One initiative that Lentara is investing in their clothing donation system.

Clothing bins have existed for decades, which functions remain the same throughout many years as a collective bin for pre-used clothing items. Most clothing bins do not communicate much as people are generally aware of the usage of it. Also, they do not have specific users and the tone of voice remains very charitable and low key. Due to it having existed for a long time, people tend to forget and not pay attention to it. Moreover, people more often than not, the bins are littered with trash or unusable clothing. This proved to be a financial burden for Lentara.

In the Idea Collective studio, we aim to rebrand the whole clothing donation system, making it more modern, welcoming, attractive and effective.

The existing clothing bins: we can see that the outlook of the clothing bins is old and they are vulnerable to vandalism.

Lentara has identified major financial and usability issues around their clothing bin donation system. They recognise the need to improve how clothing and other items are donated, collected, distributed and resold. We are challenged to think of innovative ways to freshen the bins. This may involve a rebranding of the whole system, as well as the development of a range of communicative strategies. All in the hopes of addressing these issues.

Ideation: generates as many ideas as possible by drawing a huge mind map

Elimination: group similar ideas and pick a few for further development

In the next stage, our group came up with four sketches of prototypes which work towards changing people’s perception of clothing bins. We presented it to a panel of Lentara representatives, and after hearing their feedback, we decided to work towards the realisation of one innovative prototype.

 

For our final project, we produced a 3-minute video which works to sell our prototype idea. In the video, we explained how we completely did a rebranding of the clothing initiative. We introduced a brand new name for the initiative, giving it a more attractive and contemporary impression to the public. We also made a brand logo, concentrating on the mood and feel that we want to evoke, in order to increase the bins’ engagement with the community it is placed in.

However, due to confidential issues in Lentara, we are not able to show our video and other materials here. We are looking forward to see the launch of our prototype in the reality!