Gridbin
With George Plionis & Caroline Brustowicz 2018
OVERVIEW
From the iconic skyline to the expansive arts and cultural melting pot, the inconspicuous Trash Bin has been a bystander to New York City becoming an incubator of innovation and a purveyor of history. The vibrant City has rhythmic cycles. Even with the lulls to the high volume activity, there’s a consistent flow of consumption and thus trash generation. GridBin looks to pay homage to the city’s old bin, it’s rich history, growing skyline, and it’s daily cycles, but with added features to sustain today’s increasing waste volume, all while fitting in with New York City’s sleek aesthetic.
ROLE
Product Designer
Product Design, User Research,
Visual design, Pitching
Clean, modern, and minimalistic, GridBin brings a new curbside aesthetic to life by becoming New York City’s newest chic accessory piece. With an abstract street grid that evolves into a silhouette of the skyline, GridBin’s pattern is a tribute to the City’s evolving architecture and skyline and New York’s multifaceted infrastructure.
Yellow captures the vibrancy of the city that never sleeps and is a nod to NYC’s iconic yellow cab. In conducting a survey, many participants responded that yellow and gray are the colors they associate most with NYC: “Yellow because of the cabs”; “The city is covered with huge gray buildings.”
Freestanding and stackable, GridBin can easily be reconfigured and used as a recycling bin with a color system.
The base design and drainage system pays homage to the inconspicuous sturdy manhole covers that millions of New Yorkers walk over daily. The patterned slits on the base (.25 x 1 in) provide adequate drainage of rainwater and disposed liquids.
The solid side portion above the grid pattern serves two purposes: to accommodate signage and to prevent rodents. This section is ~12 inches in length. GridBin has adapted the practiced technique of adding metal sheets to palm trees to prevent rodents from scampering up. As a result, GridBin successfully keeps rodents out and separate from the trash, as rodents cannot climb up such a length of smooth sheet metal.
