd, spontaneous shapes.
Unsurprisingly, no manufacturers were willing to let Kagan use their material to conduct his manufacturing experiments. To achieve his goals, he had to build his own machine – the Extruder – and teach himself how to invent the objects he wanted to see.
“FrozenPlastic lab was founded in 2011 as the evolution of my final bachelor project (industrial design) at Holon Institute of Technology- Israel. The Lab was born out of a curiosity about how, why and when deformities and abnormalities occur within the plastic industry. Frozenplastic is an exploration on the side effects and defects resulting from the production of plastics.”
The objects created in this way are useful and, perhaps unexpectedly, quite graceful in their own way. They display fluid lines and just the kind of spontaneity that Kagan was hoping to achieve.
About the designer: “I’m a freelance product designer – I do UX / UI and Product management. I expertise in B2B complex platforms, cybersecurity products, and aggregating data into functional dashboards. I have an in-depth understanding of all aspects of the product development lifecycle from concept to implementation, and my services cover all the startups’ creative needs. I always try to position and differentiate the product I’m working on above its competitors, and to find its uniqueness through simple user experience and cutting edge visual design. “
