ÖkoPrunk is a project about ways to produce print products in a fully sustainable way. From paper and ink to print finishing and bookbinding issues ÖkoPrunk gives a widespread overview of the opportunities of the developments made in the last few years. Although the issue of sustainability establishes itself recently, there are no mentionable guidelines for graphic designers yet. But without knowing the options, how could someone act in a sustainable way?

So first, graphic designers need to be informed about techniques, recent developments and inventions. After that, they need a way to easily share their new knowledge with their custmers.

To separate these two aspects, I decided to write a book for the graphic designer and design a card set as a tool for customer meetings. The book is about 5 x 7.5 inch so it's handy like a Moleskine and can be stored in the desk drawer instead of having a weighty tome in the bookshelf. The card set consists of 12 cards – every card displaying one print finishing technique.

For my research I traveled across Germany and spoke with experts – you can find some of these Interviews in the book, such as my conversation with production manager Sylvia Lerch, sustainable design agency Friendship Berlin or certified Cradle-to-Cradle Designer Carsten Buck. The book also contains an adress list of enterprises with sustainable production cycles and a chapter about how to finance a sustainable product for the same or less as a non-sustainable product.

To unite both parts of the project they are packed in a box. Usual criteria for packaging is mainly the protection of it's contents. Since this is not the case in this situation I designed the box to be sustainable in a very easy way. The lid has cut a hole in it so the print finishing of the book beautifies also the outside of the box.

 

Examiner:
Prof. Christoph Barth, Prof. Gertrud Nolte
University of Applied Sciences Würzburg
July 2012

Paper:
115 g/m2 RecyStar Polar
300 g/m2 Gmund BEE!