Because of mobile phones, the era of the plastic phone card is waning. Yet most people still keep a card in their wallet for the emergency of a run-down battery or stolen phone. Although phone cards are a collector’s item for some, most still end up in the trash.
Recently the Swiss design team 366cm (Vincent Schertenleib and Sergio Streun) presented a new option for recycling old phone cards at the December 2006 Design Biennale in Saint Etienne. Setting up their display stand as an on-site performance and production unit, they invited visitors to select their favorite phone cards from a display, and the duo then turned the small plastic cards into picture frames featuring ID-sized photos of each visitor. Participants had to take a number as Schertenleib and Streun fired up their self-designed thermoforming machine and worked feverishly to keep up with demand. In true customer-service fashion, the numbers appeared on a screen when the cards were ready for pick-up.
The phone card frame is only one of many products produced by 366cm and marketed in Europe, Japan and the USA. The two have also turned phone cards into miniature hooks and ashtrays. Most of their products have a recycling component, such as the Bicoque birdfeeder with a plastic DVD cover roof and the Eco wastepaper bin made itself from recycled paper. Craft industry and mass industry meet in their smart limited-edition objects.
366cm is not a special unit of measure in their product line (although they sell a chair titled Nº366). It is the combined heights of the two designers, Streun (Mr. 174 cm) and Schertenleib (Mr. 192 cm), who joined forces over three years ago. Their hard work at their mini manufacturing operation was an “interactive” hit at the Biennale, and with their ingenuity and performance appeal they certainly did stand out a head above the rest!
Link:
http://www.366cm.com
