Nadia Isabell Sommerfeldt

QUESTION 1 –
Puzzles and fun

Question – A man is replacing a wheel on his car, when he accidentally drops the four nuts used to hold the wheel on the car. They fall into a deep drain, irretrievably lost. A passing girl offers him a solution that enables him to drive home. What is it?
Answer – The solution could be that they would take nuts off each of the three wheels that will allow every wheel to have 3 nuts each. This way the man will be able to drive home with a temporary solution to his problem.

Question – Two Russians walk down a street in Moscow. One Russian is the father of the other Russian’s son. How are they related?
Answer – The two Russians walking down the street are both the boy’s parents, which will make it the mother and father of the boy.

Question – What occurs once in June, once in July and twice in August?
Answer – As you can see, the letter “u” appears only once in June and July but twice in August.

Question – Six drinking glasses stand in a row, with the first three full of water and the next three empty. By handling and moving only one glass at a time, how can you arrange the six glasses so that no full glass stands next to another full glass, and no empty glass stands next to another empty glass? What is the minimum number of moves to solve this puzzle?
Answer – You want the row to be, “full, empty, full, empty, full empty”, you can achieve this by taking the second filled glass and pour its contents in the fifth glass which will be full while the second glass will be empty when you put it back. This requires one move to do.

QUESTION 2 –
McDonalds “the success story”

In this assignment we were suppose to research the SCAMPER method and how it affected the brand McDonald’s.

SCAMPER stands for Substitute – Combine – Adapt – Modify/Magnify – Put to another use – Eliminate – Rearrange/Reverse.

This method is a tool to help you come up with twists and improvements to your ideas or other people’s ideas. These seven techniques will help the ideas be more innovative and might even solve problems. This method helped McDonalds become a massive successful franchise

The year was 1948 and the brothers Maurice and Richard McDonald opened the first McDonald’s restaurant in San Bernardino, California. They owned a small hamburger restaurant and they bought their appliances from Ray Kroc. This turned out to be a very good relationship, since Kroc was the one to discover that food could be sold very cheap but also very efficiently after he visited the brothers in 1954. Since Ray Kroc saw such amazing possibilities he decided to buy the restaurant in 1961 and he wanted to franchise the chain.
He therefor used the SCAMPER method to turn McDonalds into the massive, successful chain it is today.

• SUBSTITUTE
  – The kitchen was designed to make as many options as fast as possible which translates to a speedy serving system.
  – Reducing the items on the menu, which turned into reducing waiting time for customers.
  – When Roy Kroc bought McDonalds, he bought the McDonald brothers shares too, which made him the sole owner.
  – In 1963 a mascot appeared for McDonalds, and this was the fun and loving clown Ronald McDonald who is the mascot to this day.
  
• COMBINE
  – They added breakfast items to the menu, making it not only a cheap “dinner” restaurant, making options for the customers.
  – McDonald’s got introduced to the sit-down restaurants, and turned into a place where families with kids could afford to go to and there would also be activities for the children.
  
• ADAPT
  – They have location-based menus, where they have new items often to join different trends, and they also bring back old favourites from time to time.
  – They have made huge changes to their menus by providing vegetarian options, fish, salads, vegetables instead of fries or fruit for a healthier options. This is especially good for smaller children who can have apples with their happy meal.
  – They have playgrounds for the children, where they can run and be kids, Built PlayPlaces in the restaurants gives the parents a little breather and the kids can play with other kids.
  – Introduced ketchup in the ‘Dunk Kup’, that are still used today. They also introduced little packets of ketchup after high demand from the customers who wanted to have condiments.
  – With resent years of technology they have upgraded to home delivery with companies like UberEats and Justeat to name a few.
  
• MODIFY/MAGNIFY
  – While the gold/yellow ‘M’ has almost always been a staple, especially after the year 1968, the logo has gone through some modification to get to where it is today as you can see on the picture under.
  – The design of the restaurant has changed over the years to keep up with the style and. The restaurant has gone from Red and White to the Mansard Roof Design.
  – Because nutrition has become something everyone is very interested in McDonalds provide you with all the nutritional information on every menu item they have.

• PUT TO ANOTHER USE
  – In 1974 the Ronald McDonald House was established.
  – The local farmers are supported by McDonalds by them using their fresh produce like beef and dairy.
  
• ELIMINATE
  – Introduced self-checkout.
  There are no waiters, but there are servers, you either order at the cash to a server or you order through an automat. Instead of them shouting your order you will be presented with a number so you’ll keep track on your own order. This makes the process more effective and it reduces waiting times.
  – Reduced the use of trans-fat oils.
  – The menu has been reduced quite a lot to focus on the items that are classic or new.
  – Being environmental, they have eliminated plastic straws from their businesses and introduced paper straws to help reduce plastic waste.
  
