HOW TO...CARE FOR A GUINEA PIG

After getting together in categories based on our 'how to...' we were to pick which we felt was the most interesting, the one with the most prospect of working as a good design. 

After some discussion, it was agreed that we would work with 'how to care for your guinea pig.' This seemed to have some really great possibilities, it could go in a number of directions. Previous research into pets in the UK, and also being a previous owner of guinea pigs, meant I felt pretty confident in our decision. 

HOW TO: care for a guinea pig

AUDIENCE: first-time buyers/ owners, this includes both parent and child

IDEA: a carrier box that allows you to safely transport your pet from shop to home. The box will display information on how to care for your pet, as well as performing other possible functions that are to be discussed

PURPOSE: to inform and instruct

We began by brainstorming all the different categories that come under guinea pig care, which included the cage, eating and drinking habits, exercise, companionship, illness and hygiene/cleaning.

This gave a good overview of the type of information we were going to be working with. 

After a group discussion, our minds seemed to be set on this idea of a pet carrier. A system that would allow you to transport your pet from the shop to home. We began looking at nets and templates, and deciding on what information was the most important - what should be displayed on the carrier.

We decided on:

- a one to two week calendar giving a general overview/day-by-day guide on how to care your guinea pig

- guinea pig behaviour, body language and sounds

- a flow chart that determines the breed of your guinea pig in particular

- eating and drinking habits

- infographics that display how to care for your guinea pig in order of importance

- name tag

We took everything we had came up with into our progress crit and the ideas went down extremely well. 

Firstly, it helped us to determine what type of stock we wanted to use. It was suggested that brown cardboard would be a really nice and effective option. This way it could be bio-degradeable and/or recyclable. This would fit in a whole a lot better than something like white card. 

Jo then suggested the use of white text on such a stock, which would have an extremely lovely aesthetic. These suggestions were really taken on board by the group, and later on colour scheme was discussed further.

From the crit, we also took away some research possibilities. After looking at cardboard pet carriers already on the market, it is easy to see how ugly and dull the majority of them look. Inspiration therefore needs to be taken from elsewhere. Food packaging, we believe would be a good place to start as it is as though the guinea pig itself is being packaged, it is a commodity. Food packaging shows ingredients, instructions and other little quirks which will prove useful in aiding our designs. For example certain aesthetics of innocent smoothies and the idea of circling your chosen drink on your drinks cup link nicely to some of our ideas.