I wanted to add a post on Everyday design. That is the ways in which 'non-designers' appropriate and reapply objects in their environments to solve often use related issues and challenges in their day-to-day lives.

I graduate student at our institute here in Korea introduced the image above. I like it in its contrast between the original function and the re-purposed - the utilitarian, ruggedness of the boot, to a vessel for planting and holding flowers.

My interest is sparked most by re-purposing that provides a radically different use. In this case a shift from use-function to decoration. At the same time the re-purposed product (wellington boot) is appropriate for the new function because of its functional ability to hold in place the plant. This then, in Everyday design speak, is called product re-use (compared to re-make and re-manufacture).

For those interested Hyangah Kim and Woohun Lee of ID KAIST, introduce the topic well in their paper for the International Journal of Design entitled: Everyday Design as a Design Resource