• REARRANGE/REVERSE
  – The menu items changes often for demand and trends that are happening.
  – You pay before you receive your meal for a speedy exit, either if you dine at the restaurant or you order takeaway.

QUESTION 3 –
Spoon my Bottle

In this activity I got a teaspoon and the SCAMPER method ready.
I drew my spoon and what I would do with all the different techniques to improve this item. I ended up creating the “Spoon my Bottle” which is a spoon that is bendable and has a bottle opener at the end of it. Which is great for college, camping, parties, bars and restaurants.

SCAMPER METHOD
Substitute – Replaced the small surface of the teaspoon with a deeper curved and bigger surface. Not as big as a regular tablespoon. But a deeper one for more scoop.
Combine – Making this item multi-purpose by combining a bottle opener with a spoon.
Adapt – I made this spoon foldable so it takes less space and it is practical for trips and cramped spaces, perfect for a college dorm.
Modify / Magnify – Making the item bigger (surface of spoon), modified the curve, so the bottle opener would fit when folded together. Smaller item for convenience.
Put to other uses – It is a smaller piece of cutlery which can open bottles when needed, just fold it out. Can either be a big spoon with a longer handle (when folded out), or a small spoon for smaller children or for a better grip.
Eliminate – Got rid of the handle in the middle and replaced with a foldable one. Also eliminated the normal spoon and made it bendable for convenience.
Reverse / Rearrange – Flip the spoon over and you’ll have a big spoon with a long handle and a bottle opener, flip it back and you will have a shorter handle for a better grip or a smaller spoon for a child.

‘See illustration below for reference’

QUESTION 3 –
Rice bowl

Rice is a commodity that is in almost every single household, no matter what type of rice it is or what kind of people. And the waste that goes with all these plastic bags of rice and the spillage that comes from pouring it out of a box. I have used the SCAMPER method to adjust and try to innovate the packaging of rice.

Substitute – Taking the ordinary packaging for rice and trading it for a tin container or aluminium for reuse and longevity.

Combine – Combining it with a lid, straps and a cup makes it a kit for a household with few people or a lot of family members. Giving the packaging a good name, “Rice Bowl”, and doing the same with the refill packages to show they belong together, “fill up my rice bowl”.

Adapt – Making it a refill container with paper bags of rice to fill container when empty. Making it eco friendly and reduces waste by buying the product over and over.

Modify / Magnify – Making it a round container that will hold more rice, and with a lid to keep bugs and animals away. A homely design to make it fit in your kitchen or cupboard.

Put to other uses – Measuring cup to hinder spillage that usually happens with rice and pasta. Can control the amounts and mess.

Eliminate – Taking away overuse of plastic by it being a refill container, it is different material and will therefor last longer. Also eliminates spillage of rice everywhere by taking away the cardboard boxes that you pour.

Reverse / Rearrange – Refill bags make it so you can choose different types of rice whenever you want to refill. These fill up the containers and the packaging is made of paper which is more environmental. You can choose a big “Rice Bowl” container for XL families or the MEDIUM one, whichever suits your needs.

‘See illustrations below for reference‘

I made this packaging for rice because of convenience and for the everyday person. Since rice is an ingredient that is used multiple times a week and is frequently bought, I came up with the idea to make a refill container.
I called it “Rice Bowl”, since it hit trends, and is a catchy name. It is a container which holds your uncooked rice, and I think the name suits it well. There are also refill packages called “refill my rice bowl” which shows that the two products belong together and has a smart catchphrase. I’ve also added multiple items like straps to carry the container and a measuring cup to find out how much rice is needed for every meal and to prevent spillage.

This week we also had to write down the deadlines and assignments we have over the next school year. This was good to give us a clear view of our deadlines and when the different projects starts to be the most prepared and organized.

This week our assignment was to draw a Moodle Map. Moodle is our campus and our learning platform, which we basically have right in our pocket.
That is why I drew a phone, with our learning platform on it.
It is to say that we have the whole world at our fingertips, dating, education, contact with the world, inspirations. With some clicks of a button you can have every piece of information. We have access to the online and digital world, which is a huge privilege, and we can achieve so much.

I am excited to start this journey, where everything is going to be an inspiration to a new idea. Colours are going to be a palette for a new design, shapes are unique and exciting, and every font is interesting. I am excited to start this journey of becoming a graphic designer. And I want to always be learning.