Students from the UTS Business School have been working this year to create branding and education assets to encourage businesses to divert plastic automotive waste from landfill, and to build support from industry and government.
Boxhead Plastics is a not-for-profit social enterprise that manufactures clever and useful products from Australia’s automotive plastic waste. They founded the Autoplas program to get more businesses involved in plastic recycling.
Through the UTS Shopfront Community Program, students worked closely with Boxhead Plastics to gain an understanding of the ethics and values of the company and carry out research and surveys to understand the industry’s customers, clients and key stakeholders.
Bec Healy, Founder and CEO of Boxhead Plastics, identified the need for a brand identity for the scrap plastic collection program and a suite of assets to educate and gain industry buy in and participation.
UTS students produced collateral including business cards, information pamphlets, posters, and packaging for the program. This included designing customised fonts, illustrations, and logos. They also created social media collateral and branded merchandise including tote bags, t-shirts, and badges.
‘We had lots of fun putting this program together and the results were above and beyond our expectations,' Ms Healey said, with the team producing 'a set of amazing, relevant and very useful products which will be used immediately. They tell a visual story that is captivating, engaging and easy to understand.’
Ms Healey said that critically, the students used software that can be used by the Boxhead Plastics team. ‘This will mean if data or information changes, we can do the updates inhouse.’
‘What a great team effort and great outcome. We are incredibly thankful for your time and efforts.’
The students reported that working on the project was rewarding. ‘Our designs are about inspiring and including the community, encouraging them to get involved and become part of what Autoplas is doing. Boxhead Plastics has a genuine positive environmental impact through the Autoplas program and this is what ultimately inspired our project.’