Enviro Cards
Ellie-Paloma Bursby
What is the product?
A deck of playing cards.
01- CONCEPT STATEMENT A C
O Y
L
E S & R
A
S
Being in isolation and limited to online platforms for community can take its toll.
Little options on the US market have a fun design geared towards young adults. Designs are either in the traditional format which looks very formal or have childlike designs geared towards a younger demographic.
What is the problem?
02- CONCEPT STATEMENT
Eco-friendly options are not mainstream and the material generally used in manufacturing is plastic. Playing cards on the market don’t have anything that sets them apart from the others apart from different color scheme or illustration.
What is the problem?
02- CONCEPT STATEMENT
MARKET RESEARCH
Here are four products currently on the US market. Firstly, with all these products, the pricing is surprising. Use of plastic and packaging issues.
MARKET RESEARCH
In 2016, Facebook created a deck of playing cards with various insights and company stats printed on them. These cards were then sent to agencies around the world so they would be able to access the information and also receive the deck of cards as a gift of sorts. This showed me how useful the design of playing cards can be and gave me the idea to incorporate information onto the cards so as to shed light on something as well as being a source of fun.
What are the objectives?
Re-designing cards - going off of the standard design - to generate interest from young people in the game. Offering attractive options and re-invigorating traction towards buying tactile games rather than having everything online.
Offering an eco-friendly alternative to products already on the market by using sustainable materials - filling a gap in the market and incentivising those who care about sustainability to buy the product.
03- CONCEPT STATEMENT
What are the objectives?
The product aims to educate people on an important subject matter that is already being talked about, whilst at the same time allowing a fun game to be played. Selling playing cards as a mode of communicating information is unique and is, again, attractive to those who want to have these conversations with friends and have a physical reminder of the reality and gravity of the situations we are facing.
03- CONCEPT STATEMENT
How do we meet those objectives? 05-
Creating a unique and modern design. Using Eco-friendly materials. Have facts on the cards relating to the topic of climate change and the environment. Market them on social media platforms. Retail them for as low as possible.
I also dabbled with the possibility of hand-making them to add an extra unique incentive to consumers.
CONCEPT STATEMENT
Price of manufacturing and distribution - can it compete on the market?
Debate on hand-making them versus paying a manufacturer.
What are the constraints?
The use of facts on a topic where new information and data comes out all the time makes us run the risk of losing money or/and credibility.
06- CONCEPT STATEMENT
What are the opportunities?
To fill a gap in the market and make profit. Create future products along the same lines - reenvisioning the card game sector. (Themed cards, focusing on sharing information on a variety of different topics; fast fashion, endangered animals, or moving towards historical events and movements.) Design could be modified in the future to be used as an educational tool for kids in school.
The size and pricing makes them perfect birthday gifts or celebration gifts - we could come out with lines dedicated to different holidays or celebrations as well.
08- CONCEPT STATEMENT
INITIAL DESIGNS
FIRST PROTOTYPE
PAPER PROTOTYPE
Handmade product.
FINAL USER FEEDBACK
Feedback from friends:
Perhaps they could be larger. Facts need to either have a darker font or larger font.
Facts do not interfere with the games.
Facts are shocking enough to grab attention and spark conversations without offsetting the cards true intention of being playing cards.
There is a problem when facts become old and outdated quickly, however .
Hand-making them would add a nice element but for it to be worth it to buy, it would have to be really good quality.
IMPLEMENTATION
Why I went with manufacturing:
Cost of production if they were handmade would have definitely raised the price purely just because of the amount needed for those quantities.
Cost of materials would also have inflated the price (a good quality printer, figuring out packaging etc)
From the user feedback I gathered that hand-making them would have allowed a slight price increase but not enough for it to truly make as much profit as manufacturing them would.
I personally would not have been able to achieve the level of quality in the cards by hand-making them that would have allowed any sort of price increase, anyways. Through using a manufacturer I have assurance of quality control of the product and can assure the customer that what they see they are buying is what they will get.
The issues surrounding the facts was dealt with through citing the source directly onto the cards.
THEKING-ocean(Poseidon)
Itisestimatedthataveragesealevelswillraisebyatleast20-30feet (https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/16/3761/2016/acp-16-3761-2016.pdf)
386marinefishspeciesareknowntohaveingestedplasticdebris (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.15533)
12milliontonnesofplasticarepouredintotheoceaneveryyear. (https://www.eunomia.co.uk/reports-tools/plastics-in-the-marine-environment/) By2050,90percentoftheworld’scoralreefswillbegone. (https://sos.noaa.gov/datasets/coral-reef-risk-outlook/)
THEQUEEN-animals/deforestation(MotherNature)
Every48hoursweloseaforestareathesizeofNYC. (https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/can-you-imagine-a-world-without-rainforests/)
One-thirdofplantandanimalspeciescouldbegonein50years (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200212150146.htm)
64%oftheworldstropicalrainforestshavebeendestroyedordegraded (https://www.regnskog.no/en/news/only-half-of-the-worlds-rainforests-remains-intact) 1and1/2acresofforestarecutdowneverysecond(https://www.conserve-energyfuture.com/various-deforestation-facts.php)
THEJACK-clouds(gas/emissions/atmosphere)
TheamountofCO2intheatmosphereriseseveryyear(https://www.climate.gov/newsfeatures/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide)
2010-2020wasthehottestdecadeeverrecorded(https://www.noaa.gov/news/2019-was-2ndhottest-year-on-record-for-earth-say-noaa-nasa)
Since2005,totalgreenhousegasemissionsintheUShavedecreasedby7% (https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks)
OnJanuary62021,theAntarcticozoneholeclosed (https://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/record-breaking-2020-ozone-hole-closes)
FINAL DESIGNS
COST AND MANUFACTURING
From playingcardspersonalised.co.uk, for double sided personalization in that specific sizing, it’s £599 for 100 decks = £5.99 per pack. Plus with delivery fees and other things it could total out to being £7 per pack. For a profit of 20% markup the product would end up retailing for £8.40 (because 7 x 1.2 = 8.4) which in dollars is $11.59. This is cheaper than the examples I showed on the market.
COST AND MANUFACTURING
Ordering from the US company ShuffledInk.com would end in the same price.
Shuffled Ink have previously made cards out of 100% postconsumer recycled material and they also have a partnership with EcoEnclose for their shipping materials. All the packaging they use is recyclable, biodegradable, and made from 100 percent recycled materials.
SELLING
My plan would be to generate interest on Etsy and Ebay, using instagram pages such as @get.waste.ed and various other instagram accounts focusing on products and innovations related to sustainability to shout-out the product in exchange for them receiving it and giving their honest opinion (and a small fee).
I would set up a website for the product and eventual other lines of cards, creating a direct page for customers and moving off of other marketplaces. And who knows, perhaps we would end up being stocked in various department stores such as Urban Outfitters?
©Ellie-Paloma Bursby, 2021
Thank you.
