What kind of peculiar and mundane products from the future would you make to fill up a vending machine? That was the mission given to the 25 of us at the Design Jam: Futurematic.

As opposed to hi-tech tools and supplies, we were provided with products from dollar stores and Chinese herbal shops. (notice the bag of dried seahorses in the photo) The goal was to conceptualize and prototype designs for future objects, focusing on package design.

The day started with playing a brand new card game called The Thing from the Future. Each group played a few rounds as players conceptualized as many products from the future as possible.

I have never been a huge fan of card game, but it was pretty exciting to imagine a future book (object) that would make you feel embarrassed (emotion) at a drug picnic (terrain) in 100 years when the world is going through a transformation(arc).

After lunch, it was all about designing and rapid prototyping the products we imagined earlier.

Being someone who has been tinkering with food and experiential design, it was inevitable for me to snatch the only Toblerone on the supplies table and started taste testing. (Product and material testing is a crucial part in any product design process!)

I repackaged a product called Guilt No More – a mental sanitation snack that helps people to rid of guilty feelings. Each of the four favours, Sweet, Sour, Salty and Bitter, represents a taste of socially unacceptable behaviour.

Ingredients? Toblerone, herbal tree bark, dried salted lemon and some kind of marine creature that’s unidentifiable.

My second product presented itself when I witnessed someone unravelling a stainless steel scrubber. Out of fascination, I took a scrubber and started unravelling. All of a sudden, the scrubber turned into a shape of a hat that fitted my head. The reverse engineering process created a new product called Matchsequencer – a DNA matchmaking jewellery that radiates light when you walk pass someone that matches your DNA.

My artifacts from the future

After an exhausting and exhilarating seven hours, filling up the vending machine felt like an Olympic medal ceremony.