When asked what is excessive, it’s easy to answer “It’s about the Hummer, the Rolls, Cognac, cigars and women” etc. But I’m not some sort of Detroit rapper! But there is another side to the life of excess. And that is finding out about things that no one else really knows about. That’s what I do, show you Cape Town in all it’s excess! But not the boring things. I could show you a shoe box with a cool design on it, but when I say excess, I mean EXCESS!
And so todays design will rip through your mind, and leave you thinking “That’s pretty cool” In between ripping it up at parties and cruising around in the VR3 and The Bomber, I like to scout Cape Town for good ideas and cool stuff. That’s where I found this design. In Cape Town and designed by a Cape Town student. Dijon Jones is from Vega, in Cape Town and this is his design. Very clever I would say!
I had known about this design for some time, but wanted to link it to something else. I was not sure what though, but it needed to have some sort of connection to an article I had previously written. And it’s linked to the short piece I wrote on Claremont Main Road.
Obviously living in an apartment, you have a serious lack of a garden. Living in the centre of a city, you just want that feel of green grass under your feet. This solves all of that, and the shoes that would come in the box would protect your feet in the concrete jungle. This is the all round solution for a hectic city life. I love it already. Let’s have a look see shall we? (Drag the “e” out on “we” so it rhymes with “see” That way we make a pretty little nursery rhyme, on a dime. Gosh I’m a poet and I didn’t even know it!)
Here is Dijon’s shoe box, that once empty of the shoes, turns into a mini patch of grass, like an urban garden, for your urban lifestyle!
Diesel Garden Style Lab
The box has an inner perspex tray with lazer cut holes, filled with vermiculite and grass seeds. The tray slides into the box, and grass grows out the top and this whole contraption stays as one single box. Dijon says it’s so that people who stay in lofts can experience the awesome feel of grass under their feet!
The Diesel logo is lazer etched into the perspex. That is excessive!
It also comes with a fully illustrated booklet and special wire stabilizers so you can place it next to your sink and water the grass while the dishes dry, which incorporates a little bit of a water saving angle.
On to the questions I posed to Dijon:
Sean: Dijon, you’re a student now, do you have plans for your design career in the future and is there anything in particular you would like to focus on?
Dijon: Well design will always be a huge part of my life and I’ll be graduating this year and then throwing myself straight into the industry to get a little bit of work experience so some people will at least give me an interview!(Laughs) But my big plan will be to eventually open up my own design studio/agency that will be based in Australia. The reason being that there are more opportunities there.
Sean: What was the original inspiration for this design, and was it based on something similiar you had seen before?
Dijon: No, the design was purely thought up and this is what we are taught. We get given a brief, which in this case was to design a piece of packaging that has an after life. From there we go do research and come up with a concept, and only after this concept has been approved to we get to work on it. So yeah, this design was just an idea that I thought was cool, and had legs to work on.
Sean: Is this more of a concept, or do you see it as something that could one day be put into production?
Dijon: Yeah this is definitely just a concept, but if I were approached by Diesel, I would definitely sell the idea to them. However, it cost R950 to make this project, and this is a lot of money for just a shoe box. But I’m still holding thumbs!
Sean: Yeah, and then retire to an island on the cash! Well that’s what I would do… Dijon, when designing something like this, how do you make sure that no one else steals your idea and design?
Dijon: Well there is no stopping them but all the work I do is protected under the rights of the college I attend, so if there were to be a copy, I’d imagine some sort of trouble would happen!
Sean: Dijon, I heard this is a Loerie( Link to SLXS Loerie article) award winner. What award did it win, and in turn, what does this mean for the future of the project?
Dijon: Yes my first Loerie! It was an awesome achievement and it won in the category of 3D constructual packaging. This does not really mean much for the project, it’s more of an example of where I can get by working my ass off!
Thanks Dijon, best of luck with your future projects!
That’s it really, I just thought that was something unique coming out of Cape Town.
It’s so cool I wish Diesel would buy it, so that we could in turn buy it!
I mean, we are paying about R900 for our Lacoste polo shirts are we not? And we are paying R600 for bottles of alcohol are we not? So this design can in fact be done. It’s all very excessive, the way we like it.
This is bending my mind out of shape, like play dough(Do you spell it like that? Or do? Playdo?) So it’s time to go recuperate, while my brain cools down and I come roaring back at you with the next amazing thing. Like a lion. In Zion.
I sense the anticipation from you! Yes I do!
Boom Chabal!
Ok that got crazy.
Sean Lloyd
Editor
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