by Brianna Crandall — April 1, 2015—High-design site furniture manufacturer Landscape Forms recently introduced a new litter and recycling system designed by leading design and branding firm Landor for the Central Park Conservancy (CPC), a nonprofit that funds maintenance and capital improvements for the New York City landmark and nation’s largest public park. The product is Landscape Forms’ first one to start as a custom job and then become a standard product, notes the company.
Renowned for its creative work for major international clients ranging from FedEx, BMW Group DesignworksUSA, and Japan Airlines to PepsiCo and the National Football League (NFL), Landor created the program for a sustainable, custom-designed receptacle to advance the park’s environmental stewardship program.
The Landor team, led by Anthony Deen, Creative Director for Environments and Experiences, designed a three-unit system along with the branding and signage that support it. Landor chose Studio 431, the Landscape Forms custom products division, to develop, engineer and manufacture the design. Alcoa provided technical expertise in sustainable materials.
The “strong but not overwhelming” design, which was inspired by the classic 1939 Corona Park bench (also known as the World’s Fair bench), re-envisions hooped arms and seat slats for a new purpose and creates a visual prompt to encourage parks visitors to appropriately discard their waste, says Landscape Forms. The tilt of the vertical slats, the spiral flow of the lid, and the placement of typography are all designed to draw the eye up to the receptacle’s aperture.
Complementing their setting well, Central Park Conservancy receptacles are identical in size and shape, but different in color and in the size of their top openings: gray with blue around the aperture for cans and bottles, “Conservancy” green for paper, and tan for waste. Made of 30% recycled aluminum and 100% recyclable, the units have a hinged top and hold a polyethylene liner that can be used with or without a plastic bag, making them easy for park workers to empty and transport, points out the company.
On the job, the receptacles are keeping tons of recyclable material out of the landfill, helping to streamline the waste management process, and enhancing cleanliness and convenience for 40 million annual Central Park visitors. On the design front, the Central Park Conservancy Recycling System has received multiple accolades, including GOOD DESIGN and SEGD awards, the Spark Design Silver Award, and the Cannes Festival of Creativity Award (a prestigious Cannes Gold Lion) in the new “Social Good” product category.
For more information, contact Landscape Forms and see FM-specific information on the company’s FMLink ad.
