Circular Suitcase: The Creative Packing List
Incommon is a nonprofit organization aiming for a sustainable future on a healthy planet for everyone. A young team of bright and passionate people who generously share knowledge and practices about the circular economy. Through innovative, research-based, exciting projects they help citizens, schools, organizations, and businesses develop the skill of living in harmony with the environment.
The “circular suitcase” is one of the projects created for students. A real suitcase full of exciting educational activities that travels to remote areas of Greece to give young kids access to knowledge, ideas, and tools about the circular economy.
The recipients of the circular suitcase are the teachers of the school. They are responsible for presenting the circular suitcase and its content to the students but also to coordinate the school subjects with the circular suitcase activities. For this reason, we prepared an extended teacher’s handbook that aims to inform and support the teachers.
The main content of the teacher’s handbook is separated into four key subjects–four groups of activities. Each subject focuses on a specific area of circular economy:
Materials and products
Food
Water
Climate crisis
This structure influenced the concept we chose to implement.
Searching for a creative concept, the first thought that came to mind was, “Since we have a suitcase, we have to find someone to hold it!”. This is how we decided to create four kind and smart heroes, each one representing a subject.
Using the color palette and geometric shapes of Incommon's visual identity, we created our four heroes, who were responsible for two things. First, to introduce the circular suitcase and each group of activities to children and educators. Second, to carry the team’s enthusiasm and joy to the students.
Along with the heroes, we created a fun icon set to make the reading experience even more enjoyable, vivid, and meaningful.
Several other supplementary materials were created to support the goals of the circular suitcase project. Using our four heroes and our icon set again, we created print and digital materials. As an example, here you see a small brochure specifically made to explain to students what the brown bin is and how to use it.
Personally, I enjoyed every second of this project. There were many things to think about, organize, and implement, but the process was fun, and the final result was rewarding for everyone. I smiled every time I saw our four heroes smiling, talking, or just waving their hands to bring some joy and fun to teachers and students. I hope they make you smile too while watching this project.
Let’s travel back to childhood for a few seconds. Enjoy watching!
Ms.
Watch the project: Circular Suitcase
See and learn more about the Circular Suitcase:
The Circular Suitcase Project
Learn more about Incommon:
incommon.gr